The Problem of Prisoner (Re)Entry

Abstract

Regardless of whether you think prisons are a productive use of public funds or not, the simple fact is that 93% of all people sent to prison reenter society at some point. And, at that point of reentry, they are at very high risk for crime. According to a study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 68% of all people released from state prisons are rearrested within three years, with almost half (43%) of those rearrests occurring in the first six months after release (Langan and Levin 2002). Although this fact is not new, until recently there was very little interest in the problem of reentry. In fact, I remember how, after completing my dissertation on the employment problems faced by ex-felons in 1996, I was actively counseled to move onto more relevant topics. Starting in 1999, there was an explosion of interest in the topic. Part of the explanation is that the four-fold increase in prisoners since the 1970s has resulted in a four-fold increase in the number of prisoners returning from state prison-now over 600,000 a year. Because they are returning during a period with the lowest crime rates in modern U.S.