Housing Stability After Incarceration

Housing Stability After Incarceration

Published: | Author: Carrie Pettus, Stephanie Kennedy

This brief report examines changes in where and with whom individuals live, whether they consider themselves to be homeless, and whether they are paying rent or mortgage where they stay between leaving prison to 14-months post-release. These findings are situated within the broader context of reentry support, exploring the impact of both incarceration and reentry on families and the need to focus resources on those most in need.

Category: 5-Key Model for Reentry
Measuring Well-Being During Reentry

Measuring Well-Being During Reentry

Published: | Author: Christopher Veeh, Tanya Renn, Stephanie Kennedy, Carrie Pettus

A growing number of scholars and reentry practitioners are seeking alternative approaches to identify how community stability and success can be measured for those returning home from incarceration to our communities. Our team developed a well-being-oriented conceptual framework – the Well-Being Development Model – and a manualized reentry program approach – the 5-Key Model for Reentry – which focus on human potential and thriving.

Category: 5-Key Model for Reentry, Well-Being
The Well-Being Development Model: A Theoretical Model to Improve Outcomes among Criminal Justice System–Involved Individuals

The Well-Being Development Model: A Theoretical Model to Improve Outcomes among Criminal Justice System–Involved Individuals

Published: | Author: Carrie Pettus, Christopher Veeh, Tanya Renn, Stephanie Kennedy

This article proposes a new conceptual framework, the Well-Being Development Model (WBDM), to support the development, implementation, and assessment of innovative reentry interventions designed to increase well-being among the millions of individuals released from prisons and jails each year. In contrast to prominent models guiding reentry services, the WBDM increases incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals’ capacity to reach their full potential while addressing common problems and barriers to success.

Category: Well-Being, Reentry
Brief Report: COVID-19's Impact on Reentry Research

Brief Report: COVID-19's Impact on Reentry Research

Published: | Author: Carrie Pettus, Stephanie Kennedy

When the COVID-19 pandemic began to impact communities across the United States in March 2020, most community members were concerned about how their lives would be affected.

Category: 5-Key Model for Reentry
Stories of Hope and Change 5-Key Model

Stories of Hope and Change

Published: | Author: Carrie Pettus, Stephanie Kennedy

This report presents interviews conducted with four 5-Key Model participants. Participants describe their lives and tell stories about overcoming challenges and finding success. They also describe how the 5 Keys helped them to make significant, positive changes to their lives and the ways 5-Key Model practitioners supported them in making these changes.

Category: 5-Key Model for Reentry
international journal of prisoner health

Incarcerated individuals’ experiences of COVID-19 in the United States

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

This study examines steps taken by correctional staff and incarcerated individuals to reduce transmission risk for COVID-19. Data were drawn from interviews with 327 individuals incarcerated in 3 states. Overall, 9.9% of participants contracted COVID-19. Most participants wore face masks, washed hands, and practiced physical distancing. Participants reported that most facilities suspended visitation and volunteers, provided face masks, and sanitized. Few individuals were released early. Data indicate early adoption of many CDC guidelines, although state variation existed. 

Category: COVID-19
covid-19 incarceration and reentry

COVID-19, Incarceration, and Reentry

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

This report presents data on the COVID-19 related experiences of incarcerated individuals and individuals recently released from incarceration. Study participants report how they learned about COVID-19 while incarcerated and identified the strategies both the facilities they were incarcerated in and they themselves as individuals took to prevent infection.

Category: 5-Key Model for Reentry, Well-Being, COVID-19
trauma and loss during reentry

Trauma and Loss During Reentry

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

This report presents data about the extremely stressful life events experienced by study participants in the 8 months after they left incarceration and returned home. These stressful life events included losing a loved one to homicide, having been violently assaulted, witnessing violence and death in the home or community, finding out about the death or serious injury of a loved one, being diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, and losing critical resources like housing, employment, income, transportation, and social support.

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

Childhood Polyvictimization and Mental Health Issues among Incarcerated Women

Published: | Author: Stephanie Kennedy, Annelise M. Mennicke, Rajib Paul

Results from a cluster analysis identified four unique childhood polyvictimization: Low Victimization, High Witnessing Violence, High Sexual Abuse, and Severe Polyvictimization. The odds of reporting suicidal ideation, psychosis, and dissociation were higher for women in the High Witnessing, High Sexual Abuse, and/or Severe Polyvictimization clusters compared to the Low Victimization cluster, although pairwise comparisons indicated no significant differences between the three higher-level polyvictimization clusters.

Category: Incarcerated Women, Trauma, Mental Health
health and justice

‘I took care of my kids’: Mothering while incarcerated

Published: | Author: Stephanie Kennedy, Annelise M. Mennicke, Chelsea Allen

Research on incarcerated parents often focuses on their children, which obscures incarcerated mothers’ needs related to health and wellness. The prison environment offers few opportunities to foster mother-child connection; most mothers never receive even one visit from their children. Incarcerated mothers contextually framed crime as protecting and providing for children and identified community-based and in-prison service gaps.

Category: Incarcerated Women
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
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
Smart Decarceration Practice Behaviors for Social Work Competencies

Smart Decarceration Practice Behaviors for Social Work Competencies

Published: | Author: Phillipe Copeland, Daniel Jacob, Diane Young, Annie Grier, Stephanie Kennedy, Stephen Tripodi

This tool was conceived by a members of the “Promote Smart Decarceration” Grand Challenge Education Working Group to provide guidance for social work administrators, instructors, and students on how to effectively incorporate “smart decarceration” as a focus for social work education using the CSWE social work competencies.

This tool incorporates smart decarceration-related practice behaviors for ready application into both classroom curricula and field practicums. 

Category: Grand Challenges, Smart Decarceration