Religiousness and Post-Release Community Adjustment in the United States, 1990-1998

This study assessed the effects of male inmate religiosity
 on post-release community adjustment and investigated the
 circumstances under which these effects were most likely to take
 place. The researcher carried out this study by adding Federal Bureau
 of Investigation criminal history information to an existing database
 (Clear et al.) that studied the relationship between an inmate's
 religiousness and his adjustment to the correctional setting. Four
 types of information were used in this study. The first three types
 were obtained by the original research team and included an inmate
 values and religiousness instrument, a pre-release questionnaire, and
 a three-month post-release follow-up phone survey. The fourth type of
 information, official criminal history reports, was later added to the
 original dataset by the principal investigator for this study. The
 prisoner values survey collected information on what the respondent
 would do if a friend sold drugs from the cell or if inmates of his
 race attacked others. Respondents were also asked if they thought God
 was revealed in the scriptures, if they shared their faith with
 others, and if they took active part in religious
 services. Information collected from the pre-release questionnaire
 included whether the respondent attended group therapy, religious
 groups with whom he would live, types of treatment programs he would
 participate in after prison, employment plans, how often he would go
 to church, whether he would be angry more in prison or in the free
 world, and whether he would be more afraid of being attacked in prison
 or in the free world. Each inmate also described his criminal history
 and indicated whether he thought he was able to do things as well as
 most others, whether he was satisfied with himself on the whole or
 felt that he was a failure, whether religion was talked about in the
 home, how often he attended religious services, whether he had friends
 who were religious while growing up, whether he had friends who were
 religious while in prison, and how often he participated in religious
 inmate counseling, religious services, in-prison religious seminars,
 and community service projects. The three-month post-release follow-up
 phone survey collected information on whether the respondent was
 involved with a church group, if the respondent was working for pay,
 if the respondent and his household received public assistance, if he
 attended religious services since his release, with whom the
 respondent was living, and types of treatment programs
 attended. Official post-release criminal records include information
 on the offenses the respondent was arrested and incarcerated for,
 prior arrests and incarcerations, rearrests, outcomes of offenses of
 rearrests, follow-up period to first rearrest, prison adjustment
 indicator, self-esteem indicator, time served, and measurements of the
 respondent's level of religious belief and personal
 identity. Demographic variables include respondent's faith, race,
 marital status, education, age at first arrest and incarceration, and
age at incarceration for rearrest.

Tags: arrest-records, church-attendance, church-groups, correctional-facilities, criminal-histories, male-inmates, parole, postrelease-programs, prison-adjustment, psychological-wellbeing, religious-behavior, social-reintegration
Organization: Department of Justice