Re-entry: Prison and Reentry Programs

Many criminals are sent to jail on a day to day basis. Once they have completed their sentence they are faced with many problems once they are “free”. These problems can be but are not limited to housing, employment, and substance abuse. The prisoner, once they are released, has a tendency to go back to their old ways and to continue the life of crime they were a part of prior to prison. To avoid this, while a prisoner is in prison, the staff creates a reentry program for the prisoner. The reentry program takes affect once the prisoner leaves prison. These programs are created within the community to help the offender from committing new crimes and to integrate them back into society. These programs are also created to help with recidivism. Recidivism is the re-arrest, re-conviction, or re-incarceration of an offender after leaving prison. To reduce this high rate of recidivism, many communities are establishing reentry programs to assist former prisoners seeking employment, housing, and coping with alcohol and substance abuse addictions and other mental health issues. Helping ex-cons with housing is a major issue. The ex-offender is faced with the problem of trying to find a place to live. Sure many can live with family, but what about those offenders who maybe don’t get along with their family? What about the offenders whose families have “given up” on them and don’t want them around? This is where reentry comes into play. Reentry is a program where the offender may be placed in a half-way house. This is to ensure that the offender has a safe place to stay. Offenders staying in half-way houses are sometimes required to pay rent. This slowly integrates them back into society. They may have rules to abide by such as being back at the half-way house by a certain time. Many half-way houses have rules such as requiring the offender to attend a twelve-step program. They are required to sign out when leaving the premises and are required to sign back in when they