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Introduction
Public sentiment toward parolee releases in communities within Fort Worth, can be summed up by the
acronym NIMBY... not in my back yard. Forgivable, considering parolees have been measured on a national level as more likely than not to commit additional crimes. According to a report published by the U.S.
Department of Justice: Bureau of Justice Statistics,
a fifteen state study concluded more than 66% of released prisoners across the nation will be re-arrested
within three years. This does not bode well for prisoners soon to be Fort Worth parolees, but falls in line with
the popular local sentiment of concern. Readily available articles in news print associate parolees with crime,
illustrate public leaders opposing site proposals for parolee concentration facilities, and even quote
citizens' blatantly negative attitudes concerning supervised parolees. Further, and perhaps
most significant in bringing public concern about parolees to my attention, are the quarterly
requests for parolee address information made by city council members, concerned for the safety of
their constituents. These regular requests serve as evidence of
the cautious regard citizens have toward knowing where parolees are and where they are not.
I am concerned that public policy decisions might be based on unfounded assumptions about the role parolees have in local crime.
Specifically, my concern is with persons assuming
neighborhood incidents are positively correlated to the number of local parolees. In a search of local publications, none of the
assumptions expressed, see
articles, were substatiated by references to qualitative or quantitative research.
Given the influence that these unsubstantiated opinions may have on the parolee community,
research on actual impact is clearly long overdue. Hopefully, looking at the
available data will either provide evidence for all of the concern or lay to rest a myth.
Please continue on to the objective section
of this site for more specific problem statements defining the scope of this project.
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