Target Organization (T.O.):URBAN LEAGUE OF UNION COUNTY, NEW JERSEY/ RECONNECTIONS
Industry of the T.O.:CORECTIONAL FACILITIES INDUSTRY
Description of Research Problem:
Decreased in the number of offenders enrolling for the reconnection/reentry programs presents a huge challenge. It implies rehabilitative goals of equipping the offenders with life skills for social reintegration and engagement in economically productive activities are not being realized; hence, a higher likelihood of recidivism. Besides, decline in re-entry implies that offenders do not get the psychosocial counseling which is crucial for holistic psychological and social healing of the victims.
Research Questions:
1) To what extent does a decrease in the enrollment to reconnection program contribute to increased recidivism?
2) Has the decrease in the enrollment to reentry affected former offenders’ prospect of finding a job?
3) What is the impact of the decreased enrollment on the mental health of the people transitioning from prison to communities?
Theories and/or Models as basis for the research:
1) Desistance theory
2) Socio-cultural theory
3) Social cognitive theory
4) Social development model
Methodology (Research Design and Data Analysis Method):
The research design to be applied is systematic review of literature. The systematic review will help in locating evidence about impact or reconnection. The articles identified from the search will be used to extract the data that will be analyzed to understand the phenomenon. The systematic review is structured process of conducting review that help the researcher answer defined research question. The data extracted from the included articles will be analyzed narratively if they the studies are heterogeneous. However, in case of homogenous studies, meta-analytic analysis will be used, i.e., statistical significance will be calculated using effect size.
Search Strategy:
The databases to be used in the search will be Google scholar and EBSCO host. A search protocol will be developed to guide the inclusion and exclusion of the articles identified from the databases. The eligibility criteria for the studies are those published within 10 years, must be controlled/observational studies, and follow-up reports from government agencies and United Nation’s bodies dealing with the subject. The articles that do not meet the criteria will be excluded. The search will be aided by the key words enrolment, reconnection, re-entry, correctional facilities, rehabilitation, and impact. Boolean operators to connect the key words will be ‘AND’ and ‘OR’. The connectors will be used to enhance the search outcome.
Literature Review Outline
• Target Organization, Industry, Benchmarking
o Muhlhausen, D. B. (2018). Research on returning offender programs and promising practices. Washington: National Institute of Justice.
https://nij.ojp.gov/speech/research-returning-offender-programs-and-promising-practices.
In this article, Muhlhausen (2018), discuses about the role of return offender programs and their impact on recidivism. It gives an overview of the recidivism in the criminal justice system and examines whether the reentry programs work by further reviewing some randomized controlled trials of reentry. The article thus provides crucial information that relate to the current topic about the impact of reentry.
o Kendall, S., Redshaw, S., Ward, S., Wayland, S., & Sullivan, E. (2018). Systematic review of qualitative evaluations of reentry programs addressing problematic drug use and mental health disorders amongst people transitioning from prison to communities. Health & Justice, 6(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40352-018-0063-8.
In this article, the authors undertook a systematic review and meta-synthesis that qualitatively analyzed impact of reentry programs on released adult prison inmates who had mental health disorder or drug use problem. The article provides a general overview of the level of success of the reentry programs. As a result, it is relevant in this topic because it gives crucial knowledge on the psychological and social impact of the reentry programs/facilities.
o Berghuis, M. (2018). Reentry programs for adult male offender recidivism and reintegration: A systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Offender therapy and Comparative Criminology, 62(14), 4655- 4676.https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0306624X18778448.
The article examines the effectiveness of reentry programs and their level of reintegrating the offenders to the society. The article’s findings on the effect of the reentry programs on the reintegration and reducing recidivism are relevant in the current topic. It gives basis for writing the introductory part of the paper and crucial information on the available knowledge that concerning the topic.
o Grace, A. (2022). Women, Reentry and Employment: Criminalized and Employable? London: Routledge.https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003169505.
The book explores the employability support for reentering women. It discusses barriers to employment women face after serving their jail term and how the reentering women get support to surmount the challenges. Thus, the book is relevant because it gives a snip view of challenges faced by women transitioning from correctional facilities to the world of employment and the role reentry.
o Hassoun Ayoub, L. (2020). The impact of reentry court on recidivism: a randomized controlled trial in Harlem, New York. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 16(1), 101-117. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-020-09420-3.
This was a randomized controlled trial that examined the effectiveness of a reentry program on recidivism. The study is relevant for the current topic because it provides evidence-based findings on the impact of a reentry program in reducing repeat offences and reintegrating the former offenders to society. Therefore, the findings can be used to draw inferences on effect of a decline in reentry.
o Cerda, J. A., Stenstrom, D. M., & Curtis, M. (2019). Effect of public safety realignment variables on the perceived employability of former offenders: public perception of the role of type of custody and program participation. Psychology, Crime & Law, 25(3), 298-318. https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316X.2018.1526935.
In this article, Cerda et al. (2019) investigate public perceptions of conditions that pertain to employability of former offenders based the type of custody and the rehabilitative program. Whereas the article is not directly related to reentry/reconnections, it provides knowledge on factors that enhance employability. Thus, it relates to the current research topic by showing correctional attributes that increase employability of former offenders. Absence of the correctional attributes such as life skills classes point out a possibility of low-employability. This can be used to draw correlations on the impact of missing or declining reentry.
• Theories, Models, Conceptual Framework
o Williams, G. C., & Schaefer, L. (2021). Expanding desistance theories through the integration of offender strategies. Journal of Crime and Justice, 44(1), 16-32. https://doi.org/10.1080/0735648X.2020.1782248.
Williams and Schaefer (2021) examine the factors that contribute to offenders desisting from crime. Through the investigation, the authors explore how various situations influence the possibility of desistance from crime. Therefore, through the article, one gets to understand how desistence theories (socio-situational) influence behavior. Thus, the article underpins the crucial knowledge that can be used to understand reentry/reconnection impact.
Casey, S. (2019). Psychologically Relevant Theories of Crime and Offender Rehabilitation. The Wiley International Handbook of Correctional Psychology, 337-353. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119139980.ch21.
The book provides a detailed review of theoretical underpinnings of criminal behavior. Some of the key theories that relate to this topic are social development model and Bandura’s social cognitive. The former discusses how self-control can be modified through various reinforcements. The discussion of the social cognitive theory brings into context cognitive and behavioral models in development and adaptation. Thus, the book is relevant because it connects the theoretical perspectives of crime to the topics reentry programs.
▪ [Annotation: how does this relate to the topic?]
• Methodology (Research Design and Data Analysis Method)
o Munn, Z., Peters, M. D., Stern, C., Tufanaru, C., McArthur, A., & Aromataris, E. (2018). Systematic review or scoping review? Guidance for authors when choosing between a systematic or scoping review approach. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 18(1), 1-7.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-018-0611-x.
The article provides guidance on how to use systematic reviews and scoping reviews. It also discusses the differences between the two approaches. It is thus relevant in the current topic because it provides rationale for using the systematic review as the main research design.
o Siddaway, A. P., Wood, A. M., & Hedges, L. V. (2019). How to do a systematic review: a best practice guide for conducting and reporting narrative reviews, meta-analyses, and meta-syntheses. Annual Review of Psychology, 70, 747-770.
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-102803.
The article explains the methodological approach used to identify, include, and exclude articles when carrying out a systematic research. Therefore, it is relevant in the methodology section to guide on the search strategy.
▪ [Annotation: how does this relate to the topic?]
Progress Report
SLP 2 – Organization/Industry literature progress
[paragraph discussing progress]
The search of literature on the correctional facility industry resulted in identification of articles that have examined reentry programs and impacts. They main focus of the identified articles was impact of the reentry on employability and recidivism. Most of the articles give a general overview of the reentry/reconnection in the criminal justice system. The main challenge was identification of statistics on the trend of reentry in the U.S correctional industry.
[introductory paragraph to this main section]
Correctional facilities play a crucial role in the criminal justice system. Correctional facilities make up the industry that manages community correctional facilities, manages prisons, and juvenile detention centers (Kendall et al., 2018). The correctional facilities work on the local, state, and federal governments. The main aim of the industry is retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation. In the realms of rehabilitation, there are various programs that seek to ensure an offender gets back to society as a law-abiding citizen and is economically productive. Kendall et al. (2018) point out that reentry programs targets the persons who were previously imprisoned and released on parole probation. An example of an organization dealing with re-entry/reconnection is Urban League of Union County. The organization’s reconection program has a primary aims of leading an individual to self-sufficiency by equiping them with skills that enhance their social and economic reintegration in the society and reducing recidivism.
SLP 3 – Theories/Models/Conceptual Framework
[paragraph discussing progress]
Search of literature of theories and models was one of the most difficult parts. The main issue was identifying the theories and text relating to rehabilitation of offenders and linking it to the reconnection programs. Some of the theories identified to inform the research are desistance theory, socio-cultural theory, social cognitive theory, and social development model
[introduction paragraph of one article/reference]
Offender rehabilitation takes place in ecology of environmental, social, economic, and psychological interactions. Casey (2019) thus discusses various theories and models that inform holistic rehabilitation of offenders. The discussion centers on the influence of Bandura’s social cognitive theory and social development model. According to Casey (2019), social cognitive relates to how a correctional program should be modified using various reinforcements to lead to desired outcome for the offender. The social aspect focuses on role of interventions in enhancing the wellbeing of the offender such as family, friends, and society while the cognitive aspect seeks mental health (Casey, 2019). The social development model is concerned with ensuring the offender goes through a transformation that promote lead to self-control and reduce recidivism.
SLP 4 – Methodology
[paragraph discussing progress]
The search of literature from the two databases already commenced and 50 articles have been identified. The next step that has already been completed is inclusion and exclusion of some of the sources using the titles. A PRISMA guideline is being used to ensure only the most appropriate literature is included for the final data extraction. The main issue in the search has been inability to get articles that have abstracts only. Based on the inclusion, the articles that are not full text are excluded because they cannot be used for the data extraction.
[introduction paragraph of one article/reference]
Systematic literature review follows stringent criteria to enhance its reliability credibility. Siddaway et al. (2019) discusses the methodological approaches that can be used to enhance the credibility and reliability of the included articles and extracted data. For instance, Siddaway et al. (2019) gives an account of effective use PRISMA guideline to enhance the reliability of the search process. Therefore, following the methodological approach guide, the search resulted in the identification of the most relevant articles.