Resources

•  Exploring the Role of the Police in Prisoner Reentry - In this paper, the authors argue that police, particularly urban police departments, have a major role to play in prisoner reentry. Greater involvement of the police in prisoner reentry can promote public safety through more focused problem-oriented policing efforts and increase police legitimacy

• Mapping for Community-Based Prisoner Reentry Efforts - More than 600,000 individuals are released from state and federal prisons each year. A clear spatial understanding of prisoner reentry is essential to managing ex-offenders in the community. Policing strategies should be informed by mapping the locations of returning prisoners, reentry services and resources, and parole officers.

• Offender Reentry: Exploring the Leadership Opportunity for Law Enforcement Executives and their Agencies - The International Association of Chiefs of Police and the COPS Office brought together over 100 law enforcement, correctional, and community leaders for a two-day summit to address the issues concerning offender re-entry. The resulting report gives 50 detailed recommendations to help police leaders drive down recidivism rates by supporting local offender reentry initiatives.

• Planning and Assessing a Law Enforcement Reentry Strategy - Uses proven problem-solving approaches to identify factors that drive the cycle of recidivism and ways to help individuals transition back into the community. Developed by the Council of State Governments Justice Center and the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), it includes materials to assess effectiveness, set priorities, and plan new strategies for reentry.

• Prisoner Reentry and Community Policing: Strategies for Enhancing Public Safety - Describes the effects of prisoner reentry on community safety and public perceptions of crime. Highlights examples from the field of how new police roles in prisoner reentry have been put into practice.  Discusses the potential organizational and community-level challenges to expanding law enforcement's role in reentry, along with suggested strategies for overcoming these obstacles from both practical and policy perspectives.

• Effective Alternatives to Incarceration: Police Collaborations with Corrections and Communities - Examines the role of police in community-based alternatives to prison.  Describes programs that are effective in dealing with crime, while keeping low-risk offenders in the community.  Interventions profiled include: the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative, which keep low-risk offenders out of detention and lower juvenile crime rates; Mental Health Courts and Crisis Intervention Teams, which find treatment for and lower the unnecessary confinement of the mentally ill; and Restorative Justice Community Boards, in which offenders meet with victims and community members to repair the harm caused by their crimes.

Additional Resources

• Reentry.gov
  An excellent resource for all types of information on reentry from the DOJ Office of Justice Programs.

• "The Released"
  A moving "must see" full-length video available for viewing from the Frontline website.

• The Justice Center
  A resource of the Council of State Governments concerning criminal justice and the mentally ill.