abstract

Part 1 of this article begins with a brief history of the halfway house as a model of criminal rehabilitation. Part 2 explains why recidivism rates are the best measure of Half House’s success and how it has clearly failed to improve recidivism rates. Next, the third part introduces a body of scholarship that explains how an individual’s likelihood of returning to prison is tied, in part, to his or her location: the surrounding cultural, economic, and criminogenic environment. I’ll dig into it. Part IV discusses the scant data on where halfway houses end up and how these facilities are typically pushed into disadvantaged areas by local opposition. Let’s discuss. Finally, Part V urges lawmakers to take steps to give correctional institutions the necessary zoning exemptions to locate half houses in areas favorable to criminal rehabilitation, with or without local blessing. It concludes the article.

Recommended citations

Michael J. McGowan
Location, location, mislocation: How local land-use restrictions blunt the criminal rehabilitation potential of halfway houses.48

Arb. Law.

329 (2016).

Available at: https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/student-scholarship/27