Community Meetings as a Tool in Inmate Reentry

Abstract

Like most U.S. urban areas, Marion County (Indianapolis), Indiana, is experiencing increasing numbers of former inmates returning to the community. Concerned with the issue of inmate reentry, Indianapolis criminal justice officials, neighborhood leaders, and service providers decided to hold group meetings with individuals who had been released from prison within the last 60 days to convey a deterrence message coupled with social support. The meetings were patterned after an approach that had been successfully employed with gang members in Boston and Indianapolis. This article has two key goals. The first is to describe the problem-solving approach employed by Indianapolis officials, which involved analysis of inmate reentry and reoffending rates as a way of developing an intervention (community meetings). The second goal is to present evaluation findings on the impact of the meetings. Although there was some evidence of a longer period before rearrest for inmates attending the meetings, the multivariate analyses suggested that the meetings did not have a significant impact on the rate of reoffending. The results should be considered within the context of the relatively low dosage of a single meeting with a group of former inmates with extensive involvement in criminal activity. Although the meetings alone did not prove to have an impact on reoffending, they may prove to be a tool that could be used as part of a broader strategy that includes intervention prior to release from prison and follow-up after the meeting.