50 State Reports
Supervision Violation Data Snapshot
States across the country saw changes in their prison admissions and populations due to supervision violations in 2020. But some states were already experiencing reductions in violation admissions and population prior to the pandemic. This snapshot shows available supervision violation data for Rhode Island from 2018 through 2020.
From 2018 to 2020, Rhode Island saw a 74 percent decline in the number of prison admissions due to supervision violations.
The breakdown
| Total Admissions | Violation Admissions | Technical Violation Admissions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 3270 | 1476 | 378 |
| 2019 | 3054 | 1172 | 260 |
| 2020 | 1826 | 384 | 94 |
| Total | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total admissions | 3,270 | 3,054 | 1,826 | |
| Total Violation admissions | 1,476 | 1,172 | 384 | |
| Probation admissions | 1,341 | 1,044 | 317 | |
| Parole admissions | 135 | 128 | 67 | |
| Total Technical Violation admissions | 378 | 260 | 94 | |
| Probation admissions | 297 | 196 | 46 | |
| Parole admissions | 81 | 64 | 48 | |
| Total New Offense admissions | 1,057 | 857 | 289 | |
| Probation admissions | 1,033 | 835 | 271 | |
| Parole admissions | 24 | 22 | 18 | |
From 2018 to 2020, Rhode Island saw a 46 percent decline in the number of people in prison due to supervision violations.
The breakdown
| Total Population | Violation Population | Technical Violation Population | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 2108 | 644 | 131 |
| 2019 | 1957 | 623 | 105 |
| 2020 | 1491 | 350 | 55 |
| Total | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total population | 2,108 | 1,957 | 1,491 | |
| Total Violation population | 644 | 623 | 350 | |
| Probation population | 531 | 527 | 277 | |
| Parole population | 113 | 96 | 73 | |
| Total Technical Violation population | 131 | 105 | 55 | |
| Probation population | 85 | 75 | 37 | |
| Parole population | 46 | 30 | 18 | |
| Total New Offense population | 491 | 484 | 270 | |
| Probation population | 438 | 443 | 237 | |
| Parole population | 53 | 41 | 33 | |
Additional State Notes
The Rhode Island Department of Corrections (RIDOC) operates a unified correctional system, meaning that all people sentenced and detained during pretrial (regardless of sentence length or crime) are under the jurisdiction of the Department (Source - RIDOC’s FY20 Annual Population Report.) The figures only include Calendar Year 2018 to Calendar Year 2020 sentenced admissions, as awaiting trial admissions have been excluded. This was done to more closely align with state definitions and reports. Admissions due to supervision violations include short incarceration stays as supervision sanctions (1- to 180-day sanctions).
Due to limitations in RIDOC's database, some probation or parole violations include people without a defined violation type. Therefore, some violations may be "unknown" at the time the data was pulled, instead of being coded to either a new offense violation or technical violation. It is difficult to track admissions for people who failed to appear for custody at their appointed time for violations of probation and parole.
Sentenced population data from 2018-2019 has a snapshot date of June 30. Sentenced population data from 2020 has a snapshot date of December 31, 2020
Whether an incarceration is the result of a new offense or technical violation is often difficult and problematic to delineate, even in states with available data. Most states do not consider a supervision violation to be the result of a new offense unless a new felony conviction is present, meaning technical violations may include misdemeanor convictions or new arrests. "Prison" includes county jail if the county was reimbursed by the state for a person’s incarceration, which occurs in some, but not all, states. Supervision violations may include revocations (i.e., unsuccessful terminations of a supervision and completion of a sentence in prison or jail) or short-term sanctions (i.e., probation or parole jurisdiction is maintained and the person is incarcerated for a short period of time in prison or jail). Not all states impose or include short-term sanctions in their count of supervision violations.