Release: 'Rethinking Reentry'

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Washington, DC (January 30, 2020) — Today the United States still incarcerates more people per capita than any other nation. Over two-thirds of the nearly 600,000 people who leave prison each year in the US are rearrested within three years of their release. Breaking the crime-imprisonment-recidivism cycle is one of the key challenges our society faces.

In “Rethinking Reentry” (AEI, January 2020), editor and coauthor Brent Orrell — an American Enterprise Institute resident fellow who served in the US Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services — brings together leading academics, researchers, and criminologists to improve our understanding of what is working, and what is not, when it comes to improving outcomes for people returning to society from prison.

With a foreword by former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, Brent Orrell and his ten coauthors explore in eight chapters the roots of the reentry challenge and the new approaches needed to break out of the current “policy box.”

Specifically, they explore:

• The importance of providing services based on an individual’s level of risk and needs;
• The need for more and better qualitative research to tell the story of reentry from the perspective of the returning individuals and their families, the police, corrections personnel, and community supervision authorities;
• The benefits of using automated risk assessments in determining and targeting needs;
• The potential use of prison-based therapeutic communities in reducing recidivism; and
• New insights into the role of “identity change” — that is, the adoption of a pro-social identity — to prevent future criminal behavior.

To arrange an interview with Brent Orrell, please email [email protected] or call 202.862.5834. For additional help or for other media inquiries, please contact AEI’s 24/7 media lines: [email protected] or 202.862.5829.

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Brent Orrell is the editor of and a contributor to “Rethinking Reentry.” A resident fellow at AEI, he works on job training, workforce development, and criminal justice reform. Earlier, he was nominated by President George W. Bush to lead the Employment and Training Administration in the US Department of Labor. He also has served as deputy assistant secretary for policy and external relations at the Administration for Children and Families in the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Janeen Buck Willison is a senior research fellow in the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute.

Shawn Bushway is a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation and a fellow of the American Society of Criminology.

Hannah Cortina is a research assistant at the Center for Drug and Health Studies and a PhD student at the University of Delaware.

Grant Duwe, an adjunct scholar at AEI, is also the research director for the Minnesota Department of Corrections.

Edward Latessa teaches and directs the School of Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati.

Pamela K. Lattimore is a senior director for research and development for RTI’s Division for Applied Justice Research.

Nancy La Vigne is vice president for justice policy at the Urban Institute.

Daniel O’Connell is a senior scientist at the Center for Drug and Health Studies and an assistant professor in the department of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware.

Faye S. Taxman is a university professor at George Mason University, where she directs the Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence.

Christy Visher is a professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware, where she directs the Center for Drug and Health Studies.

CHAPTERS

Foreword by Paul Ryan
Introduction by Brent Orrell

“Considering Reentry Program Evaluation: Thoughts from SVORI [Serious and Violent Offenders Reentry Initiative] (and Other) Evaluations” by Pamela K. Lattimore
“Triaging of Services for Individuals Returning from Prison” by Edward Latessa
“Integrating Lived Experience into Reentry Evaluation Design” by Nancy La Vigne and Janeen Buck Willison
“Implementation and Intervention Sciences: New Frontiers to Improve Research on Reentry” by Faye S. Taxman
“The Next Generation: An Automated Risk-Needs-Responsivity Assessment System for Correctional Populations” by Grant Duwe
“What If People Decide to Desist? Implications for Policy” by Shawn Bushway
“Creating Cognitive Behavioral Communities in Prison” by Christy Visher, Daniel O’Connell, and Hannah Cortina
“Identity and Agency: A New Approach to Rehabilitation and Reentry” by Brent Orrell