Prepared by Ginger Martin and Cheryl Roberts
June 3, 2004
Full report (pdf)
Executive Summary (pdf)
With the tremendous growth in incarceration in Massachusetts, inmates are returning to communities in record numbers. More than 20,000 prison and jail inmates are released to Massachusetts’ towns and cities each year. Policymakers have become increasingly concerned with how the corrections system should manage the reentry process to best protect the public and how communities can absorb and reintegrate returning prisoners.
The entire reentry process must be strengthened. This report provides a roadmap for prisoner reentry in Massachusetts, drawing from the national research literature of evidence-based practices and interviews with experts, officials, practitioners, and community-based service providers. It addresses areas of policy that have a significant effect on reentry, from sentencing through post-release follow-up, with particular focus on the roles of the state prison system, houses of corrections, and parole.
Katharine H. Bradley, R.B. Michael Oliver,
Noel C. Richardson, Elspeth M. Slayter
November 2001
For the prisoner who is reentering society, the search for sustainable, permanent housing is a challenge that portends success or failure for the entire reintegration process. Housing facilitates a continuity in substance abuse and/or mental health treatment. Employment is often contingent upon stable housing. This report assesses the housing options for ex-prisoners - from the private market to public housing to homelessness. A snapshot survey of women and men preparing for reentry as well as policy recommendations are included.
Katharine H. Bradley and R.B. Michael Oliver
July 2001
The role that parole plays in criminal justice is hotly debated. Some states have dismantled their Parole Boards, while others have undertaken the painstaking work of revamping the system, replete with new parole revocation guidelines. This policy brief examines the current state statute and release criteria governing the Massachusetts Parole Board's decision-making process, plus parole trends over the last decade, Board membership, the impasse created by parole criteria and classification practices, and the role of parole in maintaining public safety.
John J. Larivee
January 2001
Rising numbers of inmates, coupled with declining pre-release training and outside supervision, foreshadow an unanticipated and generally unanswered breakdown in the continuum of community safety, particularly in inner cities. New innovations in the prisoner reentry field, both within the Massachusetts correction system and in local communities, hold some promise but these approaches are limited and address only a fraction of the thousands of inmates released each year. This report assesses the current situation in MA and makes recommendations.