Prisoner Reentry and Crime in America

Description

Prisoner Reentry and Crime in America is intended to shed light on a question that fuels the public's concern about the number of returning prisoners. What are the public safety consequences of the fourfold increase in the number of individuals entering and leaving the nation's prisons each year? Many have speculated about the nexus between prisoner reentry and public safety. Journalistic accounts of the reentry phenomenon have painted a picture of a tidal wave of hardened criminals coming back home to resume their destructive lifestyles. Law enforcement officials have attributed increases in violence in their communities to the influx of returning prisoners. Politicians have recommended policies that keep former prisoners out of high crime neighborhoods in the belief that crime would be reduced. The chapters in this book address these issues and suggest policies that will keep released prisoners from committing new crimes.

Jeremy Travis is President of John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. He has written and published extensively on constitutional law, criminal law and criminal justice policy. Christy Visher is Principal Research Associate at the Urban Institute, in the Justice Policy Center. Dr. Visher has published widely on crime and justice topics, including prisoner reentry, crime prevention strategies, criminal careers, the arrest process, youthful offending, incapacitation, and use of drug testing in the criminal justice system.