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admissions to prison resulting from a technical violation of MSR are returns to prison initiated by a parole agent in response to a violation of some condition of MSR and reviewed by the Prisoner Review Board (PRB). These violations can include missed appointments, positive urinalysis tests, or arrests for a new crime. If a new arrest results in a trial, conviction and subsequent new sentence to prison, these would be counted as court admissions, since it is a sentence from the court requiring the inmate’s incarceration in prison.
During the 1990s, the number and proportion of females admitted to prison for technical violations of MSR was relatively low—reflecting both the small numbers of females exiting prison and being supervised on MSR, but also the lower overall rate of technical violations resulting in return to prison. During most of the 1990s, 2 percent or less of all females admitted to prison in Illinois were accounted for by technical violators of MSR (Figure 2). Although the proportion of prison admissions accounted for by technical violators of MSR has always been lower for females than males in Illinois, the general trends over time in the proportion of total admissions accounted for by these MSR violators between male and female admissions has been quite similar (Figure 2).
As seen in Figure 2, during the late 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, fairly similar trends in the proportion of prison admissions accounted for by parole violation admissions were evident between female and male prisons admissions, and fluctuated during that period primarily as a result of differences in parole staffing levels. However, beginning in SFY 2001, and through SFY 2008, the proportion of female admissions accounted for by technical parole violations decreased rather steadily, from roughly one-quarter of all female prison admissions to less than 10 percent, before increasing to 20 percent of all female admissions being accounted for by technical parole violators in SFY 2011. Among male prison admissions since SFY 2001, on the other hand, between 20 percent and 35 percent of all prison admissions have been accounted for by technical parole violations, and a clear upward trend from SFY 2008 through 2011 was evident. Part of the reason for the widening gap between male and female prison admissions accounted for by technical violations are more resources and options for alternative placements in the community for female MSR violators, less serious types of violations, and shorter lengths of MSR due to being convicted of less serious felony class offenses.
