Outside the Walls

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

Outside the Walls provides descriptions of a broad array of prisoner reentry activity across the country, as well as briefing papers that discuss what is known about reentry as it pertains to employment, health, housing, family, faith, and public safety. The Urban Institute produced this report in collaboration with Outreach Extensions as part of the National Media Outreach Campaign, a new effort to encourage discussion and decision-making about solution-based prisoner reentry programs among local community and faith-based organizations. The Urban Institute conducted a national scan of reentry programs that are addressing the needs and risks facing returning prisoners, their families, and communities. The report benefited significantly from the input of national experts who nominated programs that are implementing innovative approaches to easing the reentry process in their local communities.

As a companion to this resource guide, an Outside the Walls videotape highlights three to four reentry programs in each of the six categories. The video profiles each program—presenting a basic description of services, highlighting partnerships and collaborations, and providing outcomes that document why the program is effective. In addition to staff and partners of the various reentry programs, diverse viewpoints are presented, including individuals who were formerly incarcerated, crime victims and their advocates, as well as policymakers, parole and probation departments, departments of correction, government agencies, and community leaders.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

Project Overview

Through generous support from The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Outreach Extensions has launched the Reentry National Media Outreach Campaign. The goal of the Reentry Campaign is to support the work of community- and faith-based organizations through offering media resources to facilitate local discussion and decision making about solution-based reentry programs. A long-term effort, the Reentry National Media Outreach Campaign incorporates several public television documentaries over the span of at least two years. Public television programs (see next section for descriptions) that are part of the Reentry Campaign include:

• A Hard Straight, 2004
• A Justice That Heals, already broadcast
• Aimee's Crossing, Nomadic Pictures, 2005
• Every Child is Born a Poet, When in Doubt Productions, April 6, 2004
• Finding the Soul of a Teenager (w.t.), Hudson River Film & Video, 2004
• Girl Trouble, 2004
• God and the Inner City, Michael Pack, 2003
• Manhood and Violence: Fatal Peril, Hudson River Film & Video, 2004
• Prison Lullabies, broadcast TBD
• Redemption, Nomadic Pictures, 2005
• Road to Return, current PBS Plus offering through 2005
• What I Want My Words to Do to You, December 2003

As part of the Reentry Campaign, the Urban Institute conducted a national scan of reentry programs that are addressing the needs and risks facing returning prisoners, their families, and communities. In order to identify programs for this report, the Urban Institute developed a series of advisory groups of nationallevel experts to nominate programs that are implementing notable or innovative approaches to easing the reentry process. (See the list of advisory group members in the Appendix.) Recommendations were also made by the Faith Advisory Committee that is working with the Reentry Campaign and by The Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Urban Institute then followed up with each of the nominated programs to learn more about their organizations, the services they provide to individuals who were formerly incarcerated and their families, and any outcomes of their work. Those programs that focused squarely on the issue of prisoner reentry were included in this report and organized into the following categories:

• Education & Employment
• Health
• Housing
• Family
• Public Safety
• Faith

Many of the programs fit into more than one category. For instance, a program may provide job training and placement to former prisoners with the ultimate aim of placing their clients into stable jobs to reduce the likelihood of recidivism. Or, some of the organizations highlighted here provide an array of services covering most, if not all, of these categories. Urban Institute attempted to classify programs into the category that best captured their primary service focus.

Finally, this was not meant to be an exhaustive search resulting in a fully comprehensive list of reentry programs. Nor is it a compendium of best practices or model programs that have been proven to work. That determination was beyond the scope of this project. In fact, while some of these programs may represent promise to the field, many are too young to assess. We chose to include even new endeavors, however, to illustrate some of the exciting ways that jurisdictions are beginning to think, work, and collaborate around the pressing issue of prisoner reentry. With that aim in mind, this report provides descriptions of a broad array of reentry activity from across the country. We hope that this resource guide will be helpful to community- and faith-based organizations that seek to create solutions that help individuals and families make their communities safer.

Access to the campaign by diverse constituencies is supported by a comprehensive Web site: www.reentrymediaoutreach.org. All of the outreach materials developed for the Reentry National Media Outreach Campaign, including Outside the Walls: A National Snapshot of Community-Based Prisoner Reentry Programs (resource guide and videotape), are housed on the site; print materials are downloadable. Web visitors can search for the individual reentry programs presented in Outside the Walls and choose to read the written description or, when available, watch the videotape segment. Content on each television documentary includes a 3 to 5-minute video clip, show description, and producer comments. In addition, customized viewer/discussion guides for each documentary support discussion and decision making. The site also reports on national and local campaign activities in various communities.

As a companion to this resource guide, the Outside the Walls videotape highlights three to four reentry programs in each of the six categories. Produced by D. R. Lynes, Inc., the video profiles each program—presenting a basic description of services, highlighting partnerships and collaborations, and providing outcomes that document why the program is effective. In addition to staff and partners of the various reentry programs, diverse viewpoints are presented, including individuals who were formerly incarcerated, crime victims and their advocates, as well as policymakers, parole and probation departments, departments of correction, government agencies, and community leaders. Additional information on the video is presented at the end of this document; transcripts of the video are on the Web site.

The Reentry National Media Outreach Campaign is designed and managed by Outreach Extensions, a national consulting firm that specializes in comprehensive multi-media educational and community outreach campaigns. Additional public television programs and series may be added to the campaign as it develops. The project is part of the Making Connections Media Outreach Initiative, which fosters partnerships among local public television stations and community organizations to strengthen families and transform neighborhoods.