Do Released Prisoners’ Perceptions of Neighborhood Condition Affect Reentry Outcomes?

Abstract

As the United States enters a decarceration era, the factors predicting reentry success have received a rapidly growing body of research attention. Numerous studies expand beyond individual-level attributes to assess the contextual effect of neighborhoods to which released prisoners return. However, past studies predominantly used neighborhood structural/economic characteristics as the proxies of neighborhood context, leaving the roles of community cohesion and disorder understudied in the context of reentry. Using longitudinal data, this study examines the influence of neighborhood cohesion and disorder on reentry outcomes, represented by released prisoners’ determination to desist and social isolation. The results of linear regression analyses show that net of the effects of individual-level risk factors, released prisoners’ perception of neighborhood disorder exhibit profound influence on reentry outcomes. Implications for reentry programming and interventions are presented.