Minor parole violations behind high rate of reincarceration

ANN ARBOR-People convicted of felonies are more likely to return to prison if they are sentenced to prison rather than probation, according to a University of Michigan study. The study adds new evidence to the argument that a key driver of high incarceration rates is the readmission to prison of individuals recently released from prison, a phenomenon that has been called prison's "revolving door." It also shows that this self-perpetuating cycle of prison admissions is being driven largely by readmissions to prison for technical violations of parole rather than new crimes. The study, conducted by a research team at the U-M Institute for Social Research, including Jeffrey Morenoff, director of the U-M Population Studies Center and David Harding, professor of sociology at the University of California-Berkeley, collected data on all individuals sentenced for a felony in Michigan between 2003 and 2006, about 111,110 people. The researchers compared prison readmissions and felony convictions, called recidivism, of those sentenced to prison versus probation. The researchers found that people convicted of felonies who were sentenced to prison rather than probation had almost a 20-percent higher chance of being returned to prison within five years, compared to someone who was sentenced to probation. Probation is a punishment given to people convicted of felonies in place of prison time. Parole is a release from prison.