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Obstacles to Coming Home

After Prison: Roadblocks to Reentry. A Report on State Legal Barriers Facing People with Criminal Records
From the Legal Action Center.
http://www.lac.org/lac/

Barriers to Employment: Prison Time
by John Pawasarat, Employment and Training Institute, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2007. Approximately 40% of African American men between 25 and 34 living in Milwaukee had been previously imprisoned as compared to 5% for the white and Hispanic population. The number of previously incarcerated men and women released to Milwaukee Co increased from 2,000 in 1983 to 8,000 in 2005. The report showed that possession of a driver’s license to be more important than education level in determining whether a person can attain and maintain employment. Specific recommendations are made for programs in prisons so prisoners can begin the process of regaining the license before release.
http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/ETI/barriers/MilwaukeePrisonStudy.pdf

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation: The Intermediate Sanctions Programs Lacked Performance Benchmarks and Were Plagued with Implementation Problems
(#2005-11). A couple of years ago, the legislature passed a series of measures designed to reduce California's off-the-charts parole revocation rates -- parolees are returned to prison on technical violations at twice the national average. The state auditor has released a report on the failure of the parole reform. November 2005.
http://www.bsa.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2005-111.pdf

California's Parole Experiment
By Jeremy Travis and Sarah Lawrence, Urban Institute, 2002. "California's policy is expensive, burdensome and with proof of being more effective." A look from 2002 at one important element driving extreme over-crowding in California's prisons.
http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/CA_parole_exp.pdf

The Collateral Effects of Incarceration on Fathers, Families, and Communities
By Council on Crime and Justice (March 2006). Focusing on racial disparities in the Minnesota criminal justice system, this report examines the effects of imprisonment on family relationships from the perspective of fathers, including a focus on their strengths and struggles behind bars and upon reentry into their communities. In addition, the report examines community dynamics and resources within neighborhoods experiencing high levels of reentry or exit due to incarceration.
http://www.advancementproject.org/cjrc/ColEff.pdf

Court Debt and Related Incarceration in Rhode Island
This report details the process of assessing and collecting court fees, including the related period of incarceration. It concludes that the most common reason for putting someone in jail in RI is for court debt, and that in many cases that process costs the state more than the individual owed. Rhode Island Family Life Center. May 2007.
http://realcostofprisons.org/materi...bt_and_Related_Incarceration_RI.pdf

Does it Pay to Invest In Jail Re-Entry Programs for Jail Inmates
John Roman and Aaron Chalfin, Urban Institute Re-Entry Roundtable. June 2006. Cost benefit analysis for "re-entry" program in jails focusing on low cost programs in the Hampden County Jail (MA), high cost programs in Montgomery County MD, and contracted programs in Chicago. The paper includes statistical information on the increasing costs of jails from 1983 to 2003 (an increase of 600%) and 3 times the number of cells during the same period. They find that even a modest re-entry program in jails yields considerable benefits. Non-contracted re-entry services might be expected to return between $4.40 to $9.00 in social benefits for each $1 invested. And, if over time, re-entry programs persist, greater benefits will accrue.
http://www.urban.org/projects/reentry-roundtable/upload/roman_chalfin.pdf

Does Prison Harden Inmates?: A Discontinuity-based Approach
By M. Keith Chen and Jesse M. Shapiro. December 2006
http://home.uchicago.edu/~jmshapir/prison120406.pdf

The Evolving Standard of Decency: Post Release Planning?
By Jeff Mellow and Robert Greifirgen. Journal of Correctional Health Care, 2008.
http://realcostofprisons.org/materials/evolving_standard_of_decency.pdf

Fact Sheet on Substance Abuse and Re-Entry
Re-Entry Policy Council, Feb. 2006.
http://www.reentrypolicy.org/rp/main.aspx?dbName=DocumentViewer&DocumentID=908

Financial Penalties Proposed in the NYS 2006 Executive Budget
From Justice Strategies, the research, policy and training division of the Center for Community Alternatives.
http://realcostofprisons.org/materials/nys-2006-penalties.pdf

From Prison to Home: The Effect of Incarceration and Reentry on Children, Families, and Communities Incarceration. Reentry, and Social Capital: Social Networks in the Balance
By Dina R. Rose and Todd R. Clear, John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/prison2home02/Rose.htm

From Prison To Work: A Proposal for a National Reentry Program
By Bruce Western. Bookings Institution. December 2008
http://realcostofprisons.org/materials/12_prison_to_work_western.pdf

Improving Outcomes for People with Mental Illnesses under Community Corrections Supervision: A Guide to Research-Informed Policy and Practice
The Justice Center: March 2009. The Guide reviews the body of recent research on community corrections supervision for people with mental illnesses and translates the findings to help officials develop effective interventions. Based on other recent prevalence studies, the Guide indicates that an unprecedented number of these individuals have serious mental illnesses. These individuals are more likely than others to have their community sentences revoked, return to jail or prison, and become more deeply involved in the criminal justice system. This first-of-its-kind guide helps program planners and policymakers apply research on promising practices to improve outcomes for people with mental illnesses under community corrections supervision.

"More than 1.5 million people released from jail each year have serious mental illnesses and many will require special supervision strategies and treatments to safely and successfully rejoin their communities," said Nevada Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, the specialty courts coordinator of the state's Second Judicial District and Justice Center board member. The Guide indicates that community corrections and mental health officials are increasingly aware that they are serving the same individuals without positive effect. It explores the extent to which people with mental illnesses become involved in the community corrections system, and why traditional supervision and treatment strategies are not generally effective for this population.
http://consensusproject.org/downloads/community.corrections.research.guide.pdf

Mapping Prisoner Reentry: An Action Research Guidebook
The Reentry Mapping Network (RMN) is a partnership among community-based organizations and the Urban Institute designed to create community change through the mapping and analysis of neighborhood- level data related to prisoner reentry. RMN partners collect and analyze local data related to incarceration, reentry, and community well-being; develop policy options based on the findings; and document their accomplishments and lessons learned. This guidebook provides information on how to understand and address prisoner reentry at the community level through mapping and analysis. It describes the concepts and methods underlying the RMN so that other jurisdictions can learn from these experiences in the interests of crafting more effective and successful reentry strategies in their communities. The key steps to doing so are highlighted below. (Sept. 2005)
http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/411250_RMNguidebook.pdf

The Mark of a Criminal Record
By Devah Pager, American Journal of Sociology, March 2003. A criminal record represents a major barrier to employment with important implications for racial disparities. The article focuses on the consequences of incarceration for the employment outcomes of black and white job seekers.
http://www.princeton.edu/~pager/pager_ajs.pdf

Maryland's Parole Supervision Fee: A Barrier to Reentry
By Rebekah Diller, Judith Greene, & Michelle Jacobs. Brennan Center for Justice (March 2009). Given the increasing use of economic sanctions by state governments, people entering the criminal justice system are unlikely to leave it without incurring new debt. For example, Maryland law authorizes charges for everything from an individual's initial arrest, to the costs of a constitutionally mandated public defender, to the costs of the individual's supervision on probation or parole. Most of these charges are unrelated to the criminal system's putative goals of punishment, deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation. Instead, they are designed to subsidize state budgets. This growing category of debt created by fees levied to generate revenue is distinct from fines and restitution, the two more traditional categories of criminal justice-related "legal financial obligations," or "LFOs." Fines are the traditional monetary penalty, usually based on the severity of crime, imposed to punish an individual. Restitution, a court-ordered payment by the offender to compensate the victim for financial loss resulting from the crime, is rooted in a restorative justice approach that emphasizes repairing the harm of criminal behavior. Revenue-generating "fees," on the other hand, are assessed not for any criminal justice purpose, but rather to fund state budgets. They are imposed on a largely indigent population, rather than on the general tax-paying populace. And, they are imposed without regard to their impact on the ability of persons convicted of a crime to reenter society after completing court-mandated punishment. The parole supervision fee in Maryland - a monthly obligation of $40 that totals of hundreds of dollars over the course of the parole term - is just such a charge.
http://www.brennancenter.org/conten...pervision_fee_a_barrier_to_reentry/

People, Places, and Things: The Social Process of Reentry for Female Ex-Offenders
By Andrea M. Leverentz. August 2006. Source: National Institute of Justice. This study examined the social lives of female with felony convictions to determine the features of their relationships after their release from prison.
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/215178.pdf

Priorities for the New Presidential Administration to Reduce Poverty through Transitional Jobs Programs
The National Transitional Jobs Network is requesting $1 billion dollars over five years in new dedicated sources of Transitional Jobs funding as well as alterations and clarifications of current law in various programs to facilitate use of current funding streams for Transitional Jobs programs.
http://transitionaljobs.net/Policy/NTJNFed%20Memo1215.pdf

Repaying Debts
The Council of State Governments Justice Center is a first-of-its-kind comprehensive guide, supported by the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Assistance that details how policymakers can increase financial accountability among people leaving correctional facilities, improve rates of child support collection and victim restitution, and make individuals' transition from prisons and jails to the community safe and successful.

People released from prisons and jails typically must make payments to a host of agencies, including probation departments, courts, attorney generals' offices, and child support enforcement offices. While coordinated collections efforts among these agencies could increase rates of repayment to victims, families, and criminal justice agencies, there is rarely a single agency tracking all of an individual's court-ordered debts and facilitating payment.

The report recommends very specific strategies to improve how people released from prisons and jails meet their court-ordered financial obligations. It also provides examples from states that have successfully implemented some aspect of these strategies, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.
http://justicecenter.csg.org/media/press_releases/

Report of the Re-Entry Policy Council
This 600 page report issued in January 2005 presents recommendations and analysis developed by the Re-entry Policy Council (RPC), an organization consisting of over 100 policymakers representing diverse constituencies. The RPC is sponsored by the Council of State Governments, a nonpartisan organization that tracks all branches of state government, plus 11 additional nonprofit organizations.
http://www.reentrypolicy.org/rp/main.aspx?dbID=DB_TheREPORT409

Scarlet Letters and Recidivism: Does an Old Criminal Record Predict Future Offending?
By Megan C. Kurlycheck and Robert Brame, July 19, 2006. The study's bottom line? People with felony convictions with years-old rap sheets are less likely to commit new crimes then those recently released. Moreover, for policy related implications, there should be more legislative buy-in into giving the old records of people with felony convictions less weight in considering whether they should get the job.
Reaction Essays:
Evidence-Based Policy for Successful Prisoner Re-Entry (by Devah Prager),
Should Criminal History Records Be Universally Available? (by Steven Raphael)
Main article:
http://www.twincities.com/multimedia/twincities/archive/pdfs/scarlet.pdf

Smoothing the Path from Prison to Home: A Summary and a Roundtable Discussion on the Lessons of Project Greenlight
By James A. Wilson, Yury Cheryachukin, Robert C. Davis, Jean Dauphinee, Robert Hope, Kajal Gehi, and Timothy Ross. This publication combines two parts: A roundtable discussion (13 pages) and a summary report (15 pages). We are also publishing a technical report (155 pages) that supplements this publication, introduced by the roundtable discussion. This report presents research findings about Project Greenlight, reentry demonstration project that the Vera Institute of Justice conducted at the Queensboro Correctional Facility in Queens, New York, from February 2002 to February 2003.

Drawing upon research literature and demonstrated best practices, Greenlight sought to reduce recidivism among soon-to-be-released men by working with corrections and parole staff to address a spectrum of reentry issues during the last 60 days in prison. Despite these efforts, however, Vera researchers found that arrest rates among Greenlight's 348 participants were higher than those of two different comparison groups.While disappointing, these findings present the field of prison reentry with a valuable learning opportunity. The technical and summary reports now available on our web site are supplemented by an edited transcript of an April 2005 roundtable discussion about the project that was attended by prominent researchers, expert practitioners, and former Greenlight and select Vera staff. The edited transcript covers many issues that could have factored into the disappointing outcomes and present lessons for current and future programs that are designed to reduce recidivism and improve outcomes for men and women returning to the community from prison.
http://www.vera.org/publication_pdf/319_590.pdf?bulletin=55&token=1183

A Study of Parole Board Decisions for Lifers
Massachusetts: Phantom Prisoner, 2003-2006. Published May 2007. To contact the Phantom Prisoner and/or subscribe to the Phantom Prisoner Newsletter ($5 for prisoners in stamps or cash and $10 for free world subscribers), write to Phantom Prisoner, Ltd., P.O. Box 114379, Centerdale, RI 02911
http://realcostofprisons.org/materials/Phantom-Prisoner.pdf

A Study of Parole Board Decisions for Lifers 2008
Lifers Group, Norfolk Prison, Massachusetts. Lifers' Group, Inc. of MCI, Norfolk has obtained data from the MA Parole Board on the hearings given Lifers, most of whom were convicted of 2nd degree murder. (A very few were convicted of other crimes which the M.G.L. provides for a maximum sentence of life. Those crimes include rape, poisoning, armed assault within a dwelling, armed robbery, kidnapping with intent to extort, and assault of a child with intent to commit rape.) The very detailed analysis, with discussion, separates decisions by those who are before the Parole board for the first time and those who are applying a subsequent time. Also listed are the reasons that the Parole board gives the applicants, both for approved parole and parole denied, as is their frequency. Finally, the length of setbacks (time needing to elapse before an individual denied parole is allowed to reapply for parole.) is charted.
http://realcostofprisons.org/materi...ofParoleBoardDecisionsforLifers.pdf

When the Gates Open: Ready4Work - A National Response to the Prisoner Reentry Crisis
By Joshua Good and Pamela Sherrid. October 2005, 32 pages. When the Gates Open describes the emergence of Ready4Work, a 17-site, national ex-prisoner reentry initiative developed by P/PV. The report outlines the initiative's basic goals and design, and examines how it is directly confronting the nation's reentry crisis by drawing on local faith- and community-based organizations to provide job training, mentoring, case management and job placement services.The report documents a rare partnership among the business, government, community and faith sectors, as they come together to confront alarmingly high incarceration and recidivism rates. It describes key start-up and implementation challenges and, using early outcomes data, touches on a number of promising practices for future reentry efforts.
http://www.ppv.org/ppv/community_fa...blications.asp?section_id=3##pub189