Prisoner Reentry in the Era of Mass Incarceration

Seven Ways to Make Prisons Work

“…On a common-sense level, high recidivism rates for released prisoners undermine any claim that incarceration scares off enders straight. For reentering prisoners, about two-thirds are arrested within three years and three-fourths within fi ve years (Langan and Levin 2002 ;Durose et al 2014 ; see also Mears and Cochran 2015 ;. More salient, although the eff ects are complex and the data limited (Mears et al forthcoming), the available evaluation literature provides no evidence that prisons specifi cally deter reoff ending.…”

Prisoner Reentry Programs

“…Books with reentry in the title are appearing with regularity (see, e.g., Gideon and Sung 2011;Gunnison and Helfgott 2013;Crow and Smykla 2014;Mears and Cochran 2015). Panels on reentry are commonplace at national criminology meetings.…”

“…Programs that adhere to the components of the RNR model tend to be more effective, even if not based explicitly on the principles of effective interventions (Petersilia 2011;Turner and Petersilia 2012;Mears and Cochran 2015). The RNR model, which is the leading treatment approach in corrections, has been explained elsewhere in detail (Andrews 1995;Gendreau 1996;Andrews and Bonta 2010;Cullen 2013).…”

“…Deciding "what works" is difficult enough when studies evaluate a single treatment modality, such as boot camps or cognitive-behavioral therapy. But assessing how best to facilitate prisoner reentry is especially daunting because of the heterogeneity of interventions that fall under this category (Gunnison and Helfgott 2013;Mears and Cochran 2015). Reentry programs vary along several dimensions: existing rehabilitation programs relabeled as "reentry" versus programs created specifically to facilitate reentry; the setting of the program (in prison, in the community, in between, or across all three phrases of reentry); programs that are multimodal versus those that focus on specific criminogenic or life needs, such as deficits in behavioral and cognitive behavioral skills, mental health, substance abuse, and problems surrounding housing, employment, family bonds, and physical health; and formal programs administered by correctional agencies versus programs staffed by volunteers and run by nonprofit organizations, faith-based groups, or ex-offenders.…”

“…Given that most programs are not evaluated (Mears and Cochran 2015), it is difficult to build a large body of studies that assesses each variant of reentry programming. As we discuss below, this means that reentry programs-including those that appear promising-are rarely evaluated by more than one or two studies.…”