Prisoner Reentry

In 2006, The New Jersey Department of Corrections released approximately 14,000 prisoners.  Release statistics show that the state’s poorer urban areas are burdened by a disproportionate amount of this population.  Consequences of failure in reentry are of serious concern to policy-makers and all stakeholders determined to increase public safety and quality of life issues for residents.  In the United States, two-thirds of the individuals released from prison are rearrested for the commission of a new crime within three years. 

Since 2002, the Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs has been working with the Camden Safer Cities Initiative to address issues of service delivery and offender accountability through increased communication and collaboration among city residents, law enforcement agencies, social service providers, and offender supervisory agencies. 

In 2007, WRI began work on evaluations of two prisoner reentry programs for the New Jersey Department of Corrections, Office of Transitional Services.  The evaluations of these programs will measure impact in re-offense rates amongst a set of  selected participants in the program.