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Supervision Violations and Their Impact on Incarceration

Glossary

Glossary

The following terms are used throughout the Supervision Violations and Their Impact on Incarceration report:

Community Supervision refers to court-ordered sentences that allow a person to either serve their sentence outside of a correctional facility or be released early after a portion of the sentence has been served. These sentences—commonly called probation, parole, post-release supervision, and more—typically involve specific conditions that the person must follow to remain in the community.

Relative Incarceration Rates compare prison incarceration rates across racial groups relative to their representation in the population of interest to show how much more (or less) likely they are to be incarcerated compared to White people. To calculate, we take the rate for each group (prison population / state population) and then divide the group rate by the comparison group rate. For example, if a state had the following data: 1 out of every 1,000 White residents is in prison and 3 out of every 1,000 Black residents is in prison, the relative incarceration rate for Black residents in that state would be 3.0—meaning that Black people in that state are imprisoned at 3 times the rate of White people.

Supervision conditions are the specific rules and requirements that a person must follow while under community supervision. These conditions can be set by the courts, parole boards, or by supervision agencies. Examples of supervision conditions include curfews, drug screens, and electronic monitoring. Supervision conditions vary by state, judicial district, and by agency.

Supervision violations are divided into two general types: (1) A technical violation, which typically occurs when someone fails to meet a supervision condition, usually in the form of missing appointments, not paying fines and fees, or failing drug tests; and (2) a new offense violation, which typically occurs when an individual has committed a new crime while serving their sentence in the community.  Technical violations vary by state, judicial district, and by agency.

  • Each admission for a supervision violation person entering a correctional institution one time because of a violation of a condition of their supervision sentence, either as a sanction or to serve the remainder of their sentence (revocation). Non-violation-related admissions (referred to as “other”) mainly include admissions for new convictions and transfers.