Publications from ODSW Social Insights: Letters by DSW (Vol 1) | 页面 94

Re-entry and Integration

reintegration into the community. Broadly, one could say that the goals of
our criminal justice policy are to provide sentencing laws and correctional
practices with continuing emphasis on non-incarceration and communitybased alternatives to incarceration. Unlike many other areas of social policy
where we have learned from others what works and what we should do,
we have in the case of our criminal justice policy the advantage of learning
lessons from others about what not to do and what does not work. Hopefully,
much of what we currently do have been born out of applying research and
evidence to determine swift investigation, justice, trial, sentences, and terms
of probation. These efforts, we believe, would have tapped into analyzing
theories of violence and reviewing recidivism.
Big data or research is increasingly helping to determine how many individuals are incarcerated, and of those incarcerated, who can be placed in less
secure settings while maintaining public safety. This must continue alongside
investments in preventing crime. We must not compromise on justice and
take cognizance of the rights of victims and public safety. But we also want to
learn from research to deepen our understanding of the lives and experiences
of those involved in the criminal justice system. It is also useful to understand
the extent of multi-faceted damage inflicted by excessive incarceration.
Where aftercare comes in is when the level of punishment is already determined and meted out. Justice has taken its course and the length of prison
stay has been decided. Aftercare, or re-entry as it is called in some places,
must be part of the whole pr ocess of seeing the prisoner through the system
of induction into prison, the stay in prison and the eventual re-entry into society. In the case of long incarceration, aftercare does not feature very much.
However, with prison stays being calibrated at comparatively shorter periods
combined with other measures, aftercare must take center stage in much of
the work done with prisoners if we are to see less eventful entry back into
society.
Aftercare starts from entry into prisons
So aftercare does start with entry into prisons especially when the period of
incarceration is disruptive and breaks family and job relationships. So what
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