Reentry Issues Research Articles

Editor’s Introduction: Highlighting Strategies of the Nonprofit Sector

In this new issue of Journal of Public and Nonprofit Affairs, we offer a collection of Research Articles focused on the nature and implications of nonprofit higher education programs, the communication strategies and evidence-based information used by different types of organizations in the nonprofit sector, and the volunteering behaviors of nonprofit association members. Our Social Equity Section article highlights the important issue of re-entry and reintegration programs for ex-offenders to reduce recidivism and provide greater access to opportunity. Finally, we offer two Book Reviews related to these topics of important recent work focusing on higher education programs in public administration and advancing social equity.

Using the OUTBACK Catheter to Overcome Aortic Reentry Issues in Retrograde Open Mesenteric Stenting

The purpose of this study was to describe the use of the OUTBACK catheter to overcome aortic reentry issues in acute mesenteric ischemia (AMI) treated by retrograde open mesenteric stenting (ROMS). The technique is demonstrated in two female patients presenting with late AMI related to flush occlusion of the superior mesenteric artery (SMA). In such cases of thrombotic AMI with clear preoperative evidence of intestinal necrosis, ROMS is the first-line revascularization technique in our intestinal stroke center. Following an open approach of the SMA through laparotomy, the SMA was punctured in a retrograde fashion. Retrograde mesenteric subintimal recanalization was initiated. In case of aortic reentry issue, the OUTBACK Elite (Cordis, Hialeah, Fl) catheter was advanced through the occlusion over a 0.014 guidewire. The aortic reentry was created by puncture of the aortic wall with the OUTBACK needle, positioned in the desired position. After low-profile balloon angioplasty of the reentry site and 0.035 guidewire exchange, ROMS was performed using balloon-expandable covered stent. The OUTBACK catheter appears to be a safe and effective tool to overcome aortic reentry issues in ROMS. This technical tip might therefore increase the technical success rate of challenging ROMS and decrease the need for bailout bypass in the septic context of AMI.

How to Better Understand Criminal Desistance: Comparison of Three Theoretical Models and Methodological Challenges

This study reviews theoretical comparisons regarding reentry issues of incarcerated people in order to promote a better understanding of individuals’ criminal desistance. There are three major competing criminal desistance theories, and they include the subjective (identity) theory explaining an individual’s subjective processes, structural (social bonds) theory focusing on structural conditions, and integrative (subjective-social model) theory describing personal commitment and motivation combined with structural resources. First, identity defined as a sense of self is directly linked to one’s motivation and behavioral guidelines. Thus, identity theory assumes that intentional changes in one’s sense of self are necessary for criminal desistance. The theory posits that only justice-involved individuals who intentionally transform their identities can attempt to utilize structural support to help them pursue change. Second, the structural theory on social bonds provides an appropriate theoretical foundation on how social bonds, such as employment, affect criminal desistance through a series of exogenous circumstances called turning points. Employment is an important example of a social bond for justice-involved individuals since it provides structure to one’s life. Third, the integrative model assumes that personal characteristics may interact within social contexts, in that an individual has to identify, select, and act within the structure they live in, through their cognitive transformation. This article also briefly discusses two major methodological challenges deriving from the utilization of the theory.

Insights into cognitive work hardening for return-to-work following depression: Qualitative findings from an intervention study.

Workplace mental health disability claims are rising with concomitant challenges to return-to-work (RTW) success. Cognitive work hardening (CWH) addresses work re-entry issues including fatigue, coping skills, and reduced cognitive abilities which are relevant for people returning to work following an episode of depression. To gain insight into underlying factors contributing to CWH's effectiveness in RTW preparation following depression. Twenty-one individuals on paid disability leave due to depression completed a four week CWH treatment intervention prior to returning to work. At program completion and at three months follow up, participants provided qualitative information regarding their experience of the intervention in the form of written questionnaires and interviews. Data were analyzed using a directed approach to content analysis. Intervention elements perceived by participants as helpful included structure, work simulations, and simulated work environment. Main treatment gains reported by participants related to routine, self-confidence, stamina, and cognitive abilities. Personal agency, empowerment, and skill development emerged as important consequences of interventions for RTW following depression. Study findings enhance understanding of CWH with relevance to clinical practice. Key intervention elements deemed important for RTW are discussed and may provide guidance for other work-re-entry programs.

Pull of Gravity: A Media Review Focusing on the Social and Environmental Effects of Recidivism.

Recidivism is defined as reincarceration, reconviction and/or being reimprisoned. This article focuses on the issues of recidivism while incorporating Pull of Gravity, a documentary, which highlights the challenges ex-offenders encounter during postrelease. This article explores 3 sociological issues closely related to recidivism: (1) types of populations that are recidivating, (2) communities' ex-offenders are returning home to, and (3) challenges they face in their transition. This article integrates research on issues of reentry and utilizes real-life experiences reflected through this film to give readers a tangible perception on the challenges that are currently faced. It explores possible resolutions while prompting critical thinking for everyone; individuals who are familiar with this topic and those who are foreign.

Engaging Employers and Business in the Hiring of Individuals with Criminal Records

The successful reentry and reintegration of ex-offenders with disabilities will be discussed in terms of barrier removal, employer perception, and an improved relationship with the criminal justice system. A criminal record limits opportunitiesfor employment and without collaborative community supports can increase both recidivism rates and increase costs to an over-burdened criminal justice system. Employer relationships, including outreach, marketing and evidence-based partneringlcollaboration will be reviewed, including a model program from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania that supports the discussion. Special considerations for those with sex offenses will be provided, as well as efforts to eliminate the stigma involved with criminal and/or felony records. The correlation between disability and delinquency in terms of both impairment and vocational impediments is described through three disabilities (TBL Substance Abuse/Dependency, and Mental Illness). The role of the VR counselor in terms of community efforts at reducing recidivism, increasing employment outcomes for ex-offenders/clients, through effective partnerships, can affect significantly both societal and economic improvement, as well as impact overall recidivism, reentry and community reintegration issues for ex-offenders.

Young People’s Perceptions of a Group Home’s Efficacy: A Retrospective Study

There are many young people from troubled backgrounds today in residential treatment care facilities. However, the majority of the residential care facilities do not offer the type of services required to have the desired impact on young people. In an attempt to contribute to this gap this study used a qualitative methodology to explore the retrospective experiences of youths who attended a faith-based residential treatment facility in the southern region of the United States. Findings suggest that program atmosphere, staff, punishment practices, counseling, spiritual development, and re-entry issues are important elements of the efficacy of residential care facilities.

A Need to Re-integrate Prisoners to the Community: A Case of Polokwane Medium B Prison, South Africa

There seems to be a lack of communication between communities and the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) when exoffenders are re-integrated to the communities (Zondi 2012). The international approach that the South African government subscribe to, perceive rehabilitation as ensuring that imprisoned offenders are treated with care and dignity such that their re-entry to society should not be a challenge (Cilliers & Smit 2007; Singh 2008). There is still no difference between rehabilitation and incarceration in South Africa due to the correctional environment. The rate of incarceration has increased dramatically where prisons are filled to capacity with an alarming overcrowding that leads to bad environments for the offenders. Crime continues inside the prison walls and gangs are rife behind bars (Singh 2008). The available data on recidivism is an indication that the ex-offenders that are released by the DCS are not rehabilitated (Freeman 2003). However, the move by the democratically elected South African government from the Department of Prisons to the Department of Correctional Services designates that the intention was to move from mere incarceration to corrections and rehabilitation of offenders (Cheliotis 2008). But this correctional objective seems to be defeated if a corrected inmate gets back to join a family that is already dysfunctional, and hence involuntarily the corrected inmate reverts back to his/her offence. The DCS (2005) compatibly tries to address the issue of rehabilitation and re-entry of offenders to their communities including the importance of the family in the rehabilitation of offenders. Nonetheless, if offenders are returning to neighbourhoods that do not provide access to the sort of services that are important for re-integrating ex-offenders into the broader community; it stands to reason that the ex-offenders will be less likely to succeed in the post-release transition and more likely to recidivate. Consequently, the rehabilitation of an incarcerated inmate with the exclusion of the family could be an incomplete process. Hence this paper seeks to ascertain the characteristics and determinants of recidivism.

Probation supervision: building capacity in community corrections

For over a decade, there has been attention to the issues of reentry or improving the outcomes of those returning from prison to the community. The increased focus on reentry, stemming from funding...

Response of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Protecting Civilian Americans in Japan during the Fukushima Nuclear Crisis

Following the earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan on 11 March 2011, and the ensuing damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant complex, a request by the U.S. Ambassador to Japan to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) resulted in deployment of a five-person team of subject matter experts to the U.S. Embassy. The primary purpose of the deployment was to provide the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo with guidance on health and medical issues related to potential radiation exposure of U.S. citizens in Japan, including employees of the U.S. Department of State at consulates in Japan and American citizens living in or visiting Japan. At the request of the Government of Japan, the deployed health team also assisted Japanese experts in their public health response to the radiation incident. Over a three-week period in Japan and continuing for weeks after their return to the U.S., the team provided expertise in the areas of medical and radiation oncology, health physics, assessment of radiation dose and cancer risk, particularly to U.S. citizens living in Tokyo and the surrounding areas, food and water contamination and the acceptable limits, countermeasures to exposure such as potassium iodide (KI), the use of KI and an offered donation from the United States, evacuation and re-entry issues, and health/emergency-related communication strategies. This paper describes the various strategies used and observations made by the DHHS team during the first two months after the Fukushima crisis began.

Leaving mass incarceration

F or nearly 30 years, a vast body of literature has examined the “get-tough” era, or what some have referred to as mass incarceration (Jacobson, 2005) or a punitive policy experiment (Raphael and Stoll, 2009). In examining the policies that have defined this era (e.g., War on Drugs, minimum mandatory sentencing, habitual offender statutes, three strikes, and truth-in-sentencing), the literature has been both incisive and comprehensive in its coverage. Various trends have been documented, effectiveness has been analyzed and disputed, explanations have been proposed and debated, and social implications have been identified and interpreted. As the ability to sustain “get-tough” measures has now been constrained [by fiscal crisis], a different political tone and policy focus is emerging. Much of the penal research has shifted as well, turning to issues of offender reentry or to new insights about the trajectory of mass incarceration. Lynch’s (2011, this issue) work clearly falls into the latter category by challenging the prior literature and its conventional argument about the locus and direction of penal change. Her work has relevance then for understanding not only mass incarceration in particular but also reform policy in general, including offender reentry. Lynch (2011) identifies four legal factors as the “engine that propelled mass incarceration.” These factors include legislative and other statutory changes to penal codes, federal case law related to litigation on overcrowding, postsentencing law and policy related to parole, and the day-to-day sentencing and punishment practices of local courtrooms. However, rather than adopting an aggregated or nationalized view of the scope and impact of these factors, Lynch offers a more nuanced take based on local social and political contexts. She maintains that, although the capacity or opportunity for mass incarceration might have been established at the macrolevel, the realization of mass incarceration was contingent on local or regional responses to state or federal initiatives.

Neighborhood context of attitudes toward crime and reentry

While much recent attention has been focused on the impact of incarceration on ex-prisoners, less has been paid to the general public’s informal attitudes and responses to crime and offenders. This article begins to fill this void by exploring the impact of individual and neighborhood characteristics on attitudes toward crime and prisoner reentry. The article is based on two phases of data collection. During phase one, residents of four Massachusetts communities were surveyed about their attitudes and experiences with crime and prisoner reentry. During phase two, qualitative interviews and participant observation were used to explore how crime and reentry issues are framed across community context. The survey data suggest both that individual-level predictors (e.g. political affiliation, sex, parenthood, and several crime-related factors) of punitiveness are significant, and that there is a neighborhood context to these beliefs. The focus in analyzing the qualitative data is on two contrasting communities. These data suggest varying ways of framing ‘the crime problem’ that help explain the neighborhood context of these attitudes. Specifically, a localized framing shapes less punitive attitudes, while a focus on a general crime problem contributes to greater punitiveness.

Reentry Issues Upon Returning From Study Abroad Programs

The impact of returning from studying abroad was surveyed in 669 college students. Students who studied abroad scored significantly higher on a Reentry Shock scale, reflecting skepticism toward U.S. culture, than those who did not. They were also more likely to consume alcohol. Study abroad had no detectable influence on students' romantic relationships. Women who had studied abroad reported being less able to cope with anxieties, feeling more "blue," being less relaxed, and having more stress in their relationships with a significant other. Focus groups during which students are invited to discuss their experiences after study abroad could provide students a venue for exploring any reentry difficulties they may encounter, make valuable contributions to the knowledge base, and point toward topics that deserve deeper study.

Report of the AGA Institute Education and Training Committee Task Force on Physician Reentry

The Council on Medical Education of the American Medical Association (AMA) has requested a study of the issue of physician reentry into clinical practice, in collaboration with the respective specialty societies, the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), and the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB).

Explaining welfare recidivism: what role do unemployment and initial spells have?

The question of high welfare re-entry rates has attracted great attention from economists and policymakers. Using a very rich administrative data set for the minimum income program of the Madrid Government (over 50,000 spells), this paper aims to broach various questions arising from the issue of welfare re-entry. We try to identify what factors determine observed differences in the durations of the first off-welfare spell. We analyze the combined effects of the length and type of exit of the first spell, unemployment, and sociodemographic characteristics. The experience of the first spell and, to a lesser extent, employability can contribute toward lengthening the time spent outside the program. Our results also show that off-welfare spells of households leaving the program in periods of low economic growth will be longer than those that do so during economic expansions. With the exception of unemployment effects, our estimates yield very similar results to those obtained in the U.S. studies, suggesting that U.S. welfare policies and analyses are not entirely irrelevant for European discussions of welfare policies.

Collateral Consequences and Community Re-Entry for Registered Sex Offenders with Child Victims: Are the Challenges Even Greater?

Sex offender registries are designed to enhance public safety (especially for children) by making community members aware of the identities and residential locations of convicted sex offenders in their neighborhoods. An emerging body of literature shows that registered sex offenders experience difficulties finding employment, housing, and generally reintegrating back into the community, all of which may have significant negative impacts on successful (and law-abiding) re-entry. To date the literature has not specifically assessed if and how collateral consequences and re-entry challenges may be more severe for sex offenders who victimize children. Drawing on data from registered sex offenders in five urban counties the present research finds that sex offenders who victimize children do not experience greater residential disadvantage than their adult-targeting counterparts. Therefore, issues of re-entry, reintegration and facilitators of rehabilitative efforts may not be more difficult or significant for sex offenders who victimize children.

Theorizing Community Reentry for Male Incarcerates and Confined Mothers: Lessons Learned from Housing the Homeless

To date, a substantial amount of research has been conducted on offender reentry that measures recidivism outcomes or examines the effectiveness of risk/need assessment instruments. However, remarkably little attention has been given to cultivating a theory of community reintegration. This article provisionally addresses this issue. By turning to the relevant homeless studies research, a conceptual strategy for offender reentry is proposed. This strategy is based on a psycho-social developmental model of resocialization grounded in several insights derived from peacemaking, anarchist, and cultural criminology. The resocialization model, coupled with its assorted conceptual features, is fitted to the issue of community reentry for male incarcerates and confined mothers. Several tentative implications stemming from this conceptual work are delineated.

The Therapeutic Effects of Managerial Reentry Courts

Research Article| December 01 2007 The Therapeutic Effects of Managerial Reentry Courts Eric J. Miller Eric J. Miller Assistant Professor, Saint Louis University School of Law Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Federal Sentencing Reporter (2007) 20 (2): 127–135. https://doi.org/10.1525/fsr.2007.20.2.127 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Eric J. Miller; The Therapeutic Effects of Managerial Reentry Courts. Federal Sentencing Reporter 1 December 2007; 20 (2): 127–135. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/fsr.2007.20.2.127 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentFederal Sentencing Reporter Search This content is only available via PDF. ©© 2007 BY THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.2007 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Gender Responsive Treatment and Services in Correctional Settings

SUMMARY As the number of women under correctional supervision continues to increase, there is an emerging awareness that women offenders present different issues than their male counterparts. This paper addresses the importance of gender in terms of program design and delivery and describes the context for the development of effective gender-responsive programming for women. Using the pathways theory of women's criminality, the elements that should be considered in women's treatment and services are addressed, such as: program environment/culture, staff competencies, theoretical foundation, treatment modalities, reentry issues, and collaboration. The content of gender-responsive programming that integrates substance abuse and trauma services is also discussed.

Reentry into the foster care system after reunification

Permanency is a key outcome for child welfare services and reunification is the preferred exit when possible. Any analysis of reunification is incomplete without examining children who reenter foster care. This study describes the odds of reentry into foster care for children up to fifteen years old when they first entered the foster care system, who entered foster care for the first time between 1998 and 2002 (137,385 children) and exited to reunification within one year of entry (45,154 children). Instances of reentry into foster care within one year of reunification are identified (6021 children). This study examines the issue of reentry into foster care post-ASFA and expands the literature on reentry through the examination of several factors not previously addressed: the primary language spoken at home, presence of siblings in foster care, and census based demographic factors. Logistic regression is used to model reentry examining demographic and child welfare characteristics while adjusting for non-independence caused by the presence of sibling groups.