When Prisoners Come Home: Parole and Prisoner Reentry (Studies in Crime and Public Policy)

Posted on behalf of Michael G. Santos author of Inside: Life Behind Bars in America. Michael Santos is currently in his 23rd year inside the federal prison system. He anticipates release in 2012.

Date Read: May 6, 2009
Title: When Prisoners Come Home
Author: Joan Petersilia, PhD
Publisher: Oxford University Press (2003)
Nonfiction/296 pages
When Prisoners Come Home was the seventh book I read in 2009

What I learned from reading When Prisoners Come Home:
This was the first academic book I have read in many years, and I enjoyed reading it more than any other academic book that I can remember. The subject matter was and is of intense interest to me for obvious reasons. This book alarmed me with the horrifying statistics, some of which I knew, others of which I did not. I knew about the high recidivism rates, of course, as I have been reading for years that two out of every three released prisoners return to confinement.

What I did not know prior to reading Professor Petersilia's book was the overwhelming reluctance employers have in hiring people with prison records. She pointed to studies that showed the high percentage of employers who affirmed that they would never hire someone with a drug conviction or prison record.

Reading books like Professor Petersilia wrote validate the concerns I have had about the obstacles I expect to face upon release. That is why I must continue working hard every day. I must overcome those obstacles by preparing myself in unconventional ways. That includes improving my fitness level, strengthening my communication skills, enhancing my resume with more publishing credentials, nurturing my marriage, and building a stronger network of support that will have a vested interest in my success upon release.

How reading When Prisoners Come Home will contribute to my success upon release:
I am convinced that the more I know about the challenges that await me, the better I can prepare to overcome them. In reading this book, I have gained more knowledge I can use to convey to audiences I expect to address as a speaker, consultant, and teacher. I am recommending this book to other prisoners. Although Professor Petersilia wrote the book for academia, prisoners should read her work as well in order to grasp the importance of preparing for release.

Michael Santos
PrisonNewsBlog.com
MichaelSantos.net

Petersilia does well explaining offender reentry in terms understandable to all stake holders in the criminal justice system: elected officials, corrections professionals, reentry coordinators, social service providers, and the community at large. The numbers of individuals who will be released from correctional institutions (federal, state, and local) is staggering, and this book does well to identify barriers and reconcile how communities could (and should) be dealing with these pending releases.

This is an excellent book that state legislators should read. Among other points, the author articulates research on how the decreased use of parole has actually led to shorter sentences and less accountability in prisoner rehabilitation. While this book was written several years ago and a lot of research has been conducted in the interim, it offers an excellent account of how our crime policies have unintended consequences.

One of the particular strengths of this book is that it is very non-partisan. Considerable attention is paid to those who are incarcerated as well as their victims. The attention paid is also not done in an emotionally driven plea for either side but through the use of opinion polls and an understanding that victims of crimes vary in their responses.

An additional strength of this book is that in its discussions, it separates out dangerous offenders from the marginal offenders, their impact on society and what should be done about them. There are few books that offer as many concrete suggestions about what to do as does this book.

Because this book is a few years old and there has been a lot of research done since its publication, I highly recommend that it be supplemented with other books on corrections, prisons and jail, such as Imprisoning Communities or Punishment and Inequality in America.

"When Prisoners Come Home sets the stage for reinventing the offender pre-release planning and discharge process. Dr. Petersilia's insight is nothing less than inspiring."
--Reginald Wilkinson, Former President, American Correctional Association

"Joan Petersilia has brilliantly mapped the terrain of prisoner reentry, mixing forgotten wisdom, new data, and fresh insights into a compelling call for new approahces to the reintegration of returning prisoners."
--Jeremy Travis, Senior Fellow, Urban Institute

"When Prisoners Come Home is scholarship at its highest practical level. With about 600,000 prisoners being released each year, governments are planning massive and expensive efforts to deal with the avalanche. Dr. Petersilia's book is a necessary ally in that formidable task. To add to its attraction, it is crisply and clearly written--scholarship infused by practical experience and presented without pretension. For many decades it will dominate the literature on parole and the conditions of prisoners returning to society."
--Norval Morris, Julius Kreeger Professor of Law and Criminology, Emeritus, University of Chicago

Petersilia has written a book on a topic that should clearly be of interest to all of us - not just those in the corrections field. She continues to define community corrections in her unique, empirically-oriented, style. Her writing is lucid, non-pretentious, and cutting-edge. As a non-academic, I found it totally readable and useful.