A Longitudinal Survey of Newly-Released Prisoners: Methods and Design of the Boston Reentry Study

GROWTH IN AMERICAN prison and jail populations over the last 40 years has propelled the U.S. incarceration rate to the highest in the world and made incarceration commonplace for residents of poor inner-city communities. The U.S. penal system now houses around 2.2 million people in state and federal prisons and local jails, and incarceration rates are highest among racial and ethnic minorities and the poor(Glaze & Kaeble 2014; Western, 2006).