Reentry Programs In Prisons

Reentry programs have been developed to assist the offender with a successful transition from prison to the community. Prisoner reentry has become a major topic as communities are seeing a greater number of prisoners released each year. In 2008, 683,106 inmates were released from state and federal prisons which is a 20 percent increase in the number of inmates released in 2000 (Wikoff, Linhorst, & Morani, 2012, p. 289). In 1999, Attorney General Janet Reno asked criminal justice officials to begin investigating strategies for managing the increasing number of prisoners being released from correctional institutions (Byrd, 2016, p. 2). Since 1999, many reentry programs have been established such as the federal Second Chance Act and many states have developed reentry task forces (Byrd, 2016, p. 3). For reentry to be successful there needs to be evidence-based community corrections programs for the offender and involvement of the community. Many communities are engaging in …show more content…
1). With recidivism rates so high offenders have many obstacles to overcome when they are released from prison. The offender has to carry the label of being an “ex-con” which often limits their ability to find employment and housing. Communities should be more acceptable to offenders’ needs of housing, employment, and treatment (Young et al., 2002, p. 11). Reentry for offenders needs to be a priority of community corrections, correctional institutions, and the community. In the United States in the last 20 years, the costs of imprisonment have grown from $9 billion a year to $60 billion a year (Byrd, 2016, p. 8). Reentry is increasingly seen as a solution to the correction limited corrections budgets, but more importantly, the cost savings could be used to help offenders to reenter society and lower