NCJ Number
207480
Date Published
October 2003
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Using the Ohio reentry court as a model, this paper discusses how partnerships among courts, corrections, and community enterprises can improve the chances that an offender will undergo positive change and become a responsible participant in community life.
Abstract
Outlined in "The Ohio Plan for Productive Offender Reentry and Recidivism Reduction," Ohio has developed a strategy of coordinated collaboration among courts, corrections, and community partners to promote successful offender reentry into the community after serving a sentence. The strategy has a format of actions for each of six areas believed to influence the outcome of offender reentry: reception, offender assessments, and reentry planning; offender programming that targets criminogenic needs; family involvement; employment readiness and discharge planning; reentry-centered offender supervision; and community justice partnerships. Reentry courts are featured as a new form of jurisprudence that structures the partnership between courts and corrections in promoting successful offender reintegration. The reentry court oversees prisons' prerelease work in preparing inmates for release; and it coordinates the involvement of community corrections agencies and various community resources that will be involved in helping the ex-offender address reintegration problems. The Ohio model provides a seamless approach to offender rehabilitation whereby all components of the criminal justice system and appropriate community enterprises work with offenders from the beginning of the sentence through readjustment in the community after the sentence is completed. 40 references