This report describes prisoner reentry in Virginia by examining the State’s incarceration, admission, and release trends over time; describing the characteristics of prisoners released from Virginia prisons; examining the geographic distribution of those released prisoners across the State; and describing the social and economic climates of communities that are home to the highest concentrations of returning prisoners.
Highlights of report findings include: (1) Virginia’s prison population more than quadrupled between 1980 and 2003, increasing from 8,521 to 35,429 people; (2) Virginia’s release patterns reflect admission and population trends: 10,635 prisoners were released from prisons in 2003, nearly 3 times the number released in 1980 (3,582); (3) of those released in 2002, the majority were male (89 percent) and African-American (63 percent); (4) the average age was 35 years; (5) the average time served was 3.6 years with 10 percent of those released in 2002 incarcerated for a parole violation; (6) almost half of released prisoners had participated in vocational or educational programs provided by the Virginia Department of Correctional Education; (7) the majority of the State’s prisoners are released through a mandatory process, and most, 81 percent, are released to a period of supervision; and (8) the jurisdictions with the highest numbers of returning prisoners are the cities of Richmond and Norfolk. This report describes the process of prisoner reentry in Virginia by examining the trends in incarceration and prisoner releases, the characteristics of the State’s returning prisoners, the geographic distribution of returning prisoners, and the social and economic climates of the communities that are home to the highest concentrations of returning prisoners. The report consolidates existing data on incarceration and release trends and presents a new analysis of data on Virginia prisoners released in 2002. In the past two decades, the growth in prison population nationwide has translated into more and more people being released from prison and reentering society. The State of Virginia has experienced similar incarceration and release trends, and thus faces the reentry challenges that accompany such growth. Figures and maps