This article provides an overview of the Successful Transition and Reentry Together Program’s Sentinel Event Review, which set out to understand and improve START program outcomes, guide discussions, and generate recommendations for program improvement goals.
This article is based on the report Sentinel Event Review for Successful Transition and Reentry Together (START) Program in the Eastern District of Wisconsin. Through its partnership with National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the START program of the Eastern District of Wisconsin undertook a Sentinel Event Review (SER) process to systematically review near-misses and unsuccessful cases of re-entry and to propose recommendations to improve START program outcomes. This article lays out the START Program’s SER process, results and data analysis, recommendations, and implications for future SERs. Results indicated the following about START program outcomes: many participants successfully complete START and have their Term of Supervised Release discharged despite extending the program beyond the minimum for completion; completion of START was associated with Terms of Supervised Release being discharged; most START program terminations occurred during the program’s first phase; and regular data analysis and routine outcomes monitoring support the SER process.