Pre-Release and Reentry: Preparing for Life after Prison

CCA takes very seriously its responsibility to provide correctional solutions that achieve the best possible results in returning inmates to society as productive individuals. So it goes without saying that efforts to transform that individual into someone who won’t repeat past mistakes begins at the point of entry into one of our correctional facilities.

Since its founding in 1983, CCA has been dedicated to changing lives, one inmate at a time. Numerous inmate programs and initiatives are designed with this goal in mind, including:

  • Individual and group counseling
  • Academic education
  • Vocational training
  • Life skills development
  • Substance abuse treatment
  • Faith-based initiatives

The transformation of an offender into someone who can lead a productive life outside prison walls requires a continuum of care. One size does not fit all, and programs must be able to meet the needs of every individual in order to identify a path to success.

Pre-Release

Pre-release programs are individualized treatment plans developed for inmates upon incarceration. Plans may include specific programs involving education, addiction treatment, vocational training and recreational outlets.

Extensive pre-release programs are offered at CCA facilities. Such programs at a typical prison are devoted to the late stage of the offenders’ sentences, usually the last 16 weeks. Some programs at CCA facilities are even much more intense, going up to 52 weeks in length, depending on facility or government partner specifications.

Reentry

More than 700,000 are released from U.S. prisons each year. That’s an average of more than 1,900 per day. The vast majority of those are released to parole supervision. But even with oversight, it’s obvious that the work done while in prison to prepare those individuals for a reentry is very important.

Upon reentry, some former inmates may be placed in transitional housing. Others are allowed to return to the family home. They are required to meet specific reporting and behavioral standards as a condition of parole or probation.

Pre-Release and Reentry at CCA

CCA believes that rehabilitation is an essential element and one of the chief aims of incarceration. Helping inmates improve their social skills, increase their educational levels and boost their workforce readiness dramatically increases the odds of success after release.

As a partner to federal, state and local government, CCA is dedicated to going above and beyond the achievements of the typical correctional facility. That means our challenge is to produce a much lower rate of recidivism among those individuals released from our facilities.

When an offender enters a CCA facility he or she is assessed by a multi-disciplinary team of professionals, who work together to develop a pathway for success. The individual’s needs are matched with a wide variety of available programs and activities including, if desired, religious and spiritual resources.

When an offender enters a CCA facility he or she is assessed by a multi-disciplinary team of professionals, who work together to develop a pathway for success. The individual’s needs are matched with a wide variety of available programs and activities including, if desired, religious and spiritual resources.

To learn more about pre-release and reentry, please see our timely white paper available on the online CCA Research Institute.