Note
"May 12-13, 2004."
Co-chairs: Jim Bueermann, Jeremy Travis.
Description based on print version record.
Résumé
The Roundtable addresses the nexus between prisoner re-entry, and community policing, in the context of public safety. The mission of the Roundtable is to develop new thinking about the issue of prisoner reentry, broadly defined. This document reconstructs the discussion, including highlights of presentations by the authors of commissioned papers, and the discussions that flowed from them. The first paper examines the factors that help and hinder former prisoners as they attempt to successfully reintegrate into communities. The author reviews specific institutions that directly impact former offenders following release, and argues that the practices of social institutions have served to keep former prisoners in an "outcast" role. The author offers suggestions to foster the acquisition of a citizenship role for former prisoners. The second paper focuses on the potential role of police in prisoner reentry. Recommendations include that law enforcement should be viewed as a source of intelligence information to aid social service provision to former offenders. The third paper presents a problem-oriented approach to public safety which considers the assets and the liabilities of both the offender and the community to which he or she will return. This approach has the advantage of not depending solely on the offender's degree of rehabilitation or his or her connection to the community. The fourth paper considers how police, working under a community policing model, can ease prisoner reentry and reduce recidivism. Much of the paper is written from the perspective of a former prisoner. The fifth paper explores public attitudes toward incarceration and prisoner reentry, illustrating that while prisoner reentry is not a common topic of conversation, there is some understanding of the difficulties facing former offenders as they attempt to integrate back into society.