Prisoner Reentry

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RAND Turns 75: A Look Through the Decades At World-Changing Research

From anticipating the Space Age in the 1940s to studying gun policy and COVID-19 responses in the 2020s, RAND is celebrating 75 years of research that has made a difference.

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States Have Leading Role to Play in Preventing Mass Shootings

As the United States grapples with how to prevent mass shootings, state governments might be best positioned to take the lead on long-term, sustainable efforts that prevent targeted violence.

Katya Migacheva, Jordan R. Reimer

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How Data Can Help Refugees, Homelessness in L.A., Harm Reduction: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on tapping into Facebook data to help refugees, addressing homelessness in Los Angeles, understanding burnout among health care providers, and more.

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Extremism and Substance Use Disorder, Criminal Background Checks, Vaccine Diplomacy: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the parallels between extremism and substance use disorder, a better way to measure recidivism risk, global vaccine diplomacy, and more.

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Criminal Justice in the Pandemic Era and Beyond

The pandemic forced the entire criminal justice system to adapt and innovate in ways it never had before. How can the lessons of COVID-19 improve the future of criminal justice?

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Investing in Social Change: Lessons Learned from Foundation-Funded Criminal Justice Research

Investing in policy-focused research can be among the ways foundations catalyze change. Impactful work may involve strong collaborations across funders, researchers, and community partners. And it may require flexibility in design and execution as well as a commitment to getting the findings into the hands of decisionmakers who can use the findings to create change.

Stephanie Brooks Holliday

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Pandemic-Era Parties, China's Global Influence, Reducing Infant Mortality: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on assessing the risk of small gatherings during the pandemic, China's ability to exert influence around the world, using big data to reduce infant mortality, and more.

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Supportive Housing Can Help Keep People with Mental Illness Out of Jail

Hundreds of thousands of people with serious mental illnesses cycle in and out of American jails every year. In Los Angeles, some of them are getting diverted into a supportive housing program where they can get the treatment they need. And the results are promising.

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State of the Union 2020: Insights from RAND

The final State of the Union address of President Trump's four-year term may be viewed through the lens of the unprecedented circumstances surrounding the evening. But the speech touched on a range of policy challenges that will remain, regardless of how politics play out in 2020.

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Iran, Mental Health and Jail, Russia: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on Iran and Iraq following the death of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, supporting those experiencing mental illness in jails, Russia's hostile measures, and more.

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Veterans, Autonomous Vehicles, Digital Protests: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on preventing veteran suicide, who's responsible when a car is hacked, how digital protests can affect Fortune 500 companies, and more.

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A Novel Approach to Helping People Returning from Prison

Many services try to address the needs of individuals returning from prison, but they're often designed without much input from the very people who need the services. A group of county agencies, service providers, and former prisoners collaborated to identify ways to improve reentry services in Los Angeles.

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Synthetic Opioids, Mass Shootings, Prison Education: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap looks at fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, how to address mass shootings, higher education in prison, and more.

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Gun Policy, Cannabis, ISIS: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap looks at gun policy in America, the cannabis market in Washington state, countering an ISIS comeback, and more.

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North Carolina Program Helps Former Prisoners Make It on the Outside

To avoid the all-too-common fate of ending up back in prison, incarcerated adults need skills and credentials they typically don't have. Helping them overcome the challenges of reentry is a net gain for them and for the communities to which they return.

Lois M. Davis @LoisMDavis, Michelle C. Tolbert

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Iran, Prison College Programs, Fentanyl: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on Iran's nonstate partners, lessons from a prison college program, what a fentanyl ban in China means for the U.S. opioid crisis, and more.

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State of the Union 2019: Insights from RAND

To shed light on a wide range of topics that figured in President Trump's second State of the Union address, we've rounded up insights from some of RAND's objective and nonpartisan research, analysis, and expertise.

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UK Prisons Are in 'Crisis,' So What Can Be Done to Improve Performance?

Prisons in the UK are experiencing record numbers of suicides and other violent incidents, as well as staff shortages. Policymakers working on prison reform need more effective ways to measure the performance of prison programs.

Emma Disley

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The Pendulum Swings Back: Support for Postsecondary Education in Prison

Correctional educational programs can reduce incarceration costs and recidivism. But it's critical that former inmates can connect with reentry services in the community to complete their education.

Lois M. Davis @LoisMDavis

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Counties Need to Help Parolees Access Health Care

Health needs can be big challenges for former prisoners seeking to reenter communities. But recent policies in California promise to reduce that barrier.

Lois M. Davis @LoisMDavis, Susan Turner

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Drug Dependence: Treatment Over Incarceration

Drug dependence imposes significant costs to society and traditional criminal justice responses like imprisonment do not reduce crime. More quality research on alternative sanctions could help police, prosecutors, and judges expand their options while helping users get treatment.

Matthew Davies, Emma Disley, et al.

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Does Intervention or Investment Innovate? Social Impact Bonds at the Close of the Peterborough Prison Pilot

There is limited evidence to support the assumption that social impact bonds offer a particularly effective way to spur innovation in service provision and will only have beneficial effects.

Emma Disley, Chris Giacomantonio

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State of the Union 2016: Insights on Obama's Last Address

RAND research, analysis, and expertise provide context for many of the issues discussed in President Barack Obama's final State of the Union address, including the threat of ISIS, global climate change, and bringing peace to Syria.

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The Case for Correctional Education in U.S. Prisons

Inmates who participate in any kind of educational program behind bars are up to 43 percent less likely to reoffend and return to prison. They also appear to be far more likely to find a job after their release.

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What's Next on the Convicted Terrorist's Timeline?

As inmates near the end of their sentences for terrorism-related offenses, and with some individuals already freed, it's time to explore what considerations may be necessary.

Michael A. Brown

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Obama Commutes Sentences of 46 Drug Offenders. Now for the Hard Part

Last month, President Obama commuted more sentences in a single day than any president since Lyndon Johnson. But commutation doesn't erase a criminal conviction.

Lois M. Davis @LoisMDavis

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Prior Removal and Recidivism

President Obama's executive action on immigration includes a new program that targets immigration enforcement at those arrested for more serious offenses and those deemed to be risks to national security. Research shows that unauthorized immigrants who have been previously deported are more likely to be rearrested after jail release, so local public safety interests and federal immigration enforcement priorities may well align around immigrants with a record of prior removal.

Laura J. Hickman, Jennifer S. Wong, et al.

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Using Education to Stop the Prison Revolving Door

Providing education and vocational training to inmates is a cost-effective way to reduce recidivism rates, thus shrinking prison populations and easing the strain on prison budgets. Education is far less expensive than incarceration.

Lois M. Davis @LoisMDavis

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The State of Washington and Its Focus on Rehabilitation

California can learn a great deal from the state of Washington, which has implemented a series of reforms focused on rehabilitation--on diverting offenders to treatment and other options and making serving time in prison the last option.

Lois M. Davis @LoisMDavis

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If You Want Ex-Cons to Be 'Productive Members of Society,' Ban the Box

When an inmate is released, you often hear Americans say that he's 'paid his debt' and can now become 'a productive member of society.' But the reality is ex-cons pay for their crimes long after sentences end. On the outside, the stigma of incarceration makes it extremely difficult to land a job.

Lois M. Davis @LoisMDavis

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Sending Prisoners to College Will Save You Money

Correctional education works for states because it saves money and shrinks prison populations. It works for prisoners, the public, law enforcement, and the judicial system because educated prisoners are less likely to return to their criminal ways once released.

Lois M. Davis @LoisMDavis, Jennifer L. Steele

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Medicaid Access for the Formerly Incarcerated Under the ACA: Helping the Oft-Forgotten

America's prison population tends to be sicker than the general population. While Medicaid eligibility under the ACA offers an historic opportunity, enrolling the formerly incarcerated into the health exchanges or Medicaid will be neither simple nor straightforward.

Lois M. Davis @LoisMDavis

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To Stop Prisons' Revolving Door

If California wants to reduce its prison population, it needs to address recidivism, and the best way to do this is through education and job training. Cutting education and vocational training may seem like a tempting way to plug short-term budget gaps, but it actually ends up costing the system more over time.

Lois M. Davis @LoisMDavis

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Advancing Social Outcomes: Private Investors Could Be Part of the Solution

Under a Social Impact Bond, private investors — rather than the government — provide up-front funding for programs that tackle such challenges as recidivism or homelessness. If these programs succeed, the government pays some of the savings back to the investors.

Jennifer Rubin, Emma Disley

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Lois Davis's Prisoner Re-Entry Work Earns Recognition from California Assembly

RAND congratulates senior policy researcher Lois Davis, whose work on the public health consequences of prisoner re-entry in California earned RAND the 64th Assembly District's AB 109 Re-Entry Award.

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Prisoner Reentry and Public Health: Is Your State Ready?

Lois M. Davis, senior policy researcher, discusses the unique health needs of prisoners re-entering the general population and the role that health plays in their successful re-integration.

Lois M. Davis @LoisMDavis

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California's Prisoner Shuffle

The state needs to deal with prison overcrowding and inadequate medical care for prisoners in ways that don't simply transfer the burden to county criminal justice systems and the healthcare safety nets of local communities, writes Lois Davis.

Lois M. Davis @LoisMDavis

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Can Gitmo's Terrorists Be Rehabilitated?

Before he closes Guantánamo, Obama must take a clear-eyed look at the record – and anticipate the next chapter of the fight against terrorism. What happens to terrorist suspects after they leave the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, writes Aidan Kirby Winn.

Aidan Kirby Winn

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Prison Health Care

Prison Health Care, in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Lois M. Davis @LoisMDavis

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Focus on the Worst Ex-Cons and Boost Community-Based Rehab

Focus on the Worst Ex-Cons and Boost Community-Based Rehab in Riverside Press-Enterprise

Andrew R. Morral @AndrewMorral