Prison Re-Entry Programs

Name

Institution

Date

Prison Re-Entry Programs

When offenders are often released from prison trying to adapt into the new society especially for those who have served longer sentences as most things will have changed. Prisoner reentry is whereby prisoners are released back to the community after serving their sentence with a belief that they have changed and will now become law abiding citizens. Reentry programs are often quite important as they provide a platform to the offenders to support themselves through both productive and legitimate work. Reentry programs have helped in reducing recidivism among the offenders thus leading to an improvement of public safety.

Reentry programs were introduced to ensure the rehabilitation process does not end in prison but rather the inmates get support in settling in the new world. According to an article by Xavier McEarth in the guardian, he points out how an offender finds it difficult settling in due to limited support, scarce resources and lack of an understanding to the new technology (McElrath-Bey, 2017). Xavier talks of how juvenile lifers who got longer life sentencing return in a world as adults where so much has changed for them. Him being an ex-convict who had spent 13 years in jail, his first challenge was getting a place to sleep. The article points out that reentry programs need to ensure that the ex-inmates get homes or accommodation to stay in as they get back to their feet

When individuals get released from the prison, some often choose to live a reformed life while others get back into their crime life. According to the Pacific Standard Magazine, the community serve an important role in ensuring that reentry program for prisoners are successful. Most repeat offenders often go back to crime because of alienation from the community (Kirchner 2015). With the support from the community, this basically transforms to the fact that the rehabilitated prisoners will het employment and thus they will be able to leave an honest life. Lack of economic empowerment often leads to released convicts going back into crime life as eventually they will need money to settle their bill. According to Pacific Standard, in order for prisoner re-entry program to be successful then there needs to be interaction between the former models and role models in the society.

References

Kirchner, L. (2015, August 13). The Importance of Community Support for Prisoner Re-Entry Programs. Retrieved from https://psmag.com/social-justice/the-importance-of-community-support-for-prisoner-re-entry-programs.

McElrath-Bey, X. (2017, September 10). I was jailed as a child. I know it’s possible to reintegrate into society with support | Xavier McElrath-Bey. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/10/child-prison-reintegration.