Fifteen years ago the U.S. Department of Justice developed a national reentry court program, designed after drug court programs, to specifically deal with substance abuse. Since then reentry programs have been even more developed and spread throughout the U.S. to encompass educational, job and social programs in addition to substance abuse programs (Duwe, 2012). The goal of the reentry court was to provide offenders with programs that provide guidance and support to offenders before and after they are released, in hopes of reducing the chances of rearrest, reconviction, incarceration, revocation and recidivism. (Hamilton, 2011). Since 1999, many scholars have set out to examine and understand the effects that prison reentry programs have on
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The subject of reentry programs is important to the criminal justice field because it can provide information and statistics as to what types of programs suits certain types of offenders, and what programs do not have any effect on offenders after they are …show more content…
The purpose of the Sheridan Correctional Center was to understand the issues of implementing a larger reentry program (Illinois Department of Corrections). During the five year period, the Sheridan Correctional Center operated as a medium security prison which held inmates who were convicted of felony offenses. In order to be eligible for participation in the Sheridan Correction Center inmates must need treatment (this is determined by a substance abuse assessment), male, “clearance for medium security prison”, at least 9-24 months of time left in their sentence, no mental illness, no prior/current murder/sex charges and must have volunteered for the program. During this time all inmates participated in therapeutic activities (aggression management groups, domestic violence groups, support groups etc.) and were mandated to participate in educational or occupational programs, as well as have a work assignment. Each program varied in educational levels. Those inmates who failed to follow the programs rules were terminated and transferred to another facility. The program design was meant to compare the Sheridan Correctional Center’s approach versus the tradition approach to parole. In this experiment the comparison group was selected at random. The inmates eligible for selection includes adult males released from prison during
The subject of reentry programs is important to the criminal justice field because it can provide information and statistics as to what types of programs suits certain types of offenders, and what programs do not have any effect on offenders after they are …show more content…
The purpose of the Sheridan Correctional Center was to understand the issues of implementing a larger reentry program (Illinois Department of Corrections). During the five year period, the Sheridan Correctional Center operated as a medium security prison which held inmates who were convicted of felony offenses. In order to be eligible for participation in the Sheridan Correction Center inmates must need treatment (this is determined by a substance abuse assessment), male, “clearance for medium security prison”, at least 9-24 months of time left in their sentence, no mental illness, no prior/current murder/sex charges and must have volunteered for the program. During this time all inmates participated in therapeutic activities (aggression management groups, domestic violence groups, support groups etc.) and were mandated to participate in educational or occupational programs, as well as have a work assignment. Each program varied in educational levels. Those inmates who failed to follow the programs rules were terminated and transferred to another facility. The program design was meant to compare the Sheridan Correctional Center’s approach versus the tradition approach to parole. In this experiment the comparison group was selected at random. The inmates eligible for selection includes adult males released from prison during