Report of the Re-Entry Policy Council: Charting the Safe and Successful Return of Prisoners to the Community

Source: (2005) New York: Re-Entry Policy Council, Council of State Governments (Eastern Regional Conference). Downloaded 27 January 2005.

In 2001 the Council of State Governments established the Re-Entry Policy Council (RPC). The RPC is a network of policymakers and practitioners from across the United States. The broad aim in creating the RPC was to assist state government officials in grappling with the increasing numbers of people leaving prisons and jails to return to the communities they had left upon their incarceration. More specifically, the RPC was to pursue two goals: (a) development of bipartisan principles and policies for officials and other policymakers in evaluating re-entry issues; and (b) facilitation of coordination and information-sharing among organizations engaged in re-entry initiatives, research, issues, and projects. This lengthy document consists of the RPC’s final report with hundreds of recommendations on adults re-entering society after prison or jail (or juveniles who were sentenced as adults). The recommendations pertain to policies, programs, and legislation having to do with transition of ex-offenders to society. The report is organized into three major sections or parts: Part I, planning a re-entry initiative; Part II, review of the re-entry process; and Part III, elements of effective social service systems. Within each part, the report provides policy statements which are consensus-based principles to ground re-entry initiatives. After each policy statement comes a description of the problem it addresses, and then recommendations for implementing the policy. Throughout the report, actual re-entry efforts in a variety of communities are cited to help make the policies and recommendations specific and concrete.