Damned from release: the effects of neighborhood churches on general and technical parole violation reincarcerations across time

Abstract

ABSTRACT Recently, interest has piqued on the effects of neighborhood context on parolee recidivism; however, examinations often neglect to model neighborhood institutions. One type of institution that may be important to neighborhood processes, and moreover, parolee reentry, are houses of worship. Based on the literature, we examine the effect of congregation-oriented (i.e., Evangelical Protestant) and community-oriented (i.e., Catholic and Mainline Protestant) churches on parolee reincarceration. Furthermore, reincarceration was disaggregated to test whether effects were more sensitive to technical parole violations (TPV), or varied by time served on parole. Parolee data were obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PA-DOC) and Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole (PBPP) for 3,077 parolees released to 209 neighborhoods across Philadelphia. Multilevel analyses indicated that community-oriented (i.e., Mainline Protestant, Catholic) churches were not associated with parolee outcomes. Conversely, Evangelical Protestant churches were associated with increased odds of reincarceration, and strongest on TPV reincarceration and after the initial six months following release.