The National Poverty Center released a working paper bibliography that summarizes research on the structure and effectiveness of workforce development programs. The paper covers evidence on the overall effectiveness of job training and other active labor market programs, several proposals to improve them, and the impact of the Great Recession on workforce development in the U.S. It also discusses the growing skills and earnings gaps between rich and poor Americans, and provides evidence on training and advancement programs.

The National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families released a brief on healthy relationships, employment, and reentry. This brief provides an overview of the evidence supporting the interrelatedness of employment, healthy relationships, family well-being, and recidivism. It also gives the perspectives of expert program practitioners who are successfully integrating programming related to employment, prison reentry, healthy relationships, and responsible fatherhood. Finally, this brief offers program and policy recommendations for leveraging the positive impacts of healthy relationships on employment and reentry and vice versa.

With over 95 percent of people in the nation's State prisons expected to be released at some point, officials at all levels of government recognize the need for initiatives to support the successful reentry of these individuals to their communities. The program snapshots released in this publication by the Council of State Governments illustrate the positive impact reentry initiatives can have by focusing on areas vital to successful reintegration back into the community, including employment, education, mentoring, and substance abuse and mental health treatment. Also highlighted are programs that address the needs of a particular population, such as women, youth and their families, and Tribal communities. Representing a wide range of populations served, these programs also demonstrate the diversity of approaches that can address recidivism and increase public safety.

This article briefly reviews research on transition challenges for youth with disabilities in the juvenile justice system and supports needed to become self-sufficient. Profiles of four State programs are provided, including program models, results, funding, and evaluation efforts. From the four example States, common themes are identified for future work.

The Foundation for Reentry and Employment Project released the Integrated Reentry and Employment Strategies white paper, which provides guidance to policymakers, agency and program administrators, and practitioners working in the reentry and workforce development fields on how to develop collaborative projects and maximize their investments aimed at shared public safety and workforce development goals.

The Urban Institute released a brief entitled "Case Management Strategies for Successful Jail Reentry." In 2007, the National Institute of Corrections partnered with the Urban Institute to develop and test a comprehensive Transition from Jail to Community (TJC) model for effective jail-to-community transition. The TJC model and initiative advanced systems-level change and local reentry through collaborative, coordinated jail-community partnerships. This brief presents the TJC Initiative's approach to case planning and draws upon the implementation experiences of six TJC learning sites, all of which implemented elements of the TJC case management process.

The Institute of Research on Poverty (IRP) hosted Mr. Bryan Sykes, a sociologist at DePaul University, to talk about some of the barriers that former inmates encounter when trying to find work, as well as how the costs of incarceration disproportionately affect young African American men. He also talks about his work on off-the-books labor and how former inmates still face heavy discrimination to the informal economy.