Reentry News Clips
Justice Center staff regularly post reentry news articles and editorials from newspapers across the country. While we try to include articles on a wide range of reentry issues from varied sources, this list should not be considered exhaustive. If you would like to suggest an article for inclusion, please contact us at editors@reentrypolicy.org
In addition, please note that the listings featured below are links to articles in their original sources. The Justice Center is not responsible for maintaining these sources, and less recent articles may no longer be available.
Date1/2/2009: REHAB gets results: Sheriff's program helps recovering addicts
Starting in January, eight additional jail inmates will get a chance to treat their substance abuse problems more extensively through the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office's 2-month-old intensive inpatient rehabilitation program. Recent success has pushed program officials of Re-entry Housing 4 Addictive Behaviors to do what they hoped to from the beginning - expand participation.
12/27/2008: Success spurs expansion in drug program
The Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office will further expand its drug rehabilitation efforts following the early success of its intensive inpatient drug treatment program created in October.
12/25/2008: Chicago Tribune (IL): Detroit clinic meets special needs of ex-offenders
The Returning Citizens Public Health Center is dedicated to ex-offenders and their families, aimed at helping them regain their lives outside of prison.
12/12/2008: The Oklahoman (OK): Reentry Policy Council examines ways to help freed Oklahoma inmates
The Reentry Policy Council, a committee looking at the challenges people face when leaving prison, approved its final report Thursday. The report will be given to lawmakers who created the council to evaluate programs the state Corrections Department uses to prepare offenders for life outside prison.
12/11/2008: Falls-Church News Press (VA): Webb Assails U.S. Incarceration Policy
The 2.25 million Americans now incarcerated in U.S. prisons is "a staggering statistic, from the standpoints of fairness, cost of incarceration and cost of lost opportunities," Virginia U.S. Senator James Webb said during his keynote remarks to a conference on "Prison to Work: A Proposal for a National Prisoner Reentry Program" hosted by the Brookings Institution's Hamilton Project last week at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
12/11/2008: Star-Ledger (NJ): Monitoring ex-cons closely helps keep them out of jail
Intensive parole supervision of violent and high-risk offenders who have been released from prison significantly reduces the rate at which they are rearrested, according to a four-year study by Rutgers University presented to the state Parole Board yesterday.
12/9/2008: The News and Observer (NC): Information might have saved lives
Out-of-date technology hampers probation officers and magistrates. Demario Atwater remained free despite violating probation and is now charged in Eve Carson's death
12/9/2008: WCAX - TV (VT): NH inmates who finish education could get break
New Hampshire's top prison official wants to help the state save money by helping some inmates who further their education win early release
12/8/2008: Providence Business News (RI): Employers find former inmates can fill jobs
Hiring people who have done time in prison is a smart move for companies that care about their own profits, the cost of government, and the well-being of communities.
12/7/2008: Hartford Courant (CT): State Embraces Faith-Based Programs For Ex-Cons, Homeless
Connecticut has embraced faith-based services, one of the initiatives to come out of the Bush administration after it created the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in 2001. Although Connecticut officials champion the idea, saying it has improved access to treatment for thousands of people who might not have succeeded in traditional substance abuse programs, the practice of giving taxpayer money to religious organizations is hardly without critics.
12/7/2008: Raleigh News and Observer (NC): Judges can get assessments before handing down sentences
Judges choosing between the street and the cellblock should first know what threat the offender poses: Is he violent? How severe are his drug and alcohol problems? What sort of family does he come from? What is his psychological history? Has he ever held a job, and what skills does he have?
State prison officials, moving to address the headline-grabbing security breach caused by smuggled cell phones, on Wednesday proposed spending nearly $66 million on high-tech gear to curb contraband.
12/2/2008: Philadelphia Inquirer (PA): Rendell lifts parole ban for violent inmates
Gov. Rendell lifted a two-month moratorium on paroling violent offenders yesterday after a consultant's report indicated that the state's procedures for releasing inmates were largely sound and safe.
12/2/2008: Pantagraph.com (IL): Some ex-felons find debt to society nearly impossible to repay
Housing, employment, health and substance abuse issues and stigma in the community are the major obstacles facing ex-offenders, said Dawn Beichner, a volunteer with Joy Care Center, a Twin City agency that helps inmates with “re-entry.”
12/2/2008: Galveston County Daily News (TX): Study: Mental illnesses predict repeat offenders
Inmates with a major mental illness are more likely to be incarcerated repeatedly, according to a study by Jacques Baillargeon, an epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch.
Cenpatico Behavioral Health of Arizona today announced the implementation of a Community Re-Entry Program for adults and juveniles recently released from incarceration.
12/1/2008: Associated Press (CA): Federal judges to rule on Calif. prison crowding
California's day of reckoning has finally come for three decades of tough-on-crime policies that led to overcrowded prisons and unconstitutional conditions for inmates. A special three-judge panel reconvenes Tuesday and is prepared to decide whether crowding has become so bad that inmates cannot receive proper care.
12/1/2008: Greenbay Press Gazette (WI): Program for ex-convicts aims to grow further
A nonprofit reentry program uses volunteers to help recently released individuals connect to services.
12/1/2008: The Beaver Dam Daily Citizen (WI): Class aims to help children of inmates
A school district in Wisconsin provides teachers with tools to help students who have an incarcerated parent.
12/1/2008: Hartford Business Journal Online (CT): Get A Bang For Taxpayer Bucks
Editorial suggesting CT could save taxpayer money by treating nonviolent individuals diagnosed with mental illness and addiction problems in supportive housing or long-term treatment programs instead of incarcerating them.