Prisoner Reentry in Georgia

• NCJ Number: 222761
• Author(s): Nancy G. La Vigne; Cynthia A. Mamalian
• Date Published: November 2004
• Length: 52 pages
• Corporate Author: The Urban Institute
• Sale Source: The Urban Institute
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Research report downloaded May 20, 2008.

Annotation

This report describes prisoner reentry in Georgia by examining the State’s incarceration, admission, and release trends over time; describing the characteristics of prisoners released from Georgia 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.

Abstract

Highlights from the report include: (1) Georgia’s incarceration and release trends are similar to those observed at the national level; (2) the per capita rate of imprisonment rose from 219 to 538 per 100,000 residents in the State between 1980 and 2000, an increase of over 150 percent; (3) 16,124 prisoners were released from Georgia’s prisons in 2002, more than one and a half times the number released in 1982; (4) the majority of released prisoners were male (89 percent) and African-American (66 percent); (5) the average age at release was 34 years; (6) education attainment was low; (7) in 2002, the majority of exiting prisoners were released to a period of supervision; (8) 8 counties (Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb, Clayton, Richmond, Chatham, Muscogee, and Dougherty) received 43 percent of prisoners who returned to the State of Georgia; (9) 12 percent returned to Fulton County alone, no other county was home to more than 7 percent of releases; and (10) county specific analyses in Fulton and Dougherty revealed that the most released prisoners returned to the central cities of these counties, where unemployment is higher than in the rest of the county and city, and where large shares of the population live in poverty and in single parent, female-headed households. This report describes the process of prisoner reentry in Georgia by examining the trends in incarceration and prisoner releases in the State, 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 new analysis of data on Georgia prisoners released in 2002. Figures and tables