The study tracked four measures of recidivism during the 3 years: new arrests, new convictions, any incidence of reincarceration, and returns to prison with a new sentence. In addition, a detailed analysis of recidivism rates for select offender groups is presented. Sixty-seven percent of offenders were arrested for a new offense; 56 percent of offenders were reincarcerated; 55.6 percent were convicted of a new offense; and 36.7 percent received a new prison sentence for a new offense. Offenders who were discharged after completing community supervision programs had the lowest recidivism rates among all groups of offenders. Among the 1997-release cohort, 38.2 percent returned to prison for a new offense within 3 years. For the 2004-release cohort, the return rate was 36.7 percent. Although the recidivism rate declined between 1997 and 2004, the total number of offenders who were released or discharged from prison increased from 13,081 to 16,486 during the same period. Of the 16,486 offenders tracked in this study, 4,913 had served at least one prison sentence for a crime involving significant violence or the illegal use or possession of a firearm prior to 2004. In the 3-year period following their 2004 release or discharge, 43.3 percent of violent offenders were reincarcerated for a new offense. Nonviolent offenders returned to prison at a rate of 33.9 percent. Just over 80 percent of the offenders tracked for this study had served a prison sentence for a least one felony offense; 28.4 percent had served time in prison for three or more felony convictions. Recidivism rates are also reported by the age, race, and ethnicity of the offenders. Extensive data tables and appended data limitations, community supervision types, recidivism by month, needs and classification scores, sentence histories, violent offenses, split-sentence recidivism, a bibliography of State recidivism reports, and costs and expenditures.