Learn About Reentry

Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative

Learn About Reentry

What Is Reentry?

Reentry involves the use of programs targeted at promoting the effective reintegration of offenders back to communities upon release from prison and jail. Reentry programming, which often involves a comprehensive case management approach, is intended to assist offenders in acquiring the life skills needed to succeed in the community and become law-abiding citizens. A variety of programs are used to assist offenders in the reentry process, including prerelease programs, drug rehabilitation and vocational training, and work programs.

Recently, a more focused approach to reentry has emerged in the form of reentry courts. Reentry courts offer the opportunity for more extensive management and treatment of offenders beginning at the sentencing phase. Reentry courts seek to promote offender accountability while providing treatment and services during the reentry process

The Prisoner Reentry Initiative is supported by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and its federal partners: the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Labor. This initiative is a comprehensive effort that addresses both juvenile and adult populations of serious, high-risk offenders. It provides funding to develop, implement, enhance, and evaluate reentry strategies that will ensure the safety of the community and the reduction of serious, violent crime. This is accomplished by preparing targeted offenders to successfully return to their communities after having served a significant period of secure confinement in a state training school, juvenile or adult correctional facility, or other secure institution.

Prisoner Reentry Initiative

The President's Prisoner Reentry Initiative (PRI) is designed to provide funding to state units of government to develop and implement institutional and community corrections-based offender reentry programs. PRI strengthens urban communities characterized by large numbers of returning, nonviolent prisoners. PRI is designed to reduce recidivism by helping returning inmates find work and assess other critical services in their communities. PRI supports strategies to deliver prerelease assessments and services and to develop transition plans in collaboration with other justice- and community-based agencies and providers for supervised and nonsupervised, nonviolent offenders.

PRI envisions the development of model reentry programs that begin in correctional institutions and continue throughout an offender's transition to and stabilization in the community. The Office of Justice Programs' (OJP) Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) has partnered with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to administer PRI grants. These programs provide for individual reentry plans that address issues confronting offenders as they return to the community. DOL awarded 30 grants in 20 states to faith- and community-based organizations (FBCOs) to provide postrelease services, focusing on employment assistance and mentoring. The BJA grants were awarded to 20 state agencies, primarily state departments of corrections, to provide prerelease services to offenders transitioning back to the communities where the DOL grantees are located.

OJP/BJA Initiative

The OJP/BJA initiative encompasses two phases and is implemented through appropriate programs.

Phase I—Assessment and Planning (months 1–3): These programs are designed to prepare offenders to reenter society. Services provided in this phase include education, mental health and substance abuse treatment, job training, mentoring, and full diagnostic and risk assessment.

Phase II—Implementation (months 4–24/36): These programs are designed to use pre- and postrelease services for those individuals who are currently in the system and those that have left the supervision of the criminal justice system. A network of social service providers and community-based organizations will provide ongoing services and mentoring relationships.

Attorney General's Six City Gang Initiative

Under the leadership of Attorney General Gonzales, the U.S. Department of Justice has established a comprehensive six city gang initiative for high impact, gang-involved offenders. In this initiative, six federal districts were selected through a competitive process, referred to as the Anti-Gang Pilot Site Initiative, to receive up to $2.5 million in additional antigang resources. The six districts selected as pilot sites are the Central District of California, Middle District of Florida, Northern District of Ohio, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Northern District of Texas, and Eastern District of Wisconsin. These six districts will use the grant funds to combat gangs within a specific target area of their district, concentrating on neighborhoods/communities where gang activity is prevalent. The grant funds will address three interrelated elements: (1) targeted enforcement programs that will focus law enforcement efforts on the most significant violent gang offenders in the target area; (2) prevention programs, which focus on reducing youth gang crime and violence by addressing the full range of personal, family, and community factors that contribute to high levels of juvenile delinquency and gang activity; and (3) reentry assistance programs that will provide a variety of services, including transitional housing, job readiness and placement assistance, and substance abuse and mental health treatment. BJA is directly involved in the law enforcement/suppression and reentry efforts, while OJP's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has responsibility for the prevention component.

On April 26, 2007, the Attorney General announced the expansion of the program to four additional cities: Rochester, NY; Indianapolis, IN; Oklahoma City, OK; and Raleigh-Durham, NC.

Reentry Faith- and Community-Based Initiatives Within OJP/BJA

There are several reentry initiatives involving faith- and community-based programs, training, and/or technical assistance:

PRI: The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) awarded 30 grants to faith- and community-based organizations, and BJA grantees partner with those organizations to ensure a continuum of service delivery to offenders returning to the community.

Six City Gang Initiative: The initiative has a focus on partnerships with faith- and community-based organizations that will provide services to offenders. The use of vouchers by offenders to select services may be a component of that service delivery.

Faith/Community-Based Organizations (FBCO) and Corrections Collaboration: The Council of State Governments is partnering with BJA and DOL to develop training and technical assistance products to assist FBCOs and corrections agencies develop, implement, and/or enhance collaborative efforts in the reentry field.

Greater Richmond (VA) YMCA: BJA has partnered with the Greater Richmond YMCA to develop a program for women offenders and their children. The women offenders will be reentering the community from the Richmond City Jail or Virginia state prisons or may already be under some type of community-based supervision. Working with their corrections' partners, the YMCA will provide wellness, self-esteem, mentoring, and other programs to women offenders, while assisting their children with similar programs.

Family Justice Institute: BJA partners with the Family Justice Institute to provide training and technical assistance to agencies that work with offenders and their families on reunification programming when offenders return to the community. One example is the La Familia de la Bodega model, a nationally recognized model of family work within corrections, reentry, and reunification. Another is the family support model for community supervision of reentering offenders, in which Family Justice partners with the American Probation and Parole Association.

Other Reentry Projects Within OJP/BJA

Council of State Governments (CSG): CSG partners with BJA on a number of reentry-related training and technical assistance projects:

Justice Reinvestment: Assistance is provided to states through which corrections agencies, legislators, and other stakeholders come together to address prison population issues; map where offenders return to the community; allocate resources; and develop, implement, and/or revise legislation, policy, and practices.

Housing: An interactive web site has been developed to assist agencies and others who are seeking guidance and assistance on matters related to offender housing.

Financial Obligations: Materials are being developed which will assist agencies in addressing matters related to offender financial obligations such as child support, fines, court costs, supervision fees, and restitution.

Assessment: Addresses matters related to the various assessments that offenders must undergo to ensure their risk and need factors are addressed in an appropriate manner.

Center for Effective Public Policy (CEPP)

The center assisted six states in developing enhanced collaboration within their correctional agencies that provided reentry services, both pre- and postrelease, to offenders returning to the community. The focus was on collaboration within the agencies to ensure that offender supervision and service delivery occurred in an appropriate manner.

Urban Institute (UI)

The focus of this project is on reentry from jail. The project brought together researchers and practitioners in two focus groups to look at issues related to reentry from jail to the community. As a result of the work of the two groups, a number of documents on challenges and promising practices were developed, as was a monograph and toolkit for agencies looking at reentry from jail issues. In addition, the Urban Institute will look at reentry from jail issues for rural communities as well as the impact of reentry from jail on community corrections.

American Probation and Parole Association (APPA)

APPA's project is addressing the issue of methamphetamine-addicted offenders who are returning to the community and will develop resources for agencies.

National Association of Counties (NACo)

NACo held a focus group of practitioners to look at the challenges and promising practices associated with offenders with mental illness who return to the community. NACo will be producing documents to assist agencies in addressing this issue.

More About the Initiative

To read about the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative, SVORI Multisite Evaluation, the precursor of the Prisoner Reentry Initiative, click here.

Visit the Bureau of Justice Statistics web site to view Reentry Trends in the United States.

Read the White House Statement on the Second Chance Act 2004 released on June 23, 2004.

Read President George W. Bush's January 20, 2004 Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union.

To read former Attorney General Ashcroft's press release announcing the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative, click here.

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