1. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Office of Research 1

2. In keeping with national best practices CDCR now measures recidivism by arrests, convictions, and returns to prison. Return to prison was used as the primary measure of recidivism for this report. Return to prison is defined as “an individual convicted of a felony and incarcerated in a CDCR adult institution who was released to parole, discharged after being paroled, or directly discharged from CDCR during a defined time period and subsequently returned to prison during a specified follow-up period.” 2

3. Old DesignNew Design  Felons released to parole  First time releases on current term  Excludes those directly discharged from institution and those discharged from parole before the full three- year follow-up period  Includes releases during a Calendar Year  All released felons  First time releases and re-releases (parole violators) on current term  Includes those directly discharged from institution and those discharged from parole before the full three- year follow-up period  Includes releases during a Fiscal Year 3

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8.  The total three-year return to prison recidivism rate for all felons released during FY 2005-06 is 67.5%.  Re-released felons recidivate at a higher rate than those released for the first time (i.e., 16.8 percentage points higher).  Most felons who return to prison do so within a year of release (approximately 75%). 8

9. Recidivism rates were further examined by:  Demographic Characteristics  Offender Characteristics  Incarceration Experience 9

10.  Females have a 58% recidivism rate, which is almost 10 percentage points lower than that of males.  Inmates released at age 24 or younger return to prison at a rate of almost 75%.  Rates by race/ethnicity vary greatly for first- releases, but is consistent among re-released inmates. 10

11.  Inmates committed for property crimes consistently recidivate at a higher rate than those committed for other crimes.  Sex offenders recidivate at a rate slightly lower than non-sex offenders (mostly for parole violations).  Inmates who participated in a mental health EOP/CCCM program return at a rate 9 percentage points higher than non-EOP/CCCMS inmates.  The CSRA performs well at predicting inmate risk for recidivism. 11

12.  Recidivism rates increase with length of stay up to 19-24 months and decrease thereafter.  Recidivism rates for inmates with more total stays increase with each additional stay at CDCR institutions.  Inmates released from reception centers have a recidivism rate that is higher than any other institutional missions. 12

13. Approximately one-third of felons released in FY 2005-06 did not return to CDCR within the three-year follow-up period. Almost half of the felons released returned to CDCR for a parole violation. Twenty percent returned to CDCR after being convicted of a new crime. 13

14.  Provide recidivism results for felons who completed programming (drug, education, vocation) within the institution.  Provide further information on felons recidivating due to parole violations. Specifically, what type of violation was committed. 14

15. 15 2010 Adult Institutions Outcome Evaluation Report Adult Research Branch http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/adult_research_branch/ (916) 323-2919 Brenda Grealish, Research Manager Cindy Wagstaff, Staff Information Systems Analyst