The U.S. detains approximately 2 million individuals in prisons and jails, with 10.6 million annual bookings, mostly for short-term or pre-trial detentions. As a result, over 90% of these individuals will eventually be released, underscoring the importance of re-entry programs. Upon release, many encounter the same challenges that contributed to their incarceration, making reintegration a complex process. These challenges include navigating the labor market, preventing re-offending through counseling and education, and rebuilding family and community ties. Re-entry programs aim to address these challenges by providing services, including family reunification, employment aid, mental health support, housing, and education. Read More
Dr. Precious Skinner-Osei and Peter Claudius Osei at Florida Atlantic University argue that despite their best efforts, re-entry programs often fail to successfully reintegrate justice-involved individuals into society because they primarily focus on the individual, without considering environmental factors guiding their behavior.
They propose an innovative ecological approach, the C.A.R.E. model, suggesting that re-entry programs implement four steps – Collaborate, Amend, Reintegrate, and Empower – to successfully re-unite justice-involved individuals with their families, communities, and the labor market.
“C” stands for Collaborate:
The model suggests that re-entry programs must collaborate with government agencies, policy-makers, and criminal justice organizations to improve outcomes for justice-involved individuals. Recognizing that these individuals are only part of the system that shapes their behavior, the model emphasizes that addressing any dysfunctional aspects of their conduct requires systemic transformation across the entire criminal justice process, in addition to individual interventions.
“A” stands for Amend:
The model also advocates for amending post-conviction penalties, which restrict voting rights, housing, and employment opportunities. While these political, economic, and social post-conviction penalties are intended to prevent re-offending, they often have the opposite effect by inadvertently isolating individuals from any positive aspects of their communities, which impedes reintegration and increases recidivism.
“R” stands for Reintegrate:
The C.A.R.E. model stresses the importance of reintegrating justice individuals with their community by involving families, organizations, employers, and other community groups in the re-entry process. The team’s research shows that shielding justice-involved individuals from the community results in increased social stigma. This inevitably creates a feedback loop of hostility between justice-involved individuals and the community that further complicates reunification.
“E” stands for Empower:
Finally, re-entry programs should empower justice-involved individuals by helping them secure volunteer opportunities. Helping justice-involved individuals to positively impact their communities empowers them to shed the stigma associated with incarceration, and allows them to become valued community members.
The holistic approach of the C.A.R.E. model will not only benefit justice-involved individuals who are re-entering society, but will also strengthen families and communities, leading to a more harmonious and safe society.
