https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5383-2976
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Abstract
Recently there has been growing concern regarding the staffing challenges that plague the U.S. correctional system. This study examines whether staffing challenges within residential facilities are associated with changes in dynamic risk and the likelihood of reoffending among a sample of serious juvenile offenders returning to the community from residential placement. Using administrative data on 2,022 youth who completed a court-imposed placement, in combination with information drawn from a provider’s human resources database, we employ several analytical techniques to untangle the effects of staffing difficulties on youth outcomes. Results indicate that the rate of unscheduled absences was associated with changes in dynamic risk and the duration of placement. Absences were also related to recidivism prior to accounting for changes in dynamic risk and length of stay, suggesting a more complex interrelationship between facility staffing challenges and youth outcomes. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 As the duration of residential placement represents a count variable, ancillary regression models using a Poisson function were run to assess the sensitivity of our results to the choice regression model used. The results, available upon request, were substantively identical to those presented here.
2 Although the data used in this study is hierarchical in nature (youth nested in residential programs), the fact that staffing measures account for the specific months a youth was housed in a program (and not an aggregate period) precludes the use of hierarchical measures. Thus, we account for the potential for non-independence by calculating robust clustered standard errors.
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Notes on contributors
Kevin T. Wolff
Kevin T. Wolff is an Associate Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. He earned his PhD from the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University. Professor Wolff’s research interests include adverse childhood experiences, juvenile justice, program evaluation, and quantitative methods. His work has appeared in several peer-reviewed journals, including the Justice Quarterly, the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and the Journal of Youth and Adolescence. He recently received The Feliks Gross Award from The City University of New York for his contribution to the discipline.
Katherine E. Limoncelli
Katherine E. Limoncelli is a Doctoral Student of Criminal Justice at John Jay College/The Graduate Center, CUNY. She received her master's degree in Criminal Justice from Boston University and her bachelor's degree in Psychology from Wellesley College. She has previously held research positions at both Boston University and The Massachusetts General Hospital. At John Jay, her research focuses on juvenile justice, mental health, program evaluation, and corrections.
Michael T. Baglivio
Michael T. Baglivio is the Vice President of Research & Development at Youth Opportunity, with focus on examining the effectiveness of juvenile treatment programming on short- and long-term performance measures and outcomes. He received his PhD from the College of Criminology, Law, and Society at the University of Florida. For over 15 years, he has evaluated the effectiveness of juvenile justice reform initiatives. His research interests include examining the repercussions of adverse childhood experiences exposures, structured decision-making tools, and programming to reduce recidivism. In 2020 he joined the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida as a courtesy faculty member.