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From Prison to Home: The Effect of Incarceration and Reentry on Children, Families, and Communities

Overview

The “From Prison to Home” project had four major components. First, ten papers were commissioned to develop a research and practice baseline about this high-risk, high-services use population. Second, a state symposium was held in November 2001 to gain insight into how states are responding to these issues. Third, a national policy conference was held on January 30-31, 2002 at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to discuss the papers and get feedback from policy makers at the federal, state and local level, from practitioners, and from the research community. This invitational conference focused on the identification of research, policy, and program issues at the intersection of health and human services and criminal justice systems. The conference report constitutes the fourth component of the effort. The report synthesized key aspects of the state symposium discussions, conference proceedings, and the research papers developed for it. The From Prison to Home conference sought to highlight the increasing fiscal and social cost associated with not recognizing and addressing the distinct needs of the growing population of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals, including higher incidences of future delinquency and maladaptive behaviors for children, fractured families, and unstable communities. Participants from across policy, research, and practice domains pointed to the critical need to coordinate across systems to simultaneously meet human services and criminal justice system goals. Publication of the conference papers and report is intended to encourage continuing discussions about cross-program and multi-disciplinary research and the planning and implementation of service delivery efforts at the federal, state, and local levels.

Commissioned Papers on the Impact of Incarceration and Reentry on:

Children

Families

Individual Prisoners

Communities