NCJ Number
225935
Date Published
2008
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This chapter focuses on the Federal Bureau of Prison’s new strategy and way of viewing female offender management, specifically in social reintegration with the Inmate Skills Development (ISD) initiative.
Abstract
The ISD initiative provides a new model to enhance reentry success and reduce recidivism, particularly for the female offender population, in addressing their significant and discreet skill deficiencies as revealed in research and focus group findings, such as in the areas of psychological and health services. The ISD is a new model of framing the reentry process that moves from fairly unstructured case management assessments and success defined as program completions to a highly structured and focused competency-based model that measures success by skill acquisition and ultimately reentry success. Although not completely integrated into the Federal Bureau of Prisons and yet to be proven, the ISD initiative will be reported on as the data are analyzed and the Bureau believes it offers powerful tools and connections for offender transition. The Federal Bureau of Prisons offers an extensive array of strategies to both prepare an inmate for release and improve his/her behavior during incarceration. In shifting its philosophy and reemphasizing the Bureau’s mission to prepare inmates for release in the community, the ISD initiative was developed. This chapter describes the ISD initiative, a competency-based reentry strategy designed to promote skill-building and inmate accountability, and addresses the multidimensional problems of female offenders. Table, figures, note, and references