Authors: Leonard Engel, Meghan Howe
2006
The opportunity to understand the complex issues of offender reentry and the impact on the communities to which they return with the goal of bringing key stakeholders together, led the Crime and Justice Institute (CJI) to examine these issues and the innovative strategies involving community members in the reentry planning of the offenders. This effort culminated in a day-long roundtable discussion with a diverse group of people involved in one manner or another with reentry, victims and the community.
The residents of high-crime communities may or may not be the direct victims of crime, at least in the sense of qualifying for victim services, but they are victims of the criminality present in their neighborhoods. The communities in which they live are also where the majority of offenders return after incarceration. The residents of these communities must not only deal with the threats caused by the unending presence of criminality but must also bear the burden of absorbing the returning offenders; the previous victimizers. They have no control over the fact that the offender is returning and very little impact in the criminal justice process, including re-entry.
Read the Communities/Victim document (pdf)
