Click above for a sample reentry map created by the San Diego County District Attorney's Office.

The Reentry Mapping Network (RMN) is a partnership among community-based organizations and the Urban Institute designed to create community change through the mapping and analysis of neighborhood-level data related to reentry and community well being.

The importance of understanding and addressing prisoner reentry at the community level cannot be overstated. With more than 600,000 prisoners released each year, prisoner reentry poses many challenges to the communities involved, including an increased risk to public safety and a limited availability of jobs, housing, and social services for the returning prisoners. Today's intense cycle of arrest, removal, incarceration, and reentry-at levels four times higher than 20 years ago-has had profound consequences for a relatively small number of communities around the country where policies related to incarceration and reentry are experienced most acutely. Over the past decade, a rising number of released prisoners are returning disproportionately to major metropolitan cities and to just a few neighborhoods within these cities. These communities are often among the least able to provide the needed support for successful reintegration.

Mapping is one of the most powerful means of capturing these important concentrations, patterns, and trends, especially as they relate to community well being. Tested in a number of environments, mapping community-level data has proven to be an effective method for helping community members and local leaders better understand the nature of a variety of community problems and develop effective public policies to address them.

To learn more, visit the report on the RMN project: Mapping Prisoner Reentry: An Action Research Guidebook(Second Edition)

Contact

The Urban Institute provides assistance to RMN partners in their work, conducts cross-site analyses, holds an annual RMN conference, provides on-site support, promotes peer learning, and works with sites to disseminate findings and lessons learned.  Nancy La Vigne is the Principal Investigator for the RMN project, and Diana Brazzell is the Project Director. For more information about the Reentry Mapping Network, send an email to rmn@ui.urban.org.