ABSTRACT
Scholars interested in disparities in sentencing have tended to focus on time spent in prison or sentences awarded rather than disparities in conditions of release after incarceration. To address this, we analyzed the files of federal releasees that are clients of a Day Reporting Centre to describe qualitatively how they score on the variables of motivation to desist from crime, engagement in their correctional plan, accountability for past actions, and having a clinical diagnosis of a mental illness. Next, we investigated how these variables impact disparities in the level of supervision, defined as frequency of meetings with parole officers and number of parole conditions, experienced by releasees during community re-entry after prison. Through our assessment, we show which explicit factors shape sentencing nuances at re-entry. Findings suggest that motivation correlates with level of supervision, yet prisoner behaviors are given less weight than their words during assessments. We reflect on our findings in terms of professional discretion, particularly with reference to an individual’s qualification for programming and treatment initiatives.
