Boston Reentry Study
The Boston Reentry Study (BRS) is a mixed-methods, longitudinal study of 122 men and women released from Massachusetts state prisons to the Boston area. It is a collaborative study led by Bruce Western, Anthony Braga (Northeastern University), and Rhiana Kohl (MA DOC) focusing on the transition into the community during their first year after prison release. The data collection combined a panel survey, qualitative interviews, interviews with family members, and administrative records on criminal history. The BRS traces the complexity of integration after incarceration and draws from their life histories, including childhood experiences, to understand how individual biographies shape their transition into the community. Remarkably, over the one year of follow up, the BRS sustained an unparalleled response rate of 94 percent.
BRS Publications:
Household Support and Social Integration in the Year After Prison. 2019. Catherine Sirois. Sociological Forum.
Place and Punishment: The Spatial Context of Mass Incarceration. Jessica Simes. 2019. Journal of Urban Affairs, 41(4):443-463.
Drug Use in the Year After Prison. Bruce Western and Jessica Simes. 2019. Social Science and Medicine, 235:112357.
Homeward: Life in the Year After Prison. 2018. Bruce Western. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Formerly Incarcerated Parents and their Children. Bruce Western and Natalie Smith. 2018. Demography, 55(3):823-847.
Racialized Re-Entry: Labor Market Inequality After Incarceration. Bruce Western and Catherine Sirois. 2018. Social Forces 97(4): 1517-1542.
A Longitudinal Survey of Newly-Released Prisoners: Methods and Design of the Boston Reentry Study. Bruce Western, Anthony Braga, and Rhiana Kohl. 2017. Federal Probation, 81(1):32-40.
Study Retention as Bias Reduction in a Hard-to-Reach Population. Bruce Western, Anthony Braga, David Hureau, and Catherine Sirois. 2016. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(20):5477-5485.
Stress and Hardship After Prison. Bruce Western, Anthony Braga, Jaclyn Davis, and Catherine Sirois. 2015. American Journal of Sociology, 120(5):1512-1547.
Lifetimes of Violence in a Sample of Released Prisoners. Bruce Western. 2015. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 1(2):14-30.
Survey Instruments:
(If using the survey instruments please acknowledge the hard work of our research team by citing our paper on research design.)