guideposts for smart decarceration

Guideposts for the Era of Smart Decarceration

Published: | Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Matthew Epperson, Annie Grier

Despite the expansion of efforts to reduce jail and prison populations and reform criminal justice policy and practice, a comprehensive, inclusive, and actionable approach has been relatively absent from the conversation. Such an approach is only possible if criminal justice stakeholders agree upon the foundational objectives that can generate lasting decarceration. In this report, we offer guideposts and actionable strategies for the era of smart decarceration in America.

Category: Smart Decarceration
going back to jail

Going Back to Jail Without Committing a Crime

Published: | Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Stephanie Kennedy

This report presents data on reasons other than criminal behavior that 5-Key Model study participants report they were re-arrested.

Category: Reentry, Well-Being, 5-Key Model for Reentry
perspectives

Early Lessons from the Multistate Study of the 5-Key Model for Reentry

Published: | Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Stephanie Kennedy

This chapter presents key themes that have emerged during Phase 1 of the 5-Key Model study, currently being implemented in Florida, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Texas. In addition to describing the 5-Key Model intervention and the study sample, the authors explore the psychological toll of reentry on individuals and families, barriers to reentry success and how the 5-Key Model responds to those barriers, and the early deaths of study participants after they released from incarceration and returned home.

Category: Reentry, Well-Being, 5-Key Model for Reentry
5-Key preliminary policy results

Employment and Behavioral Health-5-Key Model Preliminary Results for Policy Stakeholders

Published: | Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Tanya Renn, Christopher Veeh

This report features preliminary 5-Key Model results on study participant employment and behavioral health outcomes approximately eight months post-release. Results are presented by state to maximize usefulness to policy stakeholders.

Category: 5-Key Model for Reentry, Results for Policymakers
deferred prosecution programs

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

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

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
journal of offender rehabilitation

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
CriminalJusticeandBehavior

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

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
psychological toll of reentry

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
journal of traumatic stress

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
barriers to reentry

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.

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

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