Sociolegal characteristics and parole infractions among Israeli released prisoners during electronic monitoring

The objective of this study is to examine the part played by sociolegal characteristics such as ethnic background, family status, or criminal past in the rate of infractions among ex-prisoners in Electronic Monitoring (EM) Programs. In addition, it focuses on the nature of the formal decisions made by community supervision agents regarding such infractions and their correlation with the sociolegal characteristics of the participants. The research population included all prisoners on license (i.e., prisoners who have been granted conditional early release) who took part in the EM project from mid-2007 until mid-2009 (24 months), altogether 155 participants. The data show no significant correlation between the number of infractions and the participant's sociolegal background. In spite of the fact that the EM coordinators have extensive discretionary power, which is likely to lead to discrimination attributable to variables such as ethnicity, this research shows that the most efficacious variable for explaining formal responses is an objective one-the number of infractions.