The Legal Action Center (LAC) has completed a comprehensive study of the legal barriers in all 50 States that people with criminal records must overcome in order to lead productive, law-abiding lives and successfully rejoin society. The research finds that people with criminal records seeking reentry face a daunting array of counterproductive and debilitating roadblocks in almost every aspect of life.

This Web article features Polk County Decategorization that works in conjunction with the Iowa Department of Corrections and administers the youthful offender portion of the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Grant. The program provides a supportive and cohesive transition for juveniles aging out of the juvenile system and returning to the community.

Posted on the Department of Justice (DOJ) Web site, this report describes the Fortune Academy Residence and Service model for housing ex-offenders that could be implemented by the agency and replicated by other organizations across the country. The model features emergency and longer-term housing and includes a broad range of supportive services designed to stabilize the residents and assist them in building skills and attitudes to enable them to transition successfully from incarceration to the community.

This Urban Institute report draws from the insights and comments of the authors and participants in the Youth Reentry Roundtable entitled "The Youth Dimensions of Prisoner Reentry: Youth Development and the Impacts of Incarceration and Reentry," held May 28-29, 2003, in San Francisco, California. The report describes youth reentry and its policy relevance to communities nationwide, and identifies critical facts about youth reentry, including the specific programming and policy challenges that must be addressed.

This American Correctional Association article focuses on a pilot aftercare program that targets high-risk male and female offenders ages 14 to 21 and the work of Barbara Templeton, a community resource supervisor for the West Virginia Division of Juvenile Services. The program combines intensive aftercare services and judicial supervision in an effort to hold juveniles accountable and promote positive behavior through frequent home and school visits, monthly court reviews, and graduated sanctions and rewards.

This ReintegrationToday article focuses on a Broward County, Florida program aimed at training consumer "peer bridgers" to facilitate the social integration of recently released inmates. Peer bridgers are consumers who may have been imprisoned themselves at one time. The training includes a 6-week, 90-hour course that not only prepares consumers to be peer bridgers, but can also function to train them as trainers of others.

To improve the employment outcomes for ex-offenders, Baltimore Mayor's Office of Employment Development (MOED) facilitated the creation of the Baltimore's citywide Ex-offender Task Force (EOFT) in October 2002. EOTF membership includes more than 100 government agencies, nonprofit and community-based service providers, major foundations, advocacy groups, and faith leaders. In December 2003, EOFT issued a report that outlines barriers to effective service delivery and provides recommendations for the service improvements. To facilitate prioritizing the recommendations from the report and secure additional funding to support those priorities, a Mayoral-appointed Ex-Offender Employment Steering Committee was created in March 2004 and started the second phase of Baltimore's initiative.

Under contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of the Compassion Capital Fund (CCF), Caliber Associates is evaluating the pre- and post-release effects of the faith-based Kairos Horizon program. Among the goals of the faith-based residential rehabilitation program are to increase personal and family responsibility, and employability among prisoners and ex-prisoners. In addition to the evaluation, Caliber is contracted to draft a series of policy-relevant issue briefs that discuss trends in corrections, the role of religion in reentry, and results of current research. This first issue brief entitled “Prisoner Reentry, Religion and Research” points out that the faith community is perhaps an invaluable partner in prisoner reentry - promoting public safety via the provision of services to support the successful reintegration of returning prisoners.

This resource is the second in a series of policy-relevant issue briefs by Caliber Associates, Inc. that discuss trends in corrections, the role of religion in reentry, and results of current research. The first issue brief entitled "Prisoner Reentry, Religion and Research" points out that the faith community is perhaps an invaluable partner in prisoner reentry - promoting public safety via the provision of services to support the successful reintegration of returning prisoners. This brief contends that the Kairos Horizon program is an invaluable partner in navigating an unchartered prisoner reentry landscape. Caliber is under contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of the Compassion Capital Fund (CCF) to evaluate the pre- and post-release effects of the faith-based Kairos Horizon program.

This resource is the third in a series of policy-relevant issue briefs by Caliber Associates, Inc. that discuss trends in corrections, the role of religion in reentry, and results of current research. This first issue brief entitled "Prisoner Reentry, Religion and Research" points out that the faith community is perhaps an invaluable partner in prisoner reentry - promoting public safety via the provision of services to support the successful reintegration of returning prisoners. The second brief contends that the Kairos Horizon program is an invaluable partner in navigating an unchartered prisoner reentry landscape. This brief reviews the final findings of this study. Caliber is under contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of the Compassion Capital Fund (CCF) to evaluate the pre- and post-release effects of the faith-based Kairos Horizon program. These issue briefs complement and report out on the research effort.