Second Chance: Improving Prisoner Reentry and Promoting Healthy Communities

This workshop will present current efforts (by the state and community organizations) to provide opportunities for ex-prisoners to reintegrate back into their communities and brainstorm innovative avenues to improve prisoner reentry programs and policies. This is directly in-line with efforts to improve inclusiveness in society. This presentation is for all individuals concerned with providing ex-prisoners with a way to reinvent their lives and rejoin their communities as full citizens. Ideas for approaches to successful second chances need to come from a broad array of disciplines including sociology, psychology, public policy and public health, and the biological sciences to name just a few. Both presenters will describe their involvement with the criminal justice system, the reentry process, and then will turn it over to the audience to brainstorm in small groups how to improve reentry before finally reconvening as a large group to review the ideas. The intention is to integrate the results of the workshop into a clear proposal for those in the public policy and public service arenas who might effectively promote social change in criminal justice