The Issue

The vast majority of people in prison in this country will eventually be released, and their transition from prison to the community has major implications for public safety. In an attempt to improve outcomes for these individuals and to increase public safety, state policymakers have established interagency task forces, enacted new legislation, implemented new policies and procedures, and appropriated new funds to reduce gaps in services provided to the reentry population (e.g., substance abuse treatment, mental health treatment, housing). As such, these statewide plans cannot be implemented or administered by a single agency, but instead must integrate resources across multiple cabinet agencies, in addition to community-based non-profit organizations.

The collaborative approach necessitated by effective reentry plans makes accountability difficult. Policymakers in few, if any, states receive simple, user-friendly reports providing one integrated, comprehensive assessment of the status of the state’s reentry plan. And whatever assessment they do receive is often a one-time snapshot, without indicators that are routinely refreshed with new data to track progress from one report to the next. Under these circumstances, holding state agency officials accountable for results is virtually impossible.

The Response

The Council of State Governments Justice Center is developing a tool, the Reentry Dashboard, which state policymakers (e.g., legislators, governor’s aides, cabinet secretaries) can use to develop, assess, and improve a statewide reentry plan that aims to increase the likelihood that people’s transition from prison to the community is safe and successful. The Reentry Dashboard consists of three components:

1. The Reentry Dashboard (Coming Soon)
   The Reentry Dashboard conveys to policymakers the extent to which a comprehensive statewide reentry plan has been implemented and the intermediate outcomes (i.e., outcomes short of recidivism) it is yielding. It is one-page in length and provides numerical answers to the 20-30 indicator questions.
2. The Troubleshooting Guide (Coming Soon)
   The Troubleshooting Guide is a diagnostic tool state officials can use when an indicator in the Reentry Dashboard suggests that part of the state’s reentry plan is underperforming. The guide is comprised of 10 modules, with each module devoted to a core issue-area that policymakers and practitioners have identified as key to statewide, comprehensive, reentry plans.
3. The User's Manual (Coming Soon)
   The User’s Manual facilitates the application of the generic dashboard to individual states. It will address installation and data-collection challenges associated with the Reentry Dashboard, as well as define key terms and phrases used throughout the Reentry Dashboard and the Troubleshooting Guide.