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Abstract
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AIMS: To assess whether residential relocation to a different geographic area of drug dependent former prisoners reduced their likelihood of reincarceration.
DESIGN: Non-randomized observational study using Hurricane Katrina as a natural experiment to determine whether residential relocation induced by the hurricane affected the likelihood of reincarceration among drug dependent former prisoners. The study used data provided by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. SETTING: New Orleans metropolitan area, Louisiana, USA. CASES: The pre-Katrina cohort comprised individuals released from Louisiana prisons from September 2003 to February 2004 with a history of drug misuse, as determined by the Louisiana Risk/Needs Assessment (N = 796). The post-Katrina cohort comprised prisoners released from a Louisiana prison immediately after the hurricane, from September 2005 to February 2006 (N = 677). MEASUREMENTS: Reincarceration, the dependent variable, was operationalized as a return to a Louisiana prison for a new criminal conviction or a parole violation within one year of prison release. Residential relocation was operationalized as a change in parish of residence from the location immediately prior to imprisonment to the location immediately upon release from prison.
FINDINGS: Instrumental variables probit analysis revealed that the probability of reincarceration was 0.10 lower for individuals who relocated to a new parish upon their exit from prison relative to individuals who returned to their home parish, with a 95 percent confidence interval ranging from -0.192 to -0.011. An estimated 10 percent of parolees who moved were reincarcerated within one year of their release from prison versus 20 percent of the stayers.
CONCLUSIONS: Residential relocation of drug dependent former prisoners in Louisiana as a result of Hurricane Katrina was associated with reduced likelihood of reincarceration.
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Language: en |