Created in 2005, the Prisoner Reentry Initiative (PRI) is a joint endeavor of the U.S. Departments of Labor and Justice. The Initiative seeks to strengthen urban communities that experience a high number of returning prisoners through employment-centered projects that include job training, housing referrals, mentoring, and other comprehensive transitional services. This evaluation found that among PRI grantees, two-thirds of clients are placed in unsubsidized employment within three weeks.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice, in conjunction with the Council of State Governments Justice Center published this resource for state government officials and representatives of faith-based and community organizations. This guide offers information on how to create and sustain collaborative efforts to reduce recidivism and to help people returning to the community from prisons or jails lead productive and law-abiding lives.

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation commissioned this brief, which describes the Responsible Fatherhood, Marriage and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Re-entering Fathers and their Partners (MFS-IP). Authors provide an overview of the implementation and impact evaluation of this initiative on families around the country.

From the Urban Institute and funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, this publication provides information on the Jail House Reentry Roundtable Initiative. Specifically, this report provides a synthesis of best practices from the Initiative from the past two years, which included a Jail Reentry Roundtable and two national advisory meetings, a "scan of practice," and interviews with stakeholders from around the country.

From the Urban Institute, this resource is a toolkit for reentering prisoners into society. Specifically, this toolkit focuses on all types of inmates that are faced with the challenges of reentry, regardless of jail time. Information in this toolkit was developed from jail administrators, correction and law enforcement professionals, county and community leaders, and service providers.

This resource is authored by the Urban Institute and provides an overview of current research on children with incarcerated parents. In the United States, 1.5 million children have one or both parents that are incarcerated. Authors offer recommendations on reducing the negative impact for children, which includes building supportive relationships with the parent and other adults.

This paper is through the Institute for Research on Poverty and reviews research on collateral costs and benefits of incarceration on earnings and employment. While the increase in incarceration over the past decades has generated social benefits, the author argues that the negative consequences for society are greater such as the large costs on employment associated with current levels of incarceration.

From the Bendheim-Thoman Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, Princeton University, this Fragile Families Research Brief summarizes the results of papers that use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to estimate the effect of incarceration on the wages and employment for poor young fathers. Employment and stable wages can play an important role in helping ex-prisoners reenter into their communities and reduce recidivism into criminal behavior.

This policy brief from the Urban Institute focuses on the issue of prisoner reentry in Cleveland, Ohio. This is the fourth in the series of research briefs, and outlines findings from interviews with stakeholders. Stakeholders included individuals and organizations that were familiar with reentry-related issues such as local government officials, criminal justice practitioners, and civic leaders.

From the National Institute of Drug Abuse within the National Institutes of Health, this press release reports that crystal methamphetamine use among young adults in the United States has considerably increased. A reported 2.8 percent of adults ages 18-26 used crystal methamphetamine in the years 2001-2002. The use of crystal methamphetamine is associated with criminal behavior and risky sexual behavior among this population.