Descripciones mejoradas de Syndetics:

In 2003, well over half a million jailed Americans will leave prison and return to society. Largely uneducated, unskilled, often without family support, and with the stigma of a prison record hanging over them, many if not most will experience serious social and psychological problems after release. Fewer than one in three prisoners receive substance abuse or mental health treatment while incarcerated, and each year fewer and fewer participate in the dwindling number of vocational or educational pre-release programs, leaving many all but unemployable. Not surprisingly, the great majority is rearrested, most within six months of their release. What happens when all those sent down the river come back up--and out? As long as there have been prisons, society has struggled with how best to help prisoners reintegrate once released. But the current situation is unprecedented. As a result of the quadrupling of the American prison population in the last quarter century, the number of returning offenders dwarfs anything in America's history. What happens when a large percentage of inner-city men, mostly Black and Hispanic, are regularly extracted, imprisoned, and then returned a few years later in worse shape and with dimmer prospects than when they committed the crime resulting in their imprisonment? What toll does this constant "churning" exact on a community? And what do these trends portend for public safety? A crisis looms, and the criminal justice and social welfare system is wholly unprepared to confront it. Drawing on dozens of interviews with inmates, former prisoners, and prison officials, Joan Petersilia convincingly shows us how the current system is failing, and failing badly. Unwilling merely to sound the alarm, Petersilia explores the harsh realities of prisoner reentry and offers specific solutions to prepare inmates for release, reduce recidivism, and restore them to full citizenship, while never losing sight of the demands of public safety. As the number of ex-convicts in America continues to grow, their systemic marginalization threatens the very society their imprisonment was meant to protect. America spent the last decade debating who should go to prison and for how long. Now it's time to decide what to do when prisoners come home.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• 1 Introduction and Overview: The Emerging Importance of Prisoner Reentry to Crime and Community(p. 3)
• 2 Who's Coming Home? A Profile of Returning Prisoners(p. 21)
• 3 The Origins and Evolution of Modern Parole(p. 55)
• 4 The Changing Nature of Parole Supervision and Services(p. 77)
• 5 How We Help: Preparing Inmates for Release(p. 93)
• 6 How We Hinder: Legal and Practical Barriers to Reintegration(p. 105)
• 7 Revolving Door Justice: Inmate Release and Recidivism(p. 139)
• 8 The Victim's Role in Prisoner Reentry(p. 155)
• 9 What to Do? Reforming Parole and Reentry Practices(p. 171)
• 10 Conclusions: When Punitive Policies Backfire(p. 221)
• Bibliography(p. 249)
• Index(p. 269)

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Nationally recognized criminology scholar Petersilia (Univ. of California, Irvine) has provided a benchmark text portraying the pressing societal and criminal justice policy crisis of a record number of prisoners returning to communities. Providing a comprehensive depiction of the problems inmates encounter inside and outside the correctional system, the author enables readers to compare the current correctional situation with Daniel Glaser's landmark study, The Effectiveness of a Prison and Parole System (1964). Since prisons do not attract sustained citizen attention, Petersilia begins by stating the problems and issues associated with requirements to reform specific practices, then profiles prisoners returning to communities. The following two chapters outline the creation of parole practices and abandonment as a release process from prison, while retaining surveillance aspects of supervision. The emphasis in the community is on supervision, not services. Petersilia describes the lack of release preparation in prison, obstacles to inmate reintegration into a law-abiding life in the community, and return to crime. The relevance of victims in this process is not forgotten. Drawing on existing successful programs, remaining chapters provide an authentic plan for necessary changes in the reintegration of inmates in the community. The conclusion points out correctional policy failures and future outcomes. Excellent bibliography. A must-read for every American. ^BSumming Up: Essential. All libraries. J. H. Larson University of North Dakota

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Joan Petersilia is Professor of Criminology at the University of California, Irvine. The author of numerous books and a former president of the American Society of Criminology, she is a consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice and to many state and local agencies