The number of parole violators returned to state prisons exploded from 27,000 in 1980 to 203,000 in 2000, a 652 percent increase, according to a new analysis of U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics [BJS] data by the Urban Institute. The 2000 figure surpasses 1980’s total prison admissions of 169,000, say Jeremy Travis and Sarah Lawrence, researchers from the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center. Parole violators, they note, made up 35 percent of prison admissions in 1999, double 1980’s 17 percent. "Beyond the Prison Gates: The State of Parole in America" uses the latest BJS figures to document the declining role of parole boards in deciding whether prisoners are released, the increasing reliance on parole supervision, and the unprecedented growth in parole revocations leading to returns to prison.

With 1,600 people leaving prison every day and $100 million in federal funds available to states for designing new strategies to help prisoners returning home, the report is an especially timely inquiry into how parole is operating across the nation. "There is a certain irony" in parole’s evolution, Travis and Lawrence observe. "One function of parole boards is to ensure that a prisoner is ready for release with a place to stay, a solid job prospect, the support of family and friends. Most prisoners never see a parole board and never get a plan that can be monitored by a parole officer. We are losing the link between pre-release preparation and post-release supervision, a link the classic parole model was intended to create."

After prison, most offenders are required to serve a period of community supervision, commonly known as parole. While the number of individuals unconditionally released from state prisons jumped from about 20,000 in 1980 to 102,000 in 1998, states increasingly rely on parole supervision as part of a criminal sentence. Between 1960 and 1990, conditional releases’ share of all releases grew from 56 percent to a high of 87 percent, before declining to 82 percent in 1999. More and more state prisoners are back in society as conditional releases. In 1980 all those under supervision totaled 220,000; by 2000 this group had more than tripled to 726,000. Five states-California, Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, and Illinois-accounted for 62 percent of parolees at the end of 2000, but only 35 percent of the U.S. population. According to the BJS, 16.1% of parole revocations (in 1997) were due to drug related violations such as a positive urine test, failure to report for a urine test, possession of drugs, and failure to report for treatment.

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