What it is and Why it Matters

Nearly all of the 2.1 million people incarcerated in the United States (including the over 20 thousand state inmates in Tennessee) will eventually be released. Re-entry is the process of transition that these individuals-predominately male and disproportionately nonwhite-make from prison or jail to the community.

While prisoner re-entry has occurred for as long as correctional facilities have existed, the current scale is growing larger at a rapid pace:

• The number of persons released from prison has increased 350 percent over the past 20 years.
• Nearly 650 thousand people are released annually from prisons.
• Over 7 million different individuals are released each year from US jails.
• Approximately 1 in 32 adults in this country was in jail or prison or on probation or parole in 2002.
• Approximately 2 out of every 3 people released from prison in the US are re-arrested within 3 years of their release.

People are released from prison or jail with complex needs:

• 3 out of 4 have a substance abuse problem, but only 10 percent in state prisons and 3 percent in county jails receive formal treatment prior to release.
• 55 percent have children under 18 years of age; about 2 percent of all US minors in 1999 had an incarcerated parent.
• 2 out of 3 lack a high school diploma. 40 percent neither a diploma nor a GED. Only 1 out of 3 gets vocational training at any point during incarceration.
• More than 1 out of 3 inmates report some physical or mental disability.
• Approximately 1 out of 5 prisoners is released without community supervision.