Prisoners Once Removed: The Impact of Incarceration and Reentry on Children, Families, and Communities [Paperback]

Jeremy Travis (Editor), Michelle Waul (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0877667152 | ISBN-13: 978-0877667155 | Publication Date: January 2004

Imprisonment casts a long shadow in the United States. Currently, 1.4 million individuals are behind bars in America’s state and federal prisons. For every person who goes to prison, there is a family and community left behind. Despite the huge number of affected families and children, there is little research on the impact of incarceration on American family life. In Prisoners Once Removed, the authors explore this important issue—from the psychological impact of imprisonment on prisoners and the difficulty of reentering free society to the challenges faced by communities who must integrate the prisoners once they return. They look at family functioning during a period of imprisonment, and how families are affected by the return of an incarcerated parent. Finally, they evaluate the current system and suggest ways to improve interaction between the corrections and health and human services to better serve the growing population of children, families, and communities. This book is vital reading for anyone who is concerned about foster care, child development, strengthening families, and post-prison adjustment.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...essential reading for those interested in strengthening fragile families, rebuilding communities, restoring justice, and creating social change." -- Beth E. Richie, Ph.D., Head, Department of African American Studies and Professor of Women’s Studies and Criminal Justice, University of Illinois at Chicago

"...intelligent and remarkably readable, packed with policy prescriptions, and suitable for a wide audience." -- Joan Petersilia, Ph.D., University of California, Irvine, Author of When Prisoners Come Home: Parole and Prisoner Reentry

"I highly recommend this encyclopedic book for anyone interested in the problems of incarceration and prisoner reentry" -- Reginald Wilkinson, Director, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction

About the Author

Jeremy Travis is a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, developing research and policy agendas on crime in community context, new concepts of the agencies of justice, sentencing and prisoner reentry, and international crime. He is cochair of the Reentry Roundtable, a group of nationally prominent researchers and policymakers devoted to exploring the dimensions of prisoner reentry. Before joining the Urban Institute, Mr. Travis was the director of the National Institute of Justice. He developed the concept of the reentry court, designed the Department of Justice’s reentry partnership initiative, and created the federal reentry program in President Clinton’s FY2000 budget. He has taught courses on criminal justice, public policy, history, and law at Yale College, New York University’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University School of Law, and George Washington University. Mr. Travis has written and published extensively on constitutional law, criminal law, and criminal justice policy, including But They All Come Back: Rethinking Prisoner Reentry (National Institute of Justice, 2000).

Michelle Waul is the director of special projects at the National Center for Victims of Crime. Before joining the National Center, she was a research associate with the Urban Institute working to link the research activities of the Justice Policy Center to policy and practice arenas in the field. Ms. Waul managed the national policy conference on the impact of incarceration and reentry on children and families, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which led to this publication. She also served as project manager for the Reentry Roundtable and coauthored a policy monograph on prisoner reentry titled From Prison to Home: The Dimensions and Consequences of Prisoner Reentry (Urban Institute, 2001).

Product Details

• Paperback: 396 pages
• Publisher: Urban Inst Pr (January 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877667152
• ISBN-13: 978-0877667155
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #624,681 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best research resource on the subject., April 10, 2005

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E. Tsui - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Prisoners Once Removed: The Impact of Incarceration and Reentry on Children, Families, and Communities (Paperback)

I am planning a doctoral research on the family experiences of long-term incarceration and this book has given me a thorough and timely review of the key studies and issues (in American context), and also pointed out knowledge gaps for further research. I look forward to reading other publications with a more international or cross-cultural perspective. A "must-read" for those seriously concerned with prisoners and their families.

5.0 out of 5 stars Important Information for those working in the CJS, July 2, 2010

By 

Sharon Schmitz (St. Louis MO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Prisoners Once Removed: The Impact of Incarceration and Reentry on Children, Families, and Communities (Paperback)

Book contains important research information in an easy-to-read style. The data should impact not only those who work within the criminal justice system but all sectors of society. The connections are easy to make. The retributive system does not work. It negatively impacts children, caretakers, incarcerated citizens and society, costing millions of dollars and producing little in the way of positive results.
Figures 9.1 - 9.16b in Chapter 9 are particularly revealing of the relationship between human needs, resources and incarceration in specific neighborhoods.
Excellent resource.
A chapter on restorative justice and restorative processes, had it been included, would have been a healthy introduction to alternatives to incarceration.