Texas Prisoners' Reflections on Returning Home

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

In 2002, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice released 58,949 people from prisons and state jails across the state, nearly six times the number of prisoners released in 1980.¹ Texas alone, with one of the largest prison populations in the country, accounts for almost 10 percent of all prisoners released from state and federal prisons nationwide each year.² The sheer number of prisoners released annually, along with a growing appreciation for the substantial challenges that ex-prisoners face as they reenter society, has brought prisoner reentry—both in Texas and nationwide—to the forefront of the public agenda.

To help inform the next generation of reentry policy and practice, the Urban Institute launched Returning Home: Understanding the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry, a multistate research project in Maryland, Illinois, Ohio, and Texas. The purpose of Returning Home is to develop a deeper understanding of the reentry experiences of returning prisoners, their families, and their communities. This research project involves interviews with prisoners before and after their release from state correctional facilities, interviews with ex-prisoners' family members, focus groups with residents in neighborhoods to which many prisoners return, and interviews with community stakeholders. State laws and policies are also reviewed to provide overall policy context. (For more details on the study methodology, see page 11.)

This report presents findings from surveys completed by 676 prisoners shortly before their release from Texas prisons and state jails and their return to the Houston area. We present descriptive statistics on respondents' criminal, substance abuse, and employment histories; current health problems; in-prison programming experiences; relationships with family members; and expectations for release. Differences among respondents based on gender and type of confinement (i.e., prison or state jail) are highlighted in sidebars. Overall, these findings describe a population with extensive histories of substance use and criminal behavior, yet strong family ties and great optimism for what life will be like on the outside.

Notes from this section of the report

1 For a detailed description of prisoner reentry in Texas, please refer to Jamie Watson, Amy L. Solomon, Nancy G. La Vigne, and Jeremy Travis. 2004. "A Portrait of Prisoner Reentry in Texas." Washington, DC: The Urban Institute.

2 This statistic is based on a Bureau of Justice Statistics estimate that 630,000 prisoners were released from federal and state prisoners in 2002. Paige M. Harrison and Jennifer C. Karberg. 2003. "Prison and Jail Prisoners at Midyear 2002." Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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