DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03022
title: Religiousness and Post-Release Community Adjustment in the United States, 1990-1998
title: Archival Version

description: 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.
description: Whereas numerous criminological studies have
 investigated the impact of correctional programs on post-release
 community adjustment, only a handful of published studies have
 examined the influence of religion on managing the inmate population
 or as a key predictor for inmate recidivism. The study sought to
 answer the following questions: (1) Are post-release rearrest rates
 related to an inmate's participation in religious worship and study?
 (2) If so, what type of effect does religiousness have on favorable
 post-release community adjustment? and (3) How do the dimensions of
inmate religiosity influence post-release community adjustment?
description: The researcher carried out this study by adding
 official criminal history information to an existing database (Clear
 et al.) that studied the relationship between prisoners' religiousness
 and adjustment to the correctional setting. Four types of information
 were used in this research. Three types of information were gathered
 by the original research team through an inmate values and
 religiousness instrument, a pre-release questionnaire, and a
 three-month post-release follow-up phone survey. A fourth type of
 information, official criminal history reports, was added to the
 original dataset by the principal investigator. The study was based on
 a quasi-experimental design of two groups of prisoners, a religious
 group and a non-religious comparison group. In the original data
 collection, inmates completed a battery of questionnaires about their
 background characteristics, religious beliefs and activities, and
 institutional experiences during the last weeks before their release
 from prison. Within three months after their release, surveys were
 conducted with inmates who could be reached by telephone. However, the
 original study contained no measures of post-release criminal
 behavior. The principal investigator of this study added criminal
 histories obtained from the Federal Bureau of Investigation for 320
 subjects in the original dataset. This dataset also includes a
 six-year follow-up period, making it possible to assess the
 relationship between an inmate's religiousness in prison and his
post-release community adjustment.
description: 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.
description: Response Rates: Unknown.
description: Presence of Common Scales: Several Likert-type scales were used.
description: Unknown.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Religiousness and Post-Release Community Adjustment in the United States, 1990-1998
description: Male inmates from 12 prisons in the United States.
description: For more information on the study conducted by
 Clear et al., users should refer to the related publications section
of the codebook.