An Experiment in Parole Supervision

Abstract

An evaluation was performed on the Volunteer in Parole Program, in which lawyers volunteered to become counselors for parolees. Ex-offenders were randomly assigned to be either in the program or in a control group; each group was interviewed before the program began (pretest) and then again after the program had been running for nine months (posttest). Dependent variables of interest were arrest rates, several employment indices, the frequency of use of community agencies, and several attitudinal dimensions. The results showed that the program did not affect parolees' arrest rates, employment situations, use of community agencies, general happiness, feelings of stigma, perceptions of the difficulty in keeping parole rules, or their attitudes toward thefairness of the courts. The program did succeed in making more positive parolees' attitudes about society's concern for them and in making their job expectations more realistic. A significant proportion of participants named the volunteer as one they could talk to when they had problems, and this was interpreted to mean that the program was successful in providing ex-offenders with a high-status counselor.