The Public Health Dimensions of Prisoner Reentry: Addressing the Health Needs and Risks of Returning Prisoners and their Families Meeting Summary

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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SECTION 1.
Welcome and Meeting Overview

Jeremy Travis, Urban Institute

One of the most profound challenges facing American society is the reintegration of more than 600,000 individuals who leave state and federal prisons and return home each year. The fourfold increase in incarceration rates over the past 25 years has had far-reaching consequences. One and a half million children have a parent in prison. Four million citizens have lost their right to vote. Prisoners leave correctional facilities with little preparation for life on the outside, insufficient assistance with reintegration, and a high likelihood of return to prison for new crimes or parole violations. The damaging cycle of removal and return of large numbers of young adults, mostly men, creates specific health needs and risks for returning prisoners, their families, and the community at large.

This is the fourth in a series of Reentry Roundtables initiated by the Urban Institute's Justice Policy Center as part of a policy research initiative to advance our understanding of the process, risks, and challenges of prisoner reentry. In October 2000, the Urban Institute invited academics, practitioners, service providers, and community leaders to the first Reentry Roundtable in Washington, D.C., which examined sentencing and public safety issues from health, substance abuse, labor market, racial, community, family, and gender perspectives. That dynamic discussion led to the organization of the second Reentry Roundtable in March 2001 in New York City, which explored the impact of state policies on returning prisoners, families, and communities and developed a research agenda on prisoner reentry. In March 2002, a third Reentry Roundtable focused on the role of society's civil institutions in facilitating the reintegration process for former prisoners. The Urban Institute hopes to convene Reentry Roundtable meetings twice a year, with the aim of promoting a national discussion on a variety of issues relating to sentencing and prisoner reintegration. Future topics will include employment, housing, and the impact of reentry on adolescent development.

The aim of this roundtable was to generate national discussion about the health needs and health risks of returning prisoners and their families, and offer policymakers a critical opportunity to improve outcomes. While the focus was on prison reentry, many participants noted that those returning from jails also pose health problems to their communities and the health care system. The two-day session provided an opportunity for meeting participants to explore the places where corrections, reentry, and health perspectives intersect. The national roundtable was followed by a one-day session focused on health and prisoner reentry in California.

The format of the roundtable discussion is as follows. The two-day meeting is divided into seven topics. For each topic, we commission background papers written by some of the nation's leading researchers. For each of these issues, the author of the commissioned paper starts the discussion on that particular topic with a brief review of the paper, followed by a highly interactive exchange of perspectives by roundtable participants. (A full list of participants can be found in Appendix A.)

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