Roadmap To Reentry

The United States has the largest prison population of any western developed country. The United States has almost 700 people per 100,000 in prison. As a result of this large prison population 600,000 people are released from prison every year. Currently more than fifty percent of parolee’s become incarcerated again. As a nation we must provide the services to help them return to society in a successful way (White House Fact Sheet). Services need to be offered while in prison and after their release from prison. Offering counseling and rehabilitation while in prison and continuing to assist them once they are no longer incarcerated. If these services were well funded and given to all prisoners the nation would see an immediate decrease
The program hinges on five basic principles, such as an individualized reentry plan, job training, and counseling while incarcerated. These principles are mainly about helping these individuals while incarcerated but it also includes a plan for halfway houses. Unfortunately this plan is not used universally, so it is very difficult for the people to re-enter society. Probably the best principle is the halfway houses. The Department of Justice say this about halfway houses “During transition back to the community, halfway houses and supervised release programs should ensure individualized continuity of care for returning citizens” (United States Department of Justice). Halfway houses provide a safe place where the incarcerated peoples have the ability to become acquainted to society. The Department of Justice says that halfway houses will provide individualized support. Released people face the biggest risk of being reincarcerated in just the first few weeks of being released. These houses will eliminate that risk and overall drastically lower the amount of people who become
The United States Department of Justice says that career training should be provided but really gives no plan to help these formerly incarcerated people get jobs after they receive the training in prison. According to the National Employment Law Project (NELP) 75 percent of people are unable to find a job within a year of being released from prison(NELP). The NELP says that labor unions need to play a role in pressuring employers to hire these people. While I believe that this would work I am not sure this is a realistic goal for the NELP and the nation because I do not believe labor unions will push for those who have a criminal record to work beside them. While no organization that I have found pushes for this reform I believe that the government needs to give incentive to companies. If a company knows that the United States Government trains these people while they are incarcerated and then will incentivize their hire with a tax break or something like that I believe that companies will be more likely to hire these formerly incarcerated individuals. While the jobs that they will be unskilled labor many of these people just need a way to get off the ground and reenter the workforce. If people have a job they will be less likely to commit another crime and therefore this will lower recidivism