Community Reintegration Outcomes for Formerly Incarcerated Adolescent Fathers and Nonfathers

Abstract

This article examines the community reintegration outcomes for adolescents with co-existing behaviors associated with juvenile offending and fatherhood. Data were gathered from the Transition Research on Adjudicated Youth in Community Settings (TRACS) research project, a 5-year prospective, longitudinal examination of outcomes for incarcerated juvenile offenders as they transitioned from youth correctional facilities back into the community. Of the TRACS sample, 125 (28.3%) of the participants reported that they had become fathers before their 20th birthday. Juvenile offenders who were fathers were found to return to the juvenile correctional system at a higher rate than nonfathers (59.4% to 47.5%) within 12 months of initially leaving that system. Fathers who remained in the community were (a) more than 3 times more likely to be employed within 6 months of exit and (b) more than 2.5 times more likely to use community resources over an 18-month period as compared with fathers who returned to custody. The results provide support for the development of interventions connecting these high-risk individuals with employment and community services immediately upon exit from the youth correctional system.