The Impact of Adult Prison Transfer on the Recidivism Outcomes of Blended-Sentenced Juvenile Delinquents

Juvenile justice systems today have various methods to sanction serious, violent, and chronic delinquents. One of these methods is through blended sentencing. Broadly, blended sentencing processes allow for juvenile justice sanctioning first and then, if needed, criminal justice sanctioning—including placement in adult prisons. The current study examines the recidivism outcomes of blended-sentenced youth transferred to adult prisons following a period of state juvenile incarceration compared with a matched group of blended-sentenced youth that avoided adult prison transfer following state juvenile incarceration. Drawing on data from 905 serious delinquent offenders sentenced between 2005 and 2013 in Texas, the current study used Propensity Score Matching and found no post-release recidivism differences between those transferred to adult prison following a period of state juvenile incarceration and those who were released from state juvenile incarceration to the community without experiencing adult prison incarceration.