Program Profile: Florida Postrelease Supervision

This intervention involves individuals under any form of supervision after release from incarceration in the state of Florida, with the goal of reducing their risks of recidivism. The program is rated Promising. There were statistically significant decreases in rearrest and reconviction rates for individuals under supervision, compared with those who did not receive supervision, at the 3-year follow-up.

A Promising rating implies that implementing the program may result in the intended outcome(s).

Program Goals/Target Population

Postrelease supervision aims to help individuals who have been incarcerated reintegrate into their communities, while maintaining any necessary oversight and treatment they may require. The goal of postrelease supervision for individuals being released from incarceration in the state of Florida is to monitor and rehabilitate individuals while under supervision, to reduce the likelihood they will recidivate.

Program Components

The Florida Commission on Offender Review (“the Commission”) manages postrelease decisions affecting inmates throughout the state. Three commissioners preside over approximately 36 meetings annually at the central office in Tallahassee and various locations throughout the state to make a variety of determinations regarding types of postrelease supervision. The Commission also reviews releasees’ supervision status every two years (Florida Commission on Offender Review, 2021).

In Florida, there are several different types of postrelease supervision. One of the best-known forms of supervision is parole. This is when an individual is released before their court-imposed incarceration sentence expires and they are allowed to serve the rest of their term outside the confines of the correctional institution, with specific conditions regarding how they will be supervised by the Florida Department of Corrections. If an individual violates the terms of the conditions, the Commission may return the person paroled to prison. Parole is considered a discretionary release, and it has experienced numerous changes in Florida over the years. In 1983, state sentencing guidelines were enacted that effectively abolished parole for individuals who were sentenced for crimes committed on or after Oct. 1, 1983 (inmates whose crimes were committed before that date are currently eligible for parole consideration). There is other eligibility for parole consideration (for example, any inmate who committed a continuing criminal enterprise before June 17, 1993, is still eligible for parole).

For inmates who have served a prior commitment at a state or federal correctional institution with sentences for specific crimes such as violent or sexual crimes, or those considered “career criminals” by the Florida Department of Corrections, conditional release is a type of mandatory postprison supervision. Unlike parole, conditional release is not discretionary release. Upon release from prison, inmates who are subject to conditional release are supervised for a length of time equal to the gain-time they received in prison (an inmate's opportunity to earn a reduction, if eligible, in their overall sentence imposed by the court through satisfactory behavior and in-prison program and work participation) (Online Sunshine, 2022). These individuals are subject to strict conditions of supervision set by the Commission on Offender Review, and this supervision can be revoked and the releasee returned to prison if the Commission determines that a willful and substantial violation of supervision has occurred.

Further, inmates who are terminally ill or permanently incapacitated may be released on conditional medical release if they do not represent a danger to others. This is a discretionary release that can be revoked and the releasee may be returned to prison, if the Commission determines that a willful and substantial violation of supervision has occurred.

Under other circumstances, individuals may be released from prison with supervision under control release to maintain a prison population between 99 percent and 100 percent capacity. As with the other types of supervision, this can be revoked and the releasee returned to prison, if the Commission determines that a willful and substantial violation of supervision has occurred. As of 2021 the Commission was not reviewing the inmate population for discretionary release under this authority, as there were sufficient prison beds to house the current prison population (Florida Commission on Offender Review, 2021).

Finally, addiction recovery supervision is a mandatory postprison supervision for inmates with substance abuse histories or addiction, or who have participated in any drug treatment, given they have not been convicted of certain crimes such as violent offenses or drug trafficking (Florida Commission on Offender Review, 2014).

In both parole and conditional medical release, testimony and pertinent information may be provided by representatives of the inmate, the inmate’s family, by persons who were victims of the crime, and the victim’s family. The commissioners may also hear from law enforcement, state and private attorneys, and others. During meetings, the Commission also conducts other types of proceedings, such as imposing conditions of conditional release or addiction recovery supervision (Florida Commission on Offender Review, 2021).

Study 1

Miller, Jones and Schleifer (2019) conducted a quasi-experimental design with propensity score matching to examine the effect of postrelease supervision on recidivism, measured as rearrest and reconviction, at the 3-year follow-up. Data came from the Criminal Recidivism in a Large Cohort of Offenders Released from Prison in Florida, 2004 to 2008, which was compiled and coded using criminal history records and Florida’s DNA database (kept by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement) and court docket information acquired from the Florida Department of Corrections. The data contained a large sample of individuals (n = 141,338) released from the Florida Department of Corrections from 1996 to 2004, along with a 3-year follow-up to determine whether these individuals recidivated.

Whether or not respondents received postrelease supervision was used as a treatment variable in the propensity score matching analyses. Those who received postrelease supervision (the treatment) were coded “1,” and those who did not were coded “0.”

A logistic regression model was performed on the treatment variable while controlling for additional covariates to determine an individual’s probability of receiving postrelease supervision. Several demographic and crime-related matching variables were included in the matching models, including gender (a binary indicator for females, used to split the sample in additional sensitivity analyses); race/ethnicity (white coded “1”, nonwhite coded “0”, and a binary indicator for Hispanic); offense category (property crime, drug crime, or other crime, with violent crime as the reference category); employment status (unemployed, part-time employment, and other employment, with fulltime employment as the reference category); high school education (whether the individual had 12 or more years of schooling or not); year of release; age at release; DNA bank (the presence of DNA on file in the law enforcement computer system); prior arrests (a continuous variable that ranged from 0 to 13 or more arrests); and time served (less than 1 year, 1.00 to 1.99 years, 2.00 to 4.99 years, and 5 or more years). To account for gender differences in the matching models, a series of additional interactions (gender with offense category, high school education, and release age) were included in these regressions. Several other interactions were included in the matching models: each offense category with the indicator for DNA bank; the measure of prior arrests with each offense category; the offense category variables with each of the categories for time served; and time served with age at release. With these, a single propensity score was calculated for each individual in terms of their probability to be supervised. These scores range from 0 (certainty of not being supervised) to 1 (certainty of supervision). Then individuals who received treatment (postrelease supervision) were matched to individuals who did not (unsupervised control) who had the closest propensity score.

A matched sample with replacement method was used, meaning that the matches between postrelease supervised and unsupervised individuals did not need to be a unique pairing and an unsupervised individual may have been matched with more than one supervised person. After this matching process, there were no statistically significant differences between the postrelease supervision treatment group (n = 50,074) and the unsupervised control group (n = 29,795), except for the percentage Hispanic. The postrelease supervision treatment group was predominately male (93 percent), 44 percent white, and 5 percent Hispanic. The majority (71 percent) had a high school education, were an average of 34.3 years old at the time of release, and had an average of 5.9 prior arrests. The unsupervised control group was also predominately male (93 percent), 44 percent white, and 6 percent Hispanic. The majority (71 percent) had a high school education, were an average of 34.2 years old at the time of release, and had an average of 5.8 prior arrests.

Propensity score analyses were then calculated to interpret the effect of the postrelease supervision treatment on recidivism. The average treatment effect on the treated was calculated, which is the expected effect of treatment among those individuals who are actually assigned to be in the treatment group. Subgroup analysis was conducted for reconviction by gender.

Subgroup Analysis

Miller, Jones and Schleifer (2019) examined the impact of postrelease supervision on reconviction by gender. Men in the postrelease supervision treatment group had a greater decrease in reconviction rates, compared with men in the unsupervised control group, at the 3-year follow-up. Thirty-eight percent of men in the treatment group were reconvicted, compared with 43 percent of men in the control group. This difference was statistically significant. Further, women in the postrelease supervision treatment group had a greater decrease in reconviction rates, compared with women in the unsupervised control group, at the 3-year follow-up. Twenty-nine percent of women in the treatment group were reconvicted, compared with 32 percent of the control group. This difference was statistically significant.

These sources were used in the development of the program profile:

These sources were used in the development of the program profile:

Following are CrimeSolutions-rated programs that are related to this practice:

Adult Reentry Programs

This practice involves correctional programs that focus on the transition of individuals from prison into the community. Reentry programs involve treatment or services that have been initiated while the individual is in custody and a follow-up component after the individual is released. The practice is rated Promising for reducing recidivism.

Evidence Ratings for Outcomes

Crime & Delinquency - Multiple crime/offense types

Why might a practice's outcome ratings differ from the ratings of specific programs encompassed by that practice?