Cambridge Studies in Criminology: Prisoner Reentry and Crime in America

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.

Introduction; 1. Viewing public safety through the reentry lens Jeremy Travis and Christy Visher; 2. From cell to society: who is returning home? Joan Petersilia; 3. Reentry as a transient state between liberty and recommitment Alfred Blumstein and Allen J. Beck; 4. The contribution of ex-prisoners to crime rates Rick Rosenfeld, Joel Wallman and Robert Fornango; 5 Does supervision matter? Anne Morrison Piehl and Stefan F. LoBuglio; 6. The impact of imprisonment on the desistance process Shadd Maruna and Hans Toch; 7. Communities and reentry: concentrated reentry cycling Todd Clear, Elin Waring and Kristin Scully; 8. Work and family perspectives on reentry Christopher Uggen, Sara Wakefield and Bruce Western; 9. Considering policy implications Jeremy Travis and Christy Visher.