Objectives: To examine the link between an individual's religious involvement in prison and recidivism and assess how macro-level conditions in the counties to which individuals return shape this relationship.
Methods: Using data from 1362 previously incarcerated people, a series of hierarchical generalized linear models are used to examine the extent to which an individual's religious involvement in prison relates to recidivism post-release. We also examine how county-level religious adherence, economic disadvantage, and potential social service assistance directly affect recidivism, and how each shape the relationship between religious involvement and recidivism.
Results: Findings show that county-level religious adherence was directly associated with lower recidivism, but individual-level religious involvement was not when assessing recidivism over longer periods of time post-release. Cross-level interactions revealed that county-level resource deprivation conditions the effect of individual religious involvement.
Conclusions: Findings have theoretical implications for the study of religion and reentry. Methodologically, failing to account for the religious context of counties, in addition to micro-macro linkages, harms individual level research on religion and reentry.
Keywords: Moral community; Prisoner reentry; Recidivism; Religiosity; Social ecology.