Generate an annual report of returning prisoners for municipalities to encourage needs-based assessment of local resources. Recommendation MAYORAL POLICY CAUCUS ON PRISONER REENTRY 92 Issue Almost all individuals who are released from an Illinois prison will return to a community in Illinois. 44 But the communities receive these formerly incarcerated men and women with little, if any, information about them or their evolving need for services. Although the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) has some of this data (e.g., demographics, offenses, health issues, and education levels of prisoners), there is no systematic, consistent method to provide local governments with this information. Policy decisions should be made that are empirically grounded and reflective of current realities. Without this data, municipalities are unable to inform city departments about where to focus available services to best support formerly incarcerated individuals in their jurisdiction and are unable to adequately persuade city councils, public officials or policymakers about where to judiciously allocate scarce resources. Solution It is invaluable to have knowledge about released prisoners conveyed to local government. Because the statistical information concerning the needs of prisoners returning to each county is constantly evolving, IDOC should develop a system to accurately update prisoner records on a yearly basis and create “exit reports.” These reports should include the total number of exits to each local jurisdiction, and should be further broken down by zip code within each local jurisdiction. These reports could be published and made available to the public via the Internet. Basic demographics about the released prisoners should be provided as well as employment and education levels, health status, offenses committed, and type of housing into which prisoners will be released. These reports would provide a more complete picture for local jurisdictions of issues with which they will be dealing when prisoners return to their communities. In April 2003, the Urban Institute launched a three-year longitudinal study of prisoner reentry in Illinois. The report from the first phase of research included a wide range of statistical information of prisoners released from Illinois correctional facilities. 45 It examined the percentage of prisoners released by race, age, education, admission type, conviction offense, sentence length, time served, security level, and number of prior incarcerations. This report presented the number of prisoners returning by county, city, and district, providing useful data on which jurisdictions received the most returning prisoners. For those communities in Chicago with the highest percentage of returning prisoners, data about unemployment, poverty levels, and local social service providers also was included in the report. The Urban Institute study represents a tremendous effort on the part of a research-based institution to collect and present an extensive amount of information in a succinct and organized manner. It has been highly useful to those working in the criminal justice field. However, the Urban Institute study is based on statistics gathered in 2001. In order to better serve municipalities, efforts should be made to keep the data current so that local jurisdictions can make informed judgments about how and where to invest their resources. Annual exit reports could help ascertain the complexities with which local jurisdictions must contend, and help inform reentry planning efforts.
N City of Chicago 2004 Inmate Exits (18,320) to Chicago by Zip Code and Community Areas INMATES LEGEND ZIP CODE COUNT
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Rebuilding Lives. Restoring Hope. S
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Message from the Mayor The issue of
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Introduction The Reality of Reentry
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Communities Too many communities ar
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A National Movement, A Nonpartisan
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The Mayoral Policy Caucus on Prison
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Theresa W. Theresa W. is a 25-year-
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Ramon C. is a 51-year-old Real Life
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Chapter 1: Employment Formerly inca
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The current need for IDOC’s educa
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Ensure pre-release vocational train
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Restructure and expand Illinois Cor
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While the passage of this legislati
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IDOC is currently re-examining the
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Solution To increase employment opp
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Solution To be most effective, educ
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Issue Encourage more “demand-side
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Promote and support transitional jo
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Promote and support social enterpri
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Foster more opportunities for entre
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(e.g., expungement, sealing of reco
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- Page 97 and 98: Solution The goal of “justice rei
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