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
Deterioration of Postincarceration Social Support for Emerging Adults
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Elaine Eggleston Doherty, Christopher Veeh, Christina Drymon
More than 2.5 million emerging adults (ages 18-25) are incarcerated annually and most do poorly after release. Social support after an individual’s release from incarceration is a critical protective factor against recidivism for emerging adults. However, little is known about the stability of support for emerging adults post incarceration. This study uses hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to examine whether social support declines over time after incarceration and how change in support may vary by incarceration length.
Category: Reentry, Social Support, Emerging Adults
Gender differences in experiences of social support among men and women releasing from prison
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Christopher Veeh, Maxine Davis, Stephen Tripodi
Positive social support is critically important to postprison well-being outcomes. However, researchers and program developers are still trying to understand how to best promote stable and sustainable social support for formerly incarcerated individuals during reentry to the community. We sought to add to the body of knowledge on social support and prisoner reentry by comparing men and women releasing from prison on the quality (e.g., positive or negative) and amount of informal social support.
Category: Reentry, Incarcerated Women, Gender Differences
Enhancing Social Support Postincarceration: Results From a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Allison Dunnigan, Christopher Veeh, Matthew Owen Howard, Anna M. Scheyett, Amelia Roberts‐Lewis
Over 50% of released prisoners are reincarcerated within 3 years. Social support from loved ones postincarceration significantly reduces the likelihood of reincarceration. Increasingly, intervention developers aim to implement interventions that will enhance the stability of support available. This study responds to gaps in knowledge.
Category: Reentry, Social Support
Childhood Victimization, Attachment, Psychological Distress, and Substance Use Among Women on Probation and Parole
Published:
| Author: Katherine M. Winham, Malitta Engstrom, Seana Golder, Tanya Renn, George E. Higgins, and TK Logan
The present analysis was guided by a gendered pathways-based theoretical model and examined relationships between childhood victimization and current attachment, psychological distress and substance use among 406 women with histories of victimization who were on probation and parole in an urban Kentucky county. Structural equation modeling examined relationships among childhood victimization, attachment, psychological distress, and substance use.
Category: Incarcerated Women, Reentry, Trauma, Probation and Parole
A Longitudinal Outcome Evaluation of a Prison-Based Sex Offender Treatment Program
Published:
| Author: Melissa D. Grady, Daniel Edwards, Carrie Pettus-Davis
Sex offender outcome studies continue to produce mixed results. A common critique of these studies is their lack of methodological rigor. This study attempts to address this critique by adhering to the standards established by the Collaborative Outcome Data Committee (CODC) aimed at increasing the quality and confidence in outcome studies. We examined recidivism outcomes for a sample of formerly incarcerated sex offenders who participated in a state prison-based cognitive-behavioral-skills-based treatment program.
Category: Reentry, Sex Offenders, Recidivism
Acceptability of a Social Support Intervention for Re-entering Prisoners
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Matthew Owen Howard, Vithya Murugan, Amelia Roberts-Lewis, Anna M. Scheyett, Claire Botnick, Michelle Vance
A relatively unexplored area of prisoner reentry programs involves actively engaging the prisoner’s naturally occurring social support in the reentry interventions. Most reentering prisoners rely on loved ones for social support, but that support is often fragile. Interventions that strengthen the sustainability of social support are crucial to a successful reentry. This study evaluates the acceptability of a social support intervention for male prisoners with substance-use disorders who are reentering the community.
Category: Reentry, Social Support, Substance Use
Is Positive Social Support Available to Re-Entering Prisoners? It Depends on Who You Ask
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Anna M. Scheyett, Misty Lewis
Re-entering prisoners have complex needs. Growing attention has turned to the role of informal social support in successful post-release outcomes. Research indicates informal supports are available to re-entering prisoners, yet this support can be experienced negatively and contribute to poor outcomes. We examined anticipated and received quality, source, and types of support for re-entering prisoners from perspectives of 60 re-entering prisoners and corrections professionals. We found re-entering prisoners anticipated and received what they considered positive support.
Category: Reentry, Social Support
Social support among releasing men prisoners with lifetime trauma experiences.
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis
High rates of lifetime trauma experiences exist among men incarcerated in US state and federal prisons. Because lifetime trauma experiences have been linked to problematic behavioral and psychiatric outcomes for incarcerated populations, trauma-informed interventions could improve post-release well-being of releasing men prisoners with trauma histories. Social support has consistently been found to have a positive impact on trauma-related outcomes in non-incarcerated populations.
Category: Reentry, Trauma, Social Support
"Let momma take 'em": portrayals of women supporting male former prisoners.
Published:
| Author: Anna M. Scheyett, Carrie Pettus-Davis
Women provide support for many vulnerable groups, work that is frequently discounted with gendered stereotypes. One growing vulnerable group is former prisoners who often return to women family members. We completed a qualitative study with 25 former prisoners and criminal justice staff to examine their conceptualizations of the demands placed on women supporters of former prisoners.
Category: Reentry, Social Support, Racial and Gender BIas
Naturally occurring social support in interventions for former prisoners with substance use disorders: Conceptual framework and program model
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Matthew Owen Howard, Amelia Roberts-Lewis, Anna M. Scheyett
Naturally-occurring social support is underutilized in interventions with former prisoners with substance use disorders. This paper proposes a conceptual framework followed by a program model to inform the development of naturally-occurring social support interventions with former prisoners with substance use disorders.
Category: Reentry, Social Support, Substance Use
Parole Officers’ Experiences of the Symptoms of Secondary Trauma in the Supervision of Sex Offenders
Published:
| Author: Margaret Severson, Carrie Pettus-Davis
The work of parole officers who supervise sex offenders rarely comes to the public’s attention unless something goes wrong. Research suggests that those providing postrelease supervision of convicted sex offenders likely experience trauma as a result of their work and that little support is available to respond to their emotional needs. This manuscript explores parole officers’ and parole officer supervisors’ experiences of the symptoms of secondary trauma, defined as the emotional and cognitive experiences of hearing stories that recount one or more traumatic events.
Category: Reentry, Sex Offenders, Trauma, Probation and Parole
General Medical Problems of Incarcerated Persons With Severe and Persistent Mental Illness: A Population-Based Study
Published:
| Author: Gary S. Cuddeback, Anna M. Scheyett, Carrie Pettus-Davis, Joseph P. Morrissey
Persons with severe mental illness have higher rates of chronic general medical illness compared with the general population. Similarly, compared with the general population, incarcerated persons have higher rates of chronic medical illness; however, there is little information about the synergy between severe mental illness and incarceration and the general medical problems of consumers.
Category: Reentry, Mental Health
From the “streets” to “normal life”: Assessing the role of social support in release planning for HIV-positive and substance-involved prisoners.
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Anna M. Scheyett, Danielle Hailey, Carol Golin, David Wohl
In 2005, there were 20,888 prisoners in the U.S. prisons known to be HIV-positive, many substance-involved. The high reincarceration rate of substance-involved prisoners, coupled with the fact that substance-involved prisoners are more prone to HIV-risk behaviors in the community, necessitates attention to preventing substance use and HIV transmission risk behaviors of prisoners upon reentry to communities. We use a social support framework to explore the role of social support in HIV+ prisoners’ expectations of release and postrelease plans.