Crime Prevention

In Houston, Texas, returning prisoners face many challenges, from securing housing and employment to rebuilding relationships with their families and support networks, while at the same time attempting to avoid old pathways to criminal behavior and substance abuse. The impact of prisoner reentry, however, extends far beyond these individuals and their families and friends. The communities to which former prisoners return and the local government and social service networks that serve these communities have a significant stake in the successful reintegration of returning prisoners. This research brief explores prisoner reentry from the perspective of Houston stakeholders and community members.

A National Academy of Sciences report addresses the science-or lack thereof-in America's crime labs and criminal justice system. John Roman explains why a new era of scientific policing may be at hand.

The Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) supports innovative reentry programs at the state and community level. As part of this effort, the National Institute of Justice is funding a five-year evaluation of SVORI programs conducted by RTI International and the Urban Institute. This article, published in the October 2007 issue of the NIJ Journal, is a summary of program participant's demographics as well as information on a control group of non-SVORI participants. This information is the result of interviews just prior to release with incarcerated men and includes their responses to questions about their needs and expectations post-release.

Funded by the Departments of Justice, Labor, Education, Housing and Urban Development, and Health and Human Services, the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) supports innovative reentry programs at the state and community level. This article, published in the April 2008 issue of Corrections Today, highlighted data on the types of offenders in the programs and their needs. This information, the result of interviews with incarcerated male offenders, focused on what adult men believe they will need after their release from prison. Also included in the article are initial findings on reentry outcomes for SVORI participants.

The Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) supports innovative reentry programs at the state and community level. Because fully implemented SVORI programs incorporate assessment, services, and programming for offenders while incarcerated, under supervision in the community, and once released from supervision, measuring their success is a challenge for researchers. In this paper, published in the August 2006 issue of Western Criminology Review, researchers from RTI International and the Urban Institute suggest an approach for categorizing the types of services being provided to program participants so that the extent to which SVORI programs have increased access to services can be determined.