The Dimensions, Pathways, and Consequences of Youth Reentry

RESEARCH REPORT January 2004 The Dimensions, Pathways, and Consequences of Youth Reentry Daniel P. Mears Jeremy Travis Prepared with funding support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the California Endowment URBAN INSTITUTE Justice Policy Centerresearch for safer communities The Dimensions, Pathways, and Consequences of Youth Reentry Daniel P. Mears Jeremy Travis Contents Acknowledgments..............................................iii The Reentry Roundtable Series........................iv Preface............................................................... v Introduction........................................................ 1 Defining the Scope of the Problem.................... 2 Youth Development and Reentry....................... 6 The Experience of Youth Reentry...................... 7 The Challenges of Youth Reentry...................... 9 Strategies for Improving Youth Reentry.......... 11 Policy and Research Recommendations......... 13 Conclusion....................................................... 15 References....................................................... 17 Appendix A. List of Participants....................... 19 Appendix B. Summaries of Papers.................. 21 Appendix C. Summaries of Presentations....... 26 © 2004 The Urban Institute 2100 M Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037 www.urban.org (202) 833-7200 The Urban Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research and educational organization established in Washington, D.C., in 1968. Its staff investigates the social, economic, and governance problems confronting the nation and evaluates the public and private means to alleviate them. The Institute disseminates its research findings through publications, its web site, the media, seminars, and forums. The Justice Policy Center carries out nonpartisan research to inform the national dialogue on crime, justice, and community safety. JPC researchers collaborate with practitioners, public officials, and community groups to make the Center’s research useful not only to decisionmakers and agencies in the justice system but also to the neighborhoods and communities harmed by crime and disorder. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders. About the Authors Daniel P. Mears (Ph.D., University of Texas-Austin) is a senior research associate in the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center. Jeremy Travis (J.D., M.P.A., New York University) is a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, affiliated with the Justice Policy Center. YOUTH REENTRY URBAN INSTITUTE AcknowledgmentsThe authors wish to express their gratitude to Michael Wald, Senior Advisor on children and health issues to the President of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Gwen Foster, Program Officer at the California Endowment, for the support and assistance with the Youth Reentry Roundtable, held in San Francisco, California, May 28–29, 2003. We thank Dionne Davis, Project Associate, and Asheley Van Ness, Research Assistant, at the Urban Institute, for their invaluable assistance in coordinating the roundtable meeting and providing editorial suggestions. Jeffrey Butts, Director of the Urban Institute’s Program on Youth Justice, Amy Solomon, Policy Associate in the Institute’s Justice Policy Center, and Matthew Stagner, Director of the Institute’s Population Studies Center, provided ongoing suggestions and guidance throughout the project. Jeff’s knowledge of the juvenile justice system and his emphasis on the need to clearly distinguish between the different groups of young people experiencing reentry were particularly helpful. Finally, we wish to thank the authors of the five papers commissioned for the Roundtable, the participants who ensured that the discussion of the papers was lively and informative, and the observers who, we hope, will help with the dissemination of the many critical insights raised during the meeting. This report distills the many observations and lessons learned during the two-day meeting of the Youth Reentry Roundtable and draws heavily on the insights articulated in the five papers commissioned for the Roundtable and by the participants at the Roundtable. The Youth Reentry Roundtable papers, along with a modified version of this report as an introductory article, are available in their entirety through Sag