Thinking About Corrections : Reentry

New Research Reports on Reentry

Eileen Conway — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:07:00 GMT

Followers of the literature on reentry may be interested in a new post on the Correctional Research Roundtable forum regarding three new reports from the Urban Institute's Returning Home study.

Training Available to State Agencies For Successful Offender Reentry

llinke — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:32:00 GMT

The Center for Effective Public Policy (CEPP), through funding from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance, will be offering training to state-level corrections and community supervision agencies interested in enhancing successful offender reentry/transition from prison to communities. The three-day curriculum will be tailored and delivered on-site in three states during calendar year 2009. All training costs for up to 250 participants per state (with the exception of staff travel and per diems) will be supported by this initiative.

Applications are due March 16, 2009. To view and download the full application kit, visit http://www.cepp.com/whatsnew.htm .

Public Safety and Reentry

CC Pro — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:41:00 GMT

The Urban Institute, Justice Policy Center, under an award from a JEHT Foundation grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, with assistance from the National Institute of Corrections, has published, "Putting Public Safety First: 13 Parole Supervision Strategies to Enhance Reentry Outcomes." This report is a collaborative effort of national policymakers and leading practitioners to articulate policies and strategies regarding "parole supervision, violation, and revocation practices" that "improve public safety and make the best use of taxpayer dollars." The accompanying four-page Public Safety Policy Brief is available here.

NIC and Urban Institute Launch Jail Reentry Initiative

llinke — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:34:00 GMT

NIC has expanded its reentry efforts beyond prisons with a new project to improve the transition of inmates from jails back to local communities. The project is called Transition from Jail to Community - TJC. With project partner the Urban Institute, two test sites have been selected for the project - Douglas County, Kansas and Denver, Colorado. Four addtional sites will be added to the project in the Spring of 2009. Learn more about NIC's two reentry/transition projects and the TJC Initiative with the Urban Institute.

Release Planning for Successful Reentry, A Guide

Eileen Conway — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:27:00 GMT

New from the Urban Institute's Justice Policy Center is Release Planning for Successful Reentry: A Guide for Corrections, Service Providers, and Community Groups. The guide covers release planning's role, key components of a release plan, and opportunities and challenges of release planning. Appendixes include case studies and a state-by-state "scan of practice." Also new from the Urban Institute are two Reentry Mapping Briefs, one on the future of justice mapping, and the other on mapping community data on children of prisoners. All three documents can be located from their justice publications page.

An Interactive Web-Based Reentry Tool

Eileen Conway — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:08:00 GMT

The Council of State Governments Justice Center has unveiled "a first-of-its-kind interactive online tool for state and local government professionals working to make prison and jail reentry safer and more successful." The tool is organized by topic areas, such as physical health, substance abuse, and mental health, each divided by timeframes, and includes descriptions of information to gather and links to assessment instruments. CSG reports that this tool is part of a larger toolkit the Justice Center will release later this year.

Examining the Parole Experience

Eileen Conway — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:43:00 GMT

New in the Urban Institute's Returning Home series of reports examining the challenges of prisoner reentry is a research brief focusing on the impact of parole supervision. Returning Home on Parole: Former Prisoners' Experiences in Illinois, Ohio, and Texas includes findings regarding the usefulness of parole officers in the transition process, the relationships between parole supervision and employment and substance use, the effect of supervision on reincarceration, and who benefits more from supervision.

A Trio of Resources Addressing Families

Eileen Conway — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Newly posted by Ohio's Institute for Excellence in Justice are two best practice tool kits, plus proceedings from a seminar on family relationships. The tool kits are "Family Involvement During Incarceration and Reentry," and "Incarcerated Parents and Parenting Programs." Video and presentations are available from the Institute seminar on Coming Home from Prison: Family Matters.

What Works/Does Not Work in Reentry

Eileen Conway — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:39:00 GMT

As Federal, state, and local governments look toward reentry programming as a means to improve outcomes for prisoners returning to the community, researchers are beginning to produce results regarding the effectiveness of these efforts. The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency has just posted an extensive review of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections' Community Orientation and Reintegration (COR) program, research done by Linda G. Smith and Denise R. Suttle of the International Association of Reentry. Of note, the outcome evaluation report found "failures of COR Completers compared to the Control Group for almost every recidivism, employment, and substance abuse measure used in the outcome evaluation."

More About What Influences Reentry

Eileen Conway — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:24:00 GMT

The Urban Institute has just posted a significant addition to its extensive examination the reentry process. In Health and Prisoner Reentry: How Physical, Mental, and Substance Abuse Conditions Shape the Process of Reintegration, authors Kamala Mallik-Kane and Christy A. Visher examine the experiences of a representative sample of 1,100 inmates returning from state prisons in Ohio and Texas. The report documents the pervasiveness of health problems among returning prisoners and the effect of health status on reentry outcomes.

Georgia High Court Overturns Residency Restrictions on Sex Offenders

CC Pro — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:39:00 GMT

In a unanimous decision, the Georgia Supreme Court struck down a state law that placed a ban on where registered sex offenders could reside. The law, one of the most restrictive in the nation, forbade registered sex offenders from "living within 1,000 feet of of schools, churches or any other place where children might congregate, including more than 150,000 school bus stops in the state." The ban was in effect even if a school or a church established itself in an area where an offender was already living. The Court ruled the statute was so restrictive it unconstitutionally deprived the offender of their property rights and violated "Fifth Amendment prohibitions against the public taking of private property without compensation." The state legislator who originally sponsored the measure has promised to introduce a re-drafted version of the law when the state legislature convenes in January 2008.

What Makes Women Offenders Different?

CC Pro — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 22:25:00 GMT

This timely and relevant topic is discussed in an audio podcast presented by "DC Public Safety". In federal partnership with the National Institute of Corrections, Correctional Programs Specialists from NIC provide an overview of the Issues, research and concerns associated with women offenders in the corrections system.

More Thinking About Reentry

Eileen Conway — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:49:00 GMT

The Urban Institute continues its in-depth look at prisoner reentry with a new policy brief, this time examining issues from stakeholders' perspectives. Service providers, local government officials, criminal justice practitioners, and civic leaders in Cleveland were interviewed regarding barriers and solutions to successful reentry. Their thoughts are summarized regarding housing, employment, social services, supervision, stigma, and more.

Reentry in a Nutshell for Decisionmakers

Eileen Conway — Thu, 24 May 2007 15:06:00 GMT

We appreciate in-depth research, but we're even more appreciative when that research is summarized beautifully for speedy review. The Urban Institute has gone one better by releasing a concise summary of research that it hasn't even published yet. Returning Home: Exploring the Challenges and Successes of Recently Released Texas Prisoners summarizes in two pages a forthcoming report on the experiences of former inmates in the first year back in the community, with key findings regarding program participation, employment, substance use, and supervision and recidivism.

Faith Based Mentoring of Criminal Offenders

DC Public Safety (Video) — Tue, 15 May 2007 18:57:27 GMT

Welcome to DC Public Safety–radio and television shows on crime, criminal offenders and the criminal justice system. Please see http://media.csosa.gov for our radio shows. We welcome your comments and suggestions at leonard.sipes@csosa.gov. This program...(read more)