Reentry vs. Prison Reform

In recent years, increased attention has focused on the importance of prisoner reentry in public policy.  Lots of time, energy, and money, has gone into lots of research by lots of academics and criminal justice professionals.  Much of that research has created lots of information documenting, and re-documenting, the myriad obstacles to successful reentry faced by an increasing number of convicted persons.  Note the use of "convicted persons," as opposed to "formerly incarcerated persons."  Only a relatively small percentage of persons convicted of felony offenses actually go to prison--but that's a story for another blog post.

A common refrain among the above mentioned horde of reentry researchers suggests that societal interest in successful prisoner reentry must start on the front end of an offender's engagement with the criminal justice system.  That is, as soon as the offender enters the system, the system should begin to lay out a path for that offender's successful reentry into the community after the satisfaction of all appropriate criminal sanctions.  While I definitely support that line of thinking, I suggest a huge qualification.

Notwithstanding the logical connection between successful prisoner reentry and the need to begin a path toward the same as soon as possible once an offender enters the criminal justice system, we must remain mindful of the dichotomy between the prison experience and the reentry experience.  While I support the movement for prison reform, prison reform and prisoner reentry constitute two different issues.  In legalese, "conditions of confinement" issues have very little to do with the employment and housing discrimination convicted persons almost always encounter during the reentry experience.  Sentencing reform, often included under the umbrella of prison reform, also presents a set of considerations that, while tangentially connected to prisoner reentry, involve and invoke a fundamentally different set of issues and concerns.

My point?  Much of the resistance and rejection convicted persons experience in their reentry directly connects to the notion of punishment.  Reentry advocates must focus on separating--in the social mind--punishment from reentry.  In the vast majority of cases, punishment must end when reentry begins.  Merging prison reform with prisoner reentry perpetuates the mental connection between punishment and reentry, and countermands efforts to enhance opportunities for convicted persons to overcome obstacles to successful socio-economic reentry.