Developing internal capacity for prisoner reentry programming
Abstract
Prisoner reentry programs are complex endeavors that require a well-planned model and structure, adequate services, and highly-trained and professional staffing and leadership. The following recommendations serve as a guide for bolstering the internal capacities of faith and community-based organizations, city agencies, and other entities engaged in prisoner reentry programming. These suggestions are adapted from the publication Call to Action, which includes a series of case studies of organizations participating in Ready4Work, Public/Private Ventures' national prisoner reentry demonstration program, or other prisoner reentry issues.Issue
In order to be as effective as possible, prisoner reentry programs must have certain organizational traits.Action
There are five organizational components that require attention when building the internal capacity to operate a prisoner reentry program: model, structure, services, staffing, and leadership.Model
The prisoner reentry model the organization employs is the overall conceptual paradigm used to design, structure, and guide the program.
- The model must address the needs identified in the organizational mission and draw upon resources available in and outside of the organization to meet those needs.
- The organization must be willing to adapt its program model over time, as experience dictates.
- The program model must balance program capacity with program demand. Because there will always be many more returning prisoners than a program can serve, the organization needs to limit the number of participants, or it may spread its resources too thin.
- Organizations should include wraparound services (such as case management, substance abuse treatment, and mental health treatment), or risk setting participants up for failure.
- Community demand for services must be assessed (through surveys, for example) and the organization's ability to meet that demand must be assessed as well.
Structure
The structure is the way in which the organization operationally and technically lays out the program.
- A successful structure must plainly outline specific, individual roles and responsibilities and facilitate the flow of information among all organizational players. These roles and responsibilities must be well-defined and communicated within the organization.
- Programmatic structure depends on the size, scope, and funding of organizations. Large organizations may require more hierarchy and demarcation of roles, whereas smaller organizations may work more efficiently on a team basis.
- To design the program structure, organizations must assess what roles and responsibilities need to be filled, what personnel are available, and how to achieve that with maximum communication and minimal redundancy.
Services
In prisoner reentry programs, services could include job readiness training, job placement, mentoring, and other wraparound services.
- Programs must provide wraparound services in-house or refer participants to outside agencies.
- A strong mentoring component helps participants stay on track and provides a social outlet, which is important for socially isolated individuals, or those estranged from their families.
- Programs should target vocational training in occupational areas where living-wage jobs are projected to be available.Each participant group is different. It is important to assess specific client needs through interviews, focus groups, and surveys.
Staffing
Programs should mix compassion with competence, including hiring people who are suitably skilled, employing ex-prisoners when appropriate, and providing staff development.
- Qualities of reentry professionals include excellent communication skills, honesty, firmness, a nonjudgmental attitude, professionalism, salesmanship, and vision.
- Participants will be more likely to trust and identify with program staff who are also ex-prisoners; these staff members can help design a more relevant and realistic program.
- Organizations should only hire ex-prisoner staff at least 18-24 months after completing their sentence, giving them adequate time to reintegrate, stabilize, and stay sober.
- On-going staff training is crucial, especially in the areas of ex-prisoners' needs, technology, conflict resolution, and trust building activities.
Leadership
Programmatic leadership should bear in mind the religious and secular demands on the organization and the possible conflicts between them.
- Reentry program leaders should be people who can navigate both faith and secular worlds with ease, following the traditions of both.
- Advisors and committee or board members can help bridge secular and religious spheres.
Context
Ready4Work was a three-year national demonstration carried out in 11 cities around the country, where lead agencies built partnerships among local faith, justice, business, and social service organizations. Together the sites enrolled 4,500 formerly incarcerated individuals, who each received services for up to one year.Research has shown that ex-prisoners who obtain steady jobs and develop social bonds have much lower recidivism rates, but many find it difficult to obtain stable employment and establish positive relationships.
Thus, Ready4Work aimed to provide support in both arenas. Services consisted of employment-readiness training, job placement and intensive case management, including referrals for housing, health care, drug treatment and other programs. Ready4Work also involved a unique mentoring component, the theory being that mentors may help ease ex-prisoners' reentry by providing both emotional and practical support.
The lead agencies at six of the sites were faith-based organizations; at three other sites, they were secular nonprofits. A mayor's office and a for-profit entity headed up operations in the remaining two cities. Across the sites, Ready4Work's cost per participant/per year of service were approximately $4,500.
Citation
Adapted from the publication, Call to Action: How Programs in Three Cities Responded to the Prisoner Reentry Crisis, by Paul VanDeCarr, Public/Private Ventures, March 2007.Outcome
Ready4Work participants had success both in finding jobs and remaining employed. Almost 60 percent of all participants held a job for at least one month while they remained in the program. More than 40 percent-and more than 60 percent of enrollees who ever found a job-remained employed for at least three consecutive months during the program. And almost a third of allparticipants managed to remain employed for six consecutive months. These accomplishments are impressive given the many barriers these ex-prisoners face.
Mentoring-particularly one-to-one mentoring-may have played a role in helping these participants find jobs. Enrollees who took part in one-to-one mentoring were more than
twice as likely to find jobs as participants who had never been mentored. Mentoring was also associated with helping enrollees remain employed.
According to incarceration records available for 8 of the 11 Ready4Work sites, recidivism rates among participants were considerably lower than those reported by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) for a nationally representative population of ex-offenders. Just 1.9 percent of
Ready4Work participants returned to state prison with a new offense within six months of their release (compared with 5 percent nationally), and only 5 percent did so within one year (compared with 10.4 percent nationally).
BJS data on a group of ex-prisoners more similar to Ready4Work participants-18- to 34-year-old, African American, nonviolent felons-provides a more striking comparison. Just 2.4 percent of African American felons participating in Ready4Work returned to state prison with a new offense within six months, and 6.3 percent did so within one year. These rates are 52 to 62 percent lower than those for the subsample of ex-offenders provided by BJS.
Posted On
August 24, 2007For More Information