National Reentry Resources
National Reentry Resource Center
The Resource Center, established by the Second Chance Act, provides assistance to the prisoner reentry field. We provide education, training, and technical assistance to states, tribes, territories, local governments, service providers, nonprofit organizations, and corrections agencies working on prisoner reentry. Click here to reach their webpage.
The Carolina Justice Policy Center
For the past 30 years, the Carolina Justice Policy Center has worked on a wide range of policy issues including sentencing reform, developing and improving community-based corrections programs, and addressing critical problems in the use of the death penalty. The Carolina Justice Policy Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to developing and promoting effective, equitable and humane solutions to criminal justice problems. Click here to visit their website.
Bryan Stevenson: Ending the Politics of Fear and Anger
... and visit the Equal Justice Initiative by clicking here, where various issues such as the death penalty, Incarceration of youth in adult prisons, sentencing reform, race and poverty are discussed.
Lessons Learned: Planning and Assessing a Law Enforcement Reentry Strategy
On April 3, 2013, the Council of State Governments Justice Center (CSG Justice Center) released Lessons Learned: Planning and Assessing a Law Enforcement Reentry Strategy. Produced with support from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), the report describes how four law enforcement agencies used the principles outlined in Planning and Assessing a Law Enforcement Reentry Strategy to engage in local-level reentry partnerships in order to reduce crime and increase public safety in their jurisdictions. Click here to visit the CSG Justice Center webpage.
Reentry Guidelines by the US Attorney General Issued By The Department of Justice
Reentry programs have now, in the words of the Attorney General, “moved from the margins to the main stream” both for the Department of Justice and for state and local criminal justice systems. The need to stem the growing costs associated with the tremendous growth in the prison population has made reentry practices a critical part of the public safety mission of the Department of Justice. Click here to read the publicantion entitled "Reentry and the Mission of the Department of Justice and the United States Attorneys’ Office"
A Conference for Grantees Committed to Successful Reentry, May 26-27, 2010
This session highlighted the important role families and communities play in the lives of individuals returning home from prison. This session focused on strategies to enhance reentry efforts from key stakeholders, including family and neighbors, as well as incorporating pro-social supports. Note that Dennis Gaddy / CSI is noted with the facilitators, and that there is an embedded video of part of the conference. Click here to reach the webpage.
National HIRE Network
The National HIRE network has the objective of increasing the number of job opportunities that are available to individuals that have criminal records. Click here to reach the webpage.
Public / Private Ventures
(P/PV) has designed and tested a variety of approaches aimed at reducing crime and violence; promoting the successful reentry of formerly incarcerated adults; and helping high-risk youth avoid deeper involvement with the criminal justice system. Click here to reach their webpage.
Cory Booker, Mayor Newark New Jersey announces Office of Reentry Services for the City.
From Prison To Home
"We are pleased to present this monograph on prisoner reentry. We hope it can inform a broad set of discussions about one of the most pressing issues of our time —the challenge of reintegrating record numbers of individuals who leave prison and return home." from: "From Prison To Home", a pdf file from the Urban Institute. Click here for the pdf.
The Reentry Policy Council
The Reentry Policy Council (RPC) was established in 2001 to assist state government officials grappling with the increasing number of people leaving prisons and jails to return to the communities they left behind. Click here to reach their webpage.
One in 100 report from the Pew Charitable Trust
Three decades of growth in America’s prison population has quietly nudged the nation across a sobering threshold: for the first time, more than one in every 100 adults is now confined in an American jail or prison. According to figures gathered and analyzed by the Pew Public Safety Performance Project, the number of people behind bars in the United States continued to climb in 2007, saddling cash-strapped states with soaring costs they can ill afford and failing to have a clear impact either on recidivism or overall crime. Click here to get the pdf report.
One in 31 Report from the Pew Center on the States
Explosive growth in the number of people on probation or parole has propelled the population of the American corrections system to more than 7.3 million, or 1 in every 31 U.S. adults, according to a report released by the Pew Center on the States. The vast majority of these offenders live in the community, yet new data in the report finds that nearly 90 percent of state corrections dollars are spent on prisons. One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections examines the scale and cost of prison, jail, probation and parole in each of the 50 states, and provides a blueprint for states to cut both crime and spending by reallocating prison expenses to fund stronger supervision of the large number of offenders in the community. Click here to read the report.
Entrepreneurship for Ex-Offenders
We are pleased to share with you this monograph, aimed to stimulate interest, ignite conversation and spur momentum for a national initiative promoting entrepreneurship as a reentry strategy. The rising number of individuals returning to our communities from prison and jail represents one of the defining issues of our time. Individuals reentering society face myriad challenges, not the least of which is securing viable employment; in addition, each individual has a unique set of experiences, needs and resources. This project stems from the understanding that to effectively address the unique characteristics of and challenges facing people reentering society, the best and brightest minds from a diverse array of fields must collaborate to develop a spectrum of approaches and solutions. Click here to read the pdf report.
Justice Reinvestment - Council of State Governments Justice Center
In the past 20 years, state spending on corrections has grown at a rate faster than nearly any other state budget item. Despite increasing corrections expenditures, recidivism rates remain high with half of all persons released from prison returning within three years. Further, in every state, there are a handful of “high-stakes” communities to which most people released from prison return; these are also the communities where taxpayer-funded programs are disproportionately focused. Click here to visit their website.
Fiscal Crisis Corrections - Rethinking Policies and Procedures - Vera Institute
States across the United States are facing the worst fiscal crisis in years. All but two states are dealing with budget deficits, and spending is being cut across the board. Second only to Medicaid, corrections has become the fastest growing general fund expenditure in the United States. Considered off limits for many years, corrections budgets are now subject to these same cuts. Based on a survey of enacted FY2010 state budgets and other recent sentencing and corrections legislation, this new report from Vera’s Center on Sentencing and Corrections found that at least 26 states have reversed the trend of recent decades and cut funding for corrections. This report examines the form of these cuts, including reductions in operational costs, reforms in release policy, and strategies for reducing recidivism, and it highlights some of the innovations that states are pursuing for long-term savings while also maintaining public safety. Click here to read the report.
The Prisoner Reentry Institute at John Jay College of Criminal Justice
The Institute was established in February 2005 and is housed within the Office of Continuing and Professional Studies. The mission of the Prisoner Reentry Institute is to spur innovation and improve practice in the field of reentry by advancing knowledge; translating research into effective policy and service delivery; and fostering effective partnerships between criminal justice and non-criminal justice disciplines. Click here to read their findings.
Reentry Mapping Guide - Urban Institute
As the number of people being released from prison and returning home each year has continued to grow, communities across the country have become increasingly aware of the impact of prisoner reentry in their jurisdictions.Many communities are engaged in efforts to address the needs of returning prisoners as well as the families and neighborhoods to which they are returning. Analysis and mapping of local-level data on prisoner reentry can inform and improve these community efforts to address reentry, from the policy decisions of local governments to a neighborhood church’s outreach to returning prisoners.This brief is designed to equip organizations with strategies for effectively disseminating reentry-related mapping and analysis findings. The brief outlines key elements of the process and offers specific recommendations based on the experiences of the Reentry Mapping Network sites. Click here to read their pdf report findings.
Urban Institute - Crime and Justice
In an era of diminishing state and federal budgets and limited resources for community services, it is critical that research and analysis is available to guide the allocation of scarce criminal justice resources in a manner that yields the most beneficial impact on the individuals and jurisdictions affected by crime. Click here to visit their website.
Virgina Senator Jim Webb - National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2010
July 28, 2010 - Senator Jim Webb’s hallmark legislation, the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2010, cleared a major hurdle last night when it passed the U.S. House of Representatives, under the leadership of Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-MA). Webb, who introduced the legislation in March 2009, today called for swift passage in the Senate. The bill would create a blue-ribbon, bipartisan commission of experts charged with undertaking an 18-month top-to-bottom review of the nation’s criminal justice system and offering concrete recommendations for reform. Click here to review the legislation.
The Fortune Society
The Fortune Society believes in a world where all who are at-risk, incarcerated or formerly incarcerated can become positive, contributing members of society. Our work supports successful reentry of formerly incarcerated men and women and promotes alternatives to incarceration, thus strengthening the fabric of our communities. Click here to view their website.
Safer Foundation
Since its founding in 1972, Safer Foundation has been at the forefront of programming for people involved in the criminal justice system as they return to their communities. Safer Foundation's mission is to reduce recidivism by supporting, through a full spectrum of services, the efforts of people with criminal records to become employed, law-abiding members of the community. Employment and employment-related services are the cornerstones of Safer Foundation’s service delivery system, including job preparedness training, job placement — both transitional and long-term — and retention services. Safer annually serves over 10,000 people with criminal records in Illinois. Click here to visit their website.
The Vera Institute of Justice
The Vera Institute of Justice combines expertise in research, demonstration projects, and technical assistance to help leaders in government and civil society improve the systems people rely on for justice and safety.Vera is an independent, non-partisan, nonprofit center for justice policy and practice, with permanent offices in New York City and Washington, DC. Our projects and reform initiatives, typically conducted in partnership with local, state, or national officials, are located across the United States and around the world. Click here to visit their website.
The Sentencing Project
The Sentencing Project is a national organization working for a fair and effective criminal justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing law and practice, and alternatives to incarceration. The Sentencing Project was founded in 1986 to provide defense lawyers with sentencing advocacy training and to reduce the reliance on incarceration. Since that time, The Sentencing Project has become a leader in the effort to bring national attention to disturbing trends and inequities in the criminal justice system with a successful formula that includes the publication of groundbreaking research, aggressive media campaigns and strategic advocacy for policy reform. Click here to visit their website.
Putting Public Safety First: 13 Parole Supervision Strategies to Enhance Reentry Outcomes
The resulting paper was co-written by eight authors in four organizations and reflects the views of many leading parole experts and practitioners. Click here for their pdf of the paper.
Washington State Institute for Public Policy
The Institute’s mission is to carry out practical, non-partisan research—at legislative direction—on issues of importance to Washington State. The Institute conducts research using its own policy analysts and economists, specialists from universities, and consultants. Institute staff work closely with legislators, legislative and state agency staff, and experts in the field to ensure that studies answer relevant policy questions. Fiscal and administrative services for the Institute are provided by The Evergreen State College. Click here for their findings.
NAACP-Justice
The NAACP advocates for smarter, results-based criminal justice policies to keep our communities safe, including treatment for addiction and mental health problems, judicial discretion in sentencing, and an end to racial disparities at all levels of the system. Community Success Initiative also serves as one of the community partners to North Carolina’s NAACP “HKonJ” Program (Historic Thousands on Jones Street) and the 14 Point agenda for social and economic justice. CSI Executive Director, Dennis Gaddy, currently serves as the State Chair for Prison Support for the North Carolina NAACP. Click here for their justice topic web-pages.
Goodwill Industry International
"We believe that you can get a second chance. To begin, contact the Goodwill community and ask an employment specialist. We understand that people have been incarcerated, there are many barriers to successful re-entry to public life, including drug dependency, serious illness, debt and limited work options. Just getting a second chance may seem almost impossible at times. We offer services to men, women and youth who have served their time and are trying to get back on track." Click here for the Goodwill Industry International pdf describing the program in more detail.
National Indian Development Associates
AIDA is a highly credible, Indian owned small business that focuses on provision of professional services to Indian governments and communities. AIDA contracts directly with tribes as well as state, federal, private and non profit agencies. The firm maintains a strong reputation built upon meeting client needs and expectations utilizing a client focused agenda for service delivery. AIDA uses its staff and a pool of recognized experts and practitioners to design the most effective methods and strategies to address each client's goals and objectives. Click here for their pdf reentry guide for formerly incarcerated Native Americans. Click here to visit their website.
Families, Parenting and Child Support
Visit our CSI webpage to learn more about family issues regarding the incarcerated and the formerly incarcerated by clicking here.
Your Rights, Your Future: Preparing for Reentry
From the Legal Action Center, in New York, comes this video presentation "Your Rights, Your Future: Preparing for Reentry" This is a video guide to give people leaving prison the skills and knowledge to find jobs and prepare them for the challenges of re-entry. Click here to access the video page.
After Prison: Roadblocks to Reentry
People with criminal records seeking reentry face a daunting array of counterproductive, debilitating and unreasonable roadblocks in almost every important aspect of life. In 2004, the Legal Action Center (LAC) completed and published After Prison: Roadblocks to Reentry, a comprehensive analysis and grade report of state laws and policies that serve as legal barriers to reentry in the areas of employment, public housing, public benefits, voting, access to criminal records, adoptive and foster parenting, and drivers’ licenses. In 2009, LAC issued the After Prison Report: 2009 Update to highlight states’ progression or regression in improving opportunities for people with criminal histories to successfully reintegrate into society to become productive, law-abiding citizens. The District of Columbia was included in the updated report. Click here to visit their website.
National Recovery Month
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA's) Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is pleased to present the National Recovery Month: Prevention Works, Treatment is Effective, People Recover (Recovery Month) toolkit. As a key conduit for several of SAMHSA's Strategic Initiatives, Recovery Month increases the understanding of substance use and mental disorders to achieve the full potential of prevention and treatment support services. It also helps people recognize and seek assistance for these health conditions with the same urgency as any other condition and aims to reduce barriers to recovery. Recovery Month encapsulates this on every level. Click here for the toolkit.
Think Outside the Cell Foundation
About 2.3 million people are behind bars in the United States. Disproportionately Black and Latino, about 650,000 leave state and federal prisons each year.The stigma of incarceration is a roadblock to their rights as citizens and creates untold hardships for their families and impoverished communities.The Think Outside the Cell Foundation works to end the stigma and to help the incarcerated, the formerly incarcerated and their loved ones through literacy, education, personal development and the removal of societal barriers to the American Dream. Click here to visit their website.
Justice eReport: US Sentencing Commission: Mandatory Minimum Sentences are Excessive
The U.S. Sentencing Commission has released a thorough analysis of the application and effects of mandatory minimum sentences. It is important because it is the first systematic review of mandatory minimum sentences in 20 years. During those two decades the number of mandatory minimum sentences has grown exponentially, and with that growth the number of inmates serving mandatory sentences has ballooned, filling our prisons to bursting. Click here to read the report
ColorOfChange.Org
ColorOfChange.org is strengthening Black America's political voice. Using the Internet, we keep our members informed and give them ways to act on pressing issues facing Black people in America. We are united behind a simple, powerful pledge: we will do all we can to make sure all Americans are represented, served and protected — regardless of race or class. Click here to connect to their site.
'Million-Dollar Blocks' Map Incarceration's Costs NPR report
NPR program regarding efforts in New York targetting areas in Brooklyn with very high populations of the formerly incarcerated, to reduce recidivism rates. In many neighborhoods, hard truths about day-to-day life — like violent streets or crumbling schools — are readily apparent to residents, but less obvious to city and state officials. Hard data can sometimes bridge that gap, helping policymakers better visualize which communities are doing well, and which may need additional help or resources. An extensive database is used to assist the local authorities target programs that work for their areas.To read this story and listen to the program on NPR, click here.
Formerly Convicted Citizens Project
Ban the Box is a nationwide effort to remove criminal history inquiry; i.e. “the box” from employer job applications. All employers have the right to know an applicant’s conviction history but the inquiry should be deferred until later in the interview process and not utilized as an automatic bar to employment at the application stage. Click here to visit their home page.
National ACLU Prisoner's Assistance Directory
Click here to receive the national ACLU Prisoner's Assistance Directory, which is a state-by-state listing of available projects and organizations who are willing to lend assistance and be resources to prisoners.
Prisoner Reentry at Work: Adding Business to the Mix
As a result of state and local government fiscal crises, the number of returning ex-inmates will only increase in size in the immediate future, as is already occurring across this country, necessitating quick and effective responses to meet the projected need— for support services related to employment, living arrangements, and necessary assistance for ex-inmates—resulting from this mass exodus. States such as California, Kentucky, New York, and Virginia, for example, have instituted or plan to institute early prisoner release programs in response to overcrowded prisons and increases in financial costs. To read more about this omprehensive study, and how our justice system needs to address costs/benefits regarding the early release of prisoners due to our financial crisis, while still minding the needs of the formerly incarcerated, click here.
(to print his page from a PDF, click here)