Integrated Reentry and Employment Strategies: Reducing Recidivism and Promoting Job Readiness.

The vast majority of individuals who are in U.S. jails and prisons will eventually return to the community. Criminal justice policymakers and practitioners everywhere have made it a priority to ensure these individuals, returning in large numbers each year, do not commit new crimes following their release. As part of these efforts, state and local government officials have focused on the need for people released from prison and jail to have jobs, seeing employment as critical to successful reentry. Indeed, incarcerated individuals that have been asked about their post-release plans typically say that getting a job is crucial to their ability to stay crime free. Workforce development agencies and employment service providers also recognize that people with criminal records are an important subgroup of their clientele. Many employment service providers already see large numbers of unemployed individuals with criminal records come through their doors who face a distinct set of barriers to joining the workforce because of their criminal history, in addition to a wide range of other needs. This white paper examines proven criminal justice approaches for reducing recidivism and promising practices from the employment field for improving job readiness. It provides a new integrated tool that can be used as a starting point for collaborations among corrections, reentry, and employment policymakers and practitioners to reduce the likelihood of reoffending and improve workforce preparedness for individuals returning from correctional facilities or who are on probation or parole. The paper provides guidance on how to make the best use of scarce resources by implementing assessment-based approaches that respond to individuals’ risk of future criminal behavior (and other factors associated with reincarceration) and their needs for pre-release and post-release services in order to produce better public safety, reentry, and employment outcomes for the shared population. (Author abstract)