The impact of shock incarceration on technical violations and new criminal activities

This research examines the behavior of shock incarceration releasees during two years of community supervision, and compares their performance with that of similar offenders serving time on probation or parole. Using survival analyses, we examined differences between shock releasees, probationers, parolees, and shock dropouts in technical or new crime arrests, technical or new crime revocations, and new criminal convictions. In general, the shock offenders had higher rates of technical arrests and revocations than the probationers and parolees, lower rates of new convictions, and, in some of the analyses, lower rates of arrests and revocations for new crimes. No differences in performance were found between shock graduates and dropouts. Possible reasons for these differences in recidivism among groups were discussed.