Historically, men have been incarcerated at rates far greater than women. As a result, reentry and reintegration programs have focused mainly on men's needs. The Second Chance Act of 2007 authorized funding for offender reentry programs and research on special populations-including about women and parents acknowledging the importance of identifying gender differences to improve offender rehabilitation efforts for successful reintegration. This article reviews literature about offender demographics, incarceration statistics, barriers to reintegration-both individual and social=structural, and gender-responsive strategies, and posits policy and program recommendations. We suggest that recognizing needs and trends for both men and women will result in more effective interventions, during incarceration as well as during the reentry and reintegration process.

This study was designed to establish a caseload standard for child welfare workers. Understanding reasonable workload expectations for child welfare workers is a cornerstone of quality service provision and the recruitment and retention of qualified workers. Because of the analytic complexity of this question, qualitative and quantitative methods were used.The mixed methods included focus group sessions involving 60 Children, Youth and Families (CYF) workers, analysis of more than 16,000 CYF cases maintained by the CYF information management system, and job shadowing of 34 randomly selected CYF workers for an aggregate of 5,600 work hours. The study was conducted on the CYF located in Pittsburgh. Results indicated that, on average, some CYF workers had been assigned twice as many cases as the 16 to 17 per month suggested as reasonable by the present findings.

The incarceration and recidivism rates in United States jails are marked by high mental health and substance use problems and racial disparity. Nearly 9 million people cycle through approximately 3,500 jails. For this longitudinal study to identify factors predicting recidivism, data came from a study of Allegheny County Jail inmates (N D 301) that concluded in 2008. Eligible participants were adult men, enrolled in jail collaborative services at recruitment, and were 30 days from release. Examinations were based on multinomial logistic regression methods; positive family social support was found to reduce the effect of factors known to predict higher recidivism rates: substance abuse, Black race, and younger age. Negative perceptions of the helpfulness and support of community-based services were counteracted by positive family social support. Policy and practice implications are discussed.

On a typical day in 2008, 776,573 individuals were behind bars in nearly 3,500 U.S. jails. Yet the potential benefits of social services in achieving lower recidivism rates and successful reintegration are understudied in jail populations. This three-year study investigated the effects of collaboration-based in-jail services and postrelease transitional services provided by the Allegheny County Jail Collaborative (ACJC). The results included a significantly lower recidivism rate among inmate participants, similar service benefits across racial groups, and successful reintegration into community life among a large majority of participants. At 12 months postrelease, participants had a 50 percent lower recidivism rate than members of the matched comparison group, who were unexposed to the intervention, and multiple indicators showed successful reintegration. This reduced rate would save the county an estimated $5.3 million annually, largely due to increased public safety and lower victimization costs. Data sources included the ACJ's historical inmate data sets from the pre-ACJC and post-ACJC intervention periods, three postrelease face-to-face survey interviews, and focus group sessions with former inmate participants and the study interviewers.The critical importance of social workers in rehabilitative efforts with jail inmates is discussed along with recommendations and implications for policy, practice, and research.

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