Confronting a National Crisis: Promising Practices in Prisoner Reentry – The Importance of "Community"

Title:  Confronting a National Crisis: Promising Practices in Prisoner Reentry – The Importance of "Community"

Presented by: A. Stephen Lanza, Executive Director - Family Re Entry

Abstract:  This presentation will describe the current state of the prison system in the United States and Connecticut and cite historically relevant data trends.  The U.S. is heavily reliant on incarceration as a means of social control, punishment, and to ensure public safety.  With more than one in every 100 adults now confined in an American prison or jail, more than one in every 32 adults in America under some form of criminal justice supervision, 10 million children experiencing parental incarceration at some point during childhood, and with re-arrest and re-incarceration rates has high as 70 percent, the costs and consequences are far too great to ignore.  This presentation will outline the major issues, challenges, and opportunities in prisoner reentry; and describe promising practices that can address the "revolving doors" of prison and stem-the-tide of youth entering the criminal justice system.  The collateral damage of children, families, and communities and the unintended consequences of well-intended policy and practice will be discussed. The theoretical framework, program model, and research outcomes of a promising community reentry project, will be presented.  Implications for policy and practice will be considered.  The importance of "family" and "community" in reentry/reintegration will be emphasized.  The critical role of faith-based communities will be discussed.