Carrie Pettus-Davis
Deferred Prosecution Programs: An Implementation Guide
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Matthew Epperson, Annie Grier, Megan Kraatz, Leon Sawh, Stephanie Kennedy
Deferred prosecution is one prosecutor-led diversion mechanism that has the potential to reduce criminal justice involvement and incarceration rates while maximizing public safety.
Category: Smart Decarceration, Diversion, Deferred Prosecution
When Death Follows Release
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Stephanie Kennedy
This report highlights the reentry period - leaving incarceration and returning home - as the highest risk time for death in a formerly incarcerated individuals’ life. The purpose of this report is to explore the deaths that occur during the reentry period from several different vantage points.
Category: Reentry, Well-Being, 5-Key Model for Reentry
Voices of 5-Key Model Participants
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Stephanie Kennedy
This report contains interviews from four study participants involved in the 5-Key Model. The purpose of this report is to highlight the stories of participants in the 5-Key Model to provide a personal window into the experiences of those recently released from prisons. The interview explored participants’ lives and families, successes and challenges, and solicited advice for effectively helping individuals leaving incarceration.
Click Here to access the One Page Summary from our Fourth Quarterly Report.
Category: Reentry, Well-Being, 5-Key Model for Reentry
Intervention development study of the five-key model for reentry: An evidence-driven prisoner reentry intervention
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Tanya Renn, Christopher Veeh, Jacob Eikenberry
Over the past decade and a half, substantial resources were poured into the development of prisoner reentry programs. However, the excitement that surrounded the initial rollout of reentry programs has begun to wane from a lack of substantive change to the number of individuals who return to prison. Therefore, this article details the development of an intervention that can provide a new path forward for prisoner reentry programs.
Category: 5-Key Model for Reentry, Well-Being
Pathways to Recidivism for women released from prison:A Mediated model
Published:
| Author: Stephen Tripodi, Carrie Pettus-Davis, Kimberly Bender, Michael Fitzgerald, Tanya Renn, Stephanie Kennedy
Findings showed no direct relationship between childhood trauma and reincarceration for women in the sample, although there was a significant mediated relationship from childhood trauma to depression to reincarceration. Results suggest the importance of addressing incarcerated women’s trauma before release, assessing for depression, and using empirically-supported interventions to treat depression when applicable.
Category: Incarcerated Women, Reentry
Accelerating Science Using the Research-to-Practice Feedback Loop
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Stephanie Kennedy
The report details the implementation of a Research-to-Practice Feedback Loop and how this Feedback Loop has been used to overcome challenges and adapt both the 5-Key Model intervention and how the intervention is delivered to individuals as they release from prison. The Feedback Loop provides space for practitioners, study participants, and researchers to identify areas for improvement and formalizes a process to ensure that any changes made are consistent with the original model, acceptable to all parties, and implemented fairly across all study sites.
Category: Reentry, Well-Being, 5-Key Model for Reentry
Understanding unmet treatment need among formerly incarcerated men with substance use disorders: A mixed methods exploration
Published:
| Author: Sara Beeler-Stinn, Tanya Renn, Carrie Pettus-Davis
This study identifies how formerly incarcerated men and their social support partners understand the treatment needs of substance use disorders how knowledge about substance use disorders impacts service utilization. Findings emphasize the need for psychoeducation during incarceration and after release on behavioral health issues and highlight the importance of incorporating social support into the treatment process.
Category: Reentry, Substance Use
The Psychological Toll of Reentry
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Stephanie Kennedy
The struggle of reentry is common across hundreds of study participants and the reentry experience has a wide range of ripple out consequences for individual, family, and community well-being, and it intersects with the potential for future criminal behavior and public safety.
Category: Reentry, Well-Being, 5-Key Model for Reentry
Guideposts for the Era of Smart Decarceration: Smart decarceration strategies for practitioners, advocates, reformers, and researchers
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Matthew Epperson, Annie Grier
Reducing the United States’ overreliance on incarceration requires deliberate action. Proponents of smart decarceration recognize the need for clearly articulated areas of targeted intervention—or guideposts—to inform the multifaceted nature of criminal justice reform. An important first step as we enter the era of decarceration is to merge the collective goals and strategies of diverse and highly invested stakeholders.
Category: Smart Decarceration, Tools for the Field
What Trauma Looks Like for Incarcerated Men: A Study of Men’s Lifetime Trauma Exposure in Two State Prisons
Published:
| Author: Maria Morrison, Carrie Pettus-Davis, Tanya Renn, Christopher Veeh, Christopher Weatherly
While it is understood that high rates of trauma exposure are common among incarcerated male populations, there is limited data on the nature of the trauma exposure. This study examined the trauma histories of a randomly selected sample of 67 men incarcerated in the Missouri Department of Corrections. The analyses revealed several patterns among study participants, including near universal trauma exposure in adolescence with the most frequent exposures involving witnessing or being proximate to violent deaths of family and friends.
Category: Trauma
Researching and Responding to Barriers to Prisoner Reentry
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Stephanie Kennedy
This report describes the inner workings and early discoveries of participants and researchers in a groundbreaking longitudinal study currently occurring in four states, 50 prisons, 12 urban and rural counties with more than 1800 people enrolled since May 2018. The study, officially titled A Multisite Randomized Controlled Trial of the 5 Key Model for Reentry, is research that is occurring as a part of a larger initiative referred to as the Safe Streets and Second Chances initiative.
Category: Reentry, Well-Being, 5-Key Model for Reentry
Proposing a population-specific intervention approach to treat trauma among men during and after incarceration.
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Tanya Renn, Jeffrey Lacasse, Robert Motley
A significant treatment gap exists for incarcerated men with lifetime traumatic experiences. A small research base for trauma interventions for incarcerated women is emerging, but incarcerated men have largely been ignored. Men comprise 90% of the incarcerated population and are at the greatest risk to be rearrested for a new crime after release.
Category: Trauma, In-Prison Intervention, Reentry
Promoting Reentry Well-Being: A Novel Assessment Tool for Individualized Service Assignment in Prisoner Reentry Programs
Published:
| Author: Christopher Veeh, Tanya Renn, Carrie Pettus-Davis
The Reentry Well-Being Assessment Tool (RWAT) is an innovative practice tool to systematically guide individualized assignment into reentry program services based on a participant’s changing needs during the transition from prison to the community. Clearly defined treatment targets that promote an individual’s well-being are paired with a comprehensive set of assessments within the RWAT to measure progress throughout a prisoner reentry program.
Category: Reentry, Well-Being
Incarcerated Women’s Experiences and Perceptions of Participating in Research
Published:
| Author: Lisa Schelbe, Amanda Hardwick, Ashley N. Wilfong, Cynthia E. Hanifin, Stephen Tripodi, Carrie Pettus-Davis
The research process within prisons has largely considered researchers’ perspectives. Only one known study explicitly examined incarcerated persons’ perceptions and no known studies have explored incarcerated persons’ experiences with research on sensitive topics. This study examines incarcerated women’s experiences with participating in research on victimization. A thematic analysis was conducted on responses to open-ended questions about participating in a research study from 227 women in two prisons who participated in a study about victimization.
Category: Incarcerated Women, Trauma
Smart Decarceration: Achieving Criminal Justice Transformation in the 21st Century
Published:
| Author: Matthew Epperson, Carrie Pettus-Davis
Smart Decarceration is a forward-thinking, practical volume that provides innovative concepts and concrete strategies for ushering in an era of decarceration -- a proactive and effective undoing of the era of mass incarceration. The text grapples with tough questions and takes up the challenge of transforming America's approach to criminal justice in the 21st century.