Rebuilding Lives. Strengthening Communities.

Improve basic pre-release preparation by enhancing Pre-Start services.
Recommendation
MAYORAL POLICY CAUCUS ON PRISONER REENTRY
24
Issue
Prisoners must access community programs and resources
within a relatively short period of time after their release,
before they become desperate or tempted to revert back to
criminal behaviors. These same individuals, upon discharge,
often are less attached to jobs, their families, and
the communities to which they return. And they
likely are not aware of, or do not know how to access, the
myriad of social services their communities can provide.
Left on their own, most prisoners fail to connect with all
the services they need.
In 1991, the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC)
developed a specifically designed pre-release program,
known as Pre-Start, to provide prisoners with a “crash
course” on life after prison. 62 Pre-Start was designed as a
one-to-two week, 15-hour per week, specialized
curriculum focusing on reentry preparation, such as
employment, housing, transportation, budgeting and family
reunification. It is offered to prisoners within
approximately one month of their release date. 63 Various
components of Pre-Start differ slightly depending on the
correctional institution.
Many challenges exist within the current structure of the
Pre-Start program. First, the substance of the material
presented in Pre-Start is general, and the local resource
information is often outdated and inaccurate. Second,
Pre-Start is structured mainly as lecture-type classes (with
some use of workbooks), and does not provide any opportunity
for individualized discharge planning for prisoners.
This is the responsiblity of Field Services, though the two
activities should be better integrated. Prisoners may
complete the Pre-Start program with a broad understanding
of what to expect after their release, but are not given
referrals for specific services. It is, then, primarily up to
the prisoners themselves to locate and establish contact
with community-based agencies upon discharge.
Further, community-based agencies are not included in
the Pre-Start program; rather, correctional staff primarily
teaches these classes without assistance from the organizations
that may be receiving these prisoners later. Lastly,
the same Pre-Start curriculum (and workbook) serves all
prisoners, whether they read at a fourth-grade level or a
college level and whether they have been incarcerated for
six months or ten years. Very little individual attention is
provided through Pre-Start.
The usefulness of this pre-release program is questionable.
In a 2004 study, the Urban Institute found that although
79 percent of Pre-Start participants reported receiving
some training about job searches, only 25 percent reported
receiving actual referrals to potential jobs, less than ten
percent received actual referrals for health care, housing
and counseling, and only 22 percent reported contacting a
community program after their release using an actual
referral from Pre-Start. 64
Solution
Similar to health care services, prisoners need continuity
of employment services to sustain the benefits of their
in-prison education and training after their release.
Because prison programs do not (and should not) extend
past prisoners’ release, community-based agencies must
devise ways to reach prisoners during their incarceration
to provide a continuum of services and to be effective in
reducing recidivism.
Pre-release programs such as Pre-Start should provide
specific information about reentry support services, focusing
on employment and retention issues. Pre-Start, in
conjunction with IDOC’s Placement Resource Unit (PRU),
should assist prisoners with preparing a detailed reentry
plan and discharge summary and should directly link
prisoners to community-based agencies, including job
placement centers, faith-based organizations, supportive
services, and health care providers in the local neighborhoods
to which they are returning. Further, each
prisoner should leave prison with appropriate referrals
coordinated through PRU.