Esmeralda De La Torre
Capstone
4/29/15
1. Name The Problem It Proposes Exploring
a. Returning Home Study: Understanding the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry.
i. The goal is to collect information on individuals’ life circumstances immediately prior to, during, and up to one year after their release. ii. Returning Home documents the challenges of reentry along five dimensions: individual, family, peer, community, and state. iii. The study examined three major dimensions of the parole function: the extent to which parole boards make release decisions, the population under parole supervision, and the issue of parole revocation (the decision to send a parolee back to prison).
2. What have people already said about it
a. With limited assistance in their reintegration, former prisoners pose public safety risks to communities, and about half will return to prison for new crimes or parole violations within three years of release.
b. This cycle of removal and return of large numbers of adults, mostly men, is increasingly concentrated in communities often already deprived of resources and ill equipped to meet the challenges this population presents.6
3. Authors claim or hypothesis
a. “A multistate, longitudinal study that documents the pathways of prisoner reintegration, examines what factors contribute to a successful or unsuccessful reentry experience, and identifies how those factors can inform policy.”
i. Implemented in four states Maryland, Illinois, Ohio, and Texas.
b. When individuals have received adequate physical and mental health services while in prison, they often face limited access and insufficient linkages to community-based health care upon release
i. Incarceration disqualifies inmates from Medicaid benefits disrupting the medication accessibility and puts individuals at a high risk of relapse.
c. Securing housing is perhaps the most immediate challenge facing prisoners upon their release.
4. Argument for claim
a. Challenges in finding and maintaining legitimate job opportunities, including low levels of education, limited work experience, and limited vocational skills
b. Reluctance of employers to hire former prisoners serves as a barrier to job placement.
5. Results or reasons and evidence to support claim
a. Two-thirds of released prisoners are rearrested within three years of release.2 One and a half million children have a parent in prison. 3 Four million citizens have lost their right to vote
b. Research has shown that employment is associated with lower rates of reoffending, and higher wages are associated with lower rates of criminal activity
c. Few have a job lined up after release.
d. Despite the need for employment assistance, few prisoners receive employment-related
