Every year, hundreds of thousands of jailed Americans leave prison
and return to society. Largely uneducated, unskilled, often without
family support, and with the stigma of a prison record hanging over
them, many if not most will experience serious social and
psychological problems after release. Fewer than one in three
prisoners receive substance abuse or mental health treatment while
incarcerated, and each year fewer and fewer participate in the
dwindling number of vocational or educational pre-release programs,
leaving many all but unemployable. Not surprisingly, the great
majority is rearrested, most within six months of their release.
What happens when all those sent down the river come back up--and
out?
As long as there have been prisons, society has struggled with how
best to help prisoners reintegrate once released. But the current
situation is unprecedented. As a result of the quadrupling of the
American prison population in the last quarter century, the number
of returning offenders dwarfs anything in America's history. What
happens when a large percentage of inner-city men, mostly Black and
Hispanic, are regularly extracted, imprisoned, and then returned a
few years later in worse shape and with dimmer prospects than when
they committed the crime resulting in their imprisonment? What toll
does this constant "churning" exact on a community? And what do
these trends portend for public safety? A crisis looms, and the
criminal justice and social welfare system is wholly unprepared to
confront it.
Drawing on dozens of interviews with inmates, former prisoners, and
prison officials, Joan Petersilia convincingly shows us how the
current system is failing, and failing badly. Unwilling merely to
sound the alarm, Petersilia explores the harsh realities of
prisoner reentry and offers specific solutions to prepare inmates
for release, reduce recidivism, and restore them to full
citizenship, while never losing sight of the demands of public
safety.
As the number of ex-convicts in America continues to grow, their
systemic marginalization threatens the very society their
imprisonment was meant to protect. America spent the last decade
debating who should go to prison and for how long. Now it's time to
decide what to do when prisoners come home.
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