NCJ Number
86009
Journal
Canadian Journal of Criminology Volume: 24 Issue: 4 Dated: (October 1982) Pages: 417-423
Date Published
1982
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This article evaluates present shortcomings of postrelease services to ex-offenders in Quebec, Canada, and outlines improvements in the work of community case management officers.
Abstract
Community case management officers, faced with the various needs of released inmates, too often hide behind the rules their superiors require them to enforce. As a consequence, prescribed administrative procedures and reporting duties are performed as a priority and outweigh the true needs of clients. Emphasis of case managers assisting the reintegration of ex-offenders into the community should be upon enhancing the client's liberty and self-reliance rather than on the repressive features of postrelease supervision. The priority is to meet the survival needs of ex-inmates reentering society -- lodging, initial funds for existing on one's own, finding employment, and alleviating the fears and social difficulties of reentry. Community case managers must be knowledgeable about the private and public resources available in the community and guide their clients in their use. To do this, agents should actively pursue better contacts with other professionals in the justice system as well as with a variety of both formal and informal community institutions. Agents' job requirements should encourage this aspect of professional case work by quantifying time allotments for community liaison but allowing latitude in the choice of such activities according to the needs of individual clients. Six notes are given.