The Local Role of the United States Parole Commission (USPC)

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Abstract

Testimony delivered to the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia, hearing on "The Local Role of the United States Parole Commission (USPC): Increasing Public Safety, Reducing Recidivism, and Using Alternatives to Re-incarceration in the District of Columbia." The testimony summarizes work by UI synthesizing extant research and expert consensus regarding what constitutes effective parole supervision to reduce recidivism. Changes currently underway in the parole field and factors to consider in implementing the practices discussed are also presented.

Testimony

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:

I am honored by this invitation to appear before you to discuss the critical question of what constitutes best practice in parole supervision. Ensuring that parole supervision in the District of Columbia is conducted consistent with best practice can greatly enhance public safety, as well as individual and community well-being throughout the District.

I am Jesse Jannetta, a Research Associate at the Urban Institute. The Urban Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research and educational organization in Washington, DC, that examines the social, economic, and governance problems facing the nation. It provides information, analyses, and perspectives to public and private decision-makers to help them address these problems and strives to raise citizens understanding of the issues and tradeoffs that policymakers face.

Parole supervision matters. Much has been written about prisoner reentry and the cost of failing to reintegrate the hundreds of thousands of people who are released from prison each year. The role of parole supervision, which is intimately connected to prisoner reentry and the maintenance of public safety, has often been lost in that discussion. Yet the majority of prison releases, over 500,000 annually, are to parole supervision, and just over 824,000 individuals were under parole supervision at the end of 2007.² Parole supervision can, and should, play an important role in delivering public safety for the community at large. In facilitating the transition from prison to community, parole supervision agencies can help parolees become productive citizens and reduce the harm they might cause by returning to crime, substance abuse, and other problematic behaviors. And parolees are returning to those behaviors. More than two-thirds of those released from prison will be arrested and more than half will be reincarcerated within three years.³ This pattern holds for those released to supervision as well as those released without it.⁴

My testimony this morning will draw from work done by The Urban Institute and its project partners synthesizing the substantial body of research and expert knowledge regarding what constitutes effective parole supervision. That synthesis is reflected in the 13 parole supervision strategies contained in our report Putting Public Safety First.⁵ Throughout this testimony I will draw heavily from that report, and anyone interested in a fuller treatment of the basis in research, theory, and practice of the strategies should refer to it. The 13 strategies are:

1. Define success as recidivism reduction and measure performance;
2. Tailor conditions of supervision;
3. Focus resources on moderate- and high-risk parolees;
4. Front-load supervision resources;
5. Implement earned discharge;
6. Implement place-based supervision;
7. Engage partners to expand intervention capacities;
8. Assess criminogenic risk and need factors;
9. Develop and implement supervision case plans that balance surveillance and treatment;
10. Involve parolees to enhance their engagement in assessment, case planning, and supervision;
11. Engage informal social controls to facilitate community reintegration;
12. Incorporate incentives and rewards into the supervision process; and
13. Employ graduated, problem-solving responses to violations of parole conditions in a swift and certain manner.

(End of excerpt. The full testimony with references is available in PDF format.)

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