A Recidivism Study of Federal Offenders On Community Supervision

Under this cooperative agreement, Abt Associates will conduct a recidivism study of offenders on federal community supervision. The project will utilize data collected and maintained by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts' Probation/Pretrial Services Automated Case Tracking System (PACTS) and criminal history information derived from the FBI's Interstate Identification Index (III).

In collaboration with BJS and the U.S. Office of Probation and Parole, Abt Associates will design the study, select the study cohort, merge the databases to provide a researchable database, and generate accurate and reliable recidivism rates for offender subpopulations, as well as conduct an analysis of factors that influence these rates, including attributes of the offender, probation officers, and probation office.

Abt Associates will (a) analyze appropriate federal criminal justice agency datasets and compile documentation of method that generates recidivism statistics; (b) prepare and submit one technical report that details differences between the FBI criminal history records as compiled with criminal history data recorded in the U.S. Office of Probation and Parole database (PACTS) and a final report to include project design, methods and data, and findings to be co-published with BJS and the U.S. Office of Probation and Parole.

To the extent that weaknesses are identified in methods used to generate criminal history database, grantee will recommend ways to improve methods.

ca/ncf