The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

In 2002, more than 630,000 prisoners—about 1,700 per day—were released from State and Federal prisons (Harrison and Karberg, 2004). If past trends continue, just over half of them will be reincarcerated within 3 years (Langan and Levin, 2002). This pattern, indicative of poor reintegration of prisoners into the community, has wide-ranging social costs, including decreased public safety and weakened family and community ties. The goal of the Federal Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) is to reduce the likelihood of reincarceration by providing tailored supervision and services to improve the odds for a successful transition to the community.

This National Portrait of SVORI is the first in a series of publications documenting the work of the Multi-site Evaluation of SVORI. The Portrait is the final product of a preliminary assessment of all 69 sites funded under SVORI and is based on reviews of grantee proposals and workplans, telephone interviews with program directors, and visits to selected sites. Because this document is based primarily on what grantees and programs are reporting, the descriptions reflect individual variations; material included in the Portrait reflects a mixture of planned and implemented activities. The results of a full implementation assessment (currently underway) will provide analysis and richer detail on how grantees structure and operate their reentry programs. Primarily, the Portrait is intended to engage and inform local SVORI programs, practitioners, policy makers, researchers, and the Federal partners.

This first section of the report provides the background and context behind the impetus for improving reentry outcomes. Section 2 provides an overview of the SVORI Multi-site Evaluation, including data collection plans and forthcoming topical reports. Section 3 provides an overview of how sites are structuring the reentry programs funded under the Initiative and describes the patterns and commonalities across sites. Section 4 concludes the report with detailed information, by grantee, on the SVORI reentry efforts in jurisdictions across the United States.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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