ABSTRACT
Reentry programs most often focus on offender behavioral modification through cognitive behavioral interventions that may include additional components such as educational/vocational training and assistance, substance abuse treatment, or life skills development. Reentry presents a significant challenge for the criminal justice system and allied services such as health care and mental health agencies. There are currently more than two million Americans incarcerated in the nation's prisons and jails and an additional five million under some form of community supervision. The prisoner reentry literature suffers from a number of methodological shortcomings including a lack of experimental research that has produced largely inconsistent findings. The Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI), the precursor to the Second Chance Act (SCA), has produced a wealth of evaluation research across its 89 sites. Lattimore and Visher evaluated 12 original SVORI sites reporting mixed results.
