DOI: 10.3886/icpsr27161.v1
title: Multilevel and Policy-Focused Analysis of Parole Violations and Revocations in California, 2003-2004
title: Version 1

description: The purpose of the study was to facilitate an understanding of the sanctioning of parolees in California. The central databases used in the study were the Offender Based Information System (OBIS), the Revocation Scheduling and Tracking System (RSTS), and the Statewide Parolee Database (SPDB). These three central databases provided information for the outcome variables of the study as well as information about parolees' personal characteristics, aspects of their supervision, and criminal histories. For the Parole Violations Data (Part 1), these data were combined with data extracted from several California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) data systems and connected to other pieces of data using administrative and geographic identifiers to construct measures of parole agent and community characteristics. Parole agent and parole policy measures were drawn from the California State Personnel Board Parole Agent Database (PACD) and California parole policies. Measures of community conditions were drawn from the 2000 United States Census, the United States Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the California Secretary of State, and the Religious Congregations and Membership Study, 2000. A total of 13,070 parolees were observed for a maximum of 106 weeks during 2003-2004, yielding a total of 1,376,820 parolee-week observations for Part 1. The Parole Revocations Data (Part 2) include every parole violation case that went through a county court or a parole board hearing in 2003 and 2004 -- a total of 151,586 cases. Individual, organizational, and community-level data were merged into the Part 2 dataset using administrative and geographic identifiers. Information about each parolee was extracted from several CDCR data systems. Similar to Part 1, the central databases used in Part 2 of the study were the OBIS and the RSTS. Organizational measures were drawn from CDCR Annual Population Reports, California Corrections Standards Authority Jail Profile Surveys, and Judicial Council of California Court Statistics Reports. Measures of community conditions were drawn from the 2000 United States Census, the SAMHSA, and the California Secretary of State. The Parole Violations Data (Part 1) contain a total of 50 variables including past and present offense history variables, parolee characteristics, supervision characteristics, and community environment variables. The Parole Revocations Data (Part 2) contain a total of 42 variables including case characteristics, individual characteristics, organizational factors, and community factors.
description: none
description: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Created variable labels and/or value labels.; Standardized missing values.; Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes..
description: Presence of Common Scales: none
description: Response Rates: not applicable
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS0: Study-Level Files 
 DS1: Parole Violations Data 
 DS2: Parole Revocations Data
description: record abstracts 
 Users should be aware that, while the principal investigators used hotdecking imputation for some of the missing parole and community data in their models in the 2008 "Parole Violations and Revocations in California" report (see Grattet, Petersilia, and Lin, NCJ 224521), both the Parole Violations Data (Part 1) and the Parole Revocations Data (Part 2) that are being distributed as part of this data collection are unimputed data since secondary users of the data may want to use an alternative imputation strategy or no imputation at all. For details about how the imputation was completed for the final report contact the authors. 
Users should be aware that there is a small difference in the case count reported in the original final report and the original revocations codebook versus the case count in the Parole Revocations Data (Part 2) and ICPSR codebook that are being distributed as part of this data collection.
A total of 13,070 parolees were observed for a maximum of 106 weeks during 2003-2004, yielding a total of 1,376,820 parolee-week observations for the Parole Violations Data (Part 1). Specifically, the number of parolee-week observations per parolee ranges in the Part 1 data from 9 to 106, with approximately 73 percent observed for 106 weeks, 93 percent observed for 105 or 106 weeks, and 98 percent observed for 104 to 106 weeks.
description: Part 1: All parole violations in California during 2003 and 2004. Part 2: All parole revocations in California during 2003 and 2004. Smallest Geographic Unit: region
description: The Parole Violations Data (Part 1) are a random 5 percent sample (13,070 parolees) of the population of 254,468 parolees on parole in California at any point during the calendar years 2003 and 2004, regardless of when they started their parole periods. The 5 percent sample of 13,070 parolees were observed for a maximum of 106 weeks during 2003-2004, yielding a final sample of 1,376,820 parolee-week observations. The sample for the Parole Revocations Data (Part 2) includes every parole violation case that went through a county court or a parole board hearing in 2003 and 2004 -- a total of 151,586 cases. Thousands more were terminated at the parole unit level over the two study years.