New York Reentry Study
The New York Reentry Study (NYRS) is a longitudinal panel survey of 25 men and their families in the first year after release from incarceration to New York City. Interviews focus on the topics of housing, employment, health, and social integration for those returning from prison or jail. The unique study design incorporates interviews with a network of approximately four family members, including children over nine years old, to examine the impact of incarceration and reentry on families alongside those returning from prison or jail.
The methodology of the NYRS is based on the Boston Reentry Study (BRS), which began interviews with 122 men and women released from Massachusetts State prisons to Boston in 2012. Due to the instability and uncertainty that often accompanies reentry, recently incarcerated people are considered to be a hard-to-reach population and have a high risk of survey nonresponse. Similar to the BRS, which achieved a retention rate of over 90%, the NYRS aims to use innovative place-based methods to maintain contact with respondents throughout the full duration of the field period.
New York City is of particular interest, as rates of re-arrest and parole revocation have dropped drastically over the past decade. These drops in arrest and incarceration have also come at a time when crime rates across the city are at their lowest levels since the 1960s. A leading hypothesis is that the rich social service environment and strong economy of the five boroughs has allowed New York City to become a leader in the reversal of high rates of incarceration. By combining data gathered directly from respondents and their closest kin with administrative records, the New York Reentry Study aims to provide new insights into the process of reentry for men and families across New York City.
Articles and Publications
- You Just Got Out of Prison. Now What? (NY Times)
- Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Get Hired (New Republic)
- Offering Ex-Convicts a Hand up after Prison (Boston Globe)
- Forcing Black Men Out of Society(NY Times)
- VIDEO: The Growth of Incarceration in the US (NRC)
- "The Prison Problem,” article by Elizabeth Gudrais featuring Bruce Western and Anthony Braga’s work on the Boston Reentry Study, Harvard Magazine(March-April 2013)
- Bruce Western presented Reform, Redemption, and Mass Incarceration at the Mahindra Humanities Center event “Prison USA: The Dilemmas of Mass Incarceration.” (November 2013)
- Panel Discusses US Prison Dilemma, The Crimson(November 2013)