Program Goals
The purpose of the Indianapolis (Indiana) Reentry Project, an initiative under the Indianapolis Violence Reduction Partnership (IVRP), was to: 1) help connect individuals returning from incarceration with available services and programs, and, 2) inform these individuals that they would face sanctions if they engaged in violence. To this end, the project aimed to improve social support while simultaneously promoting a message of deterrence through the provision of community meetings for returning prisoners.
Target Population/Eligibility
The program targeted males released from prison who were returning to one of three police districts within Marion County, Indiana: East, North, and West.
Program Components
Individuals returning from prison were ordered by their parole or probation officers to participate in a 1-hour meeting within 90 days of their release. Each meeting typically included between 13 and 21 participants and lasted 1 hour. The meeting was opened by either the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana or the coordinator of the IVRP. Following the opening, speakers included a member of the community; criminal justice officials representing law enforcement, prosecution, probation, and parole; and finally another member of the community, typically an individual who had spent time in prison and talked about how he had turned away from violence and was now working to reduce violence in the community.
At the conclusion of each meeting, several service providers described their programs such as neighborhood associations, faith-based organizations, substance abuse treatment, job placement, and educational/vocational services. Service providers stayed after the meeting to speak to participants about their programs. The group delivering the message wanted to combine deterrence-based intolerance of violence with social support emphasizing linkage to services.
Program Theory
The communication of potential sanctions plus linkages to services and opportunities was indicative of the two theoretical bases. Specifically, the Indianapolis Reentry Project was interested in increasing the perceived likelihood of sanctions to deter criminal activity, particularly firearms violence (Kennedy and Braga 1998). At the same time, there was a commitment to increasing levels of social support for individuals who had been incarcerated (Cullen 1994). The meetings implemented in the project were known at “lever-pulling” meetings, derived from “pulling levers” deterrence strategy. Through this strategy, research on patterns of crime in the community is used to create a tailored intervention to tackle a specific problematic criminal activity. During these meetings, the message is made clear that if violence is committed, the appropriate sanctions, or “levers,” would be applied or “pulled” (Kennedy, Braga, and Piehl 2001; Kennedy and Braga 1998).
Additional Information
For more information about the relationship between the IVRP and the Indianapolis Reentry Project, please see the section under Implementation Information.
Program note: This program was implemented as part of the Indianapolis Violence Reduction Partnership (IVRP), which is also rated by CrimeSolutions. Under the IVRP, a problem-solving approach was employed to tackle the reentry issues for individuals being released from prison. Under the IVRP, there was an analysis of information about the reentry population in Indianapolis, as well as interviews and focus groups with recently released individuals. As a result of these findings, the IVRP decided to implement a pilot project (the Indianapolis Reentry Project) that would specifically address some of the barriers faced by those leaving prison (McGarrell et al. 2003)
