Beyond notifying families about a relative's release from incarceration, there are a range of other steps that can be taken to improve re-entry outcomes for individuals leaving prison and jail and their families. Policymakers should ensure that the responsibility for taking these steps is clearly assigned. Ideally, a family case manager can coordinate the efforts of a family services team, involving corrections representatives, community-based service providers, and the family itself. In general, and especially where it is not possible to hire a family case manager, community service providers and probation and parole officers may require additional training in working effectively with families. These groups can learn techniques for working with each other, as well as for engaging families, including those that may be reluctant to interact with the criminal justice or social services agents.

Example: La Bodega de La Familia, Family Justice (NY)

Family Justice's direct service arm, La Bodega de la Familia, has developed an innovative system of case management - family case management - as well as other tools to engage families that have a loved one under justice supervision. La Bodega emphasizes building trust among team members from probation and parole agencies, social service agencies, family members, and the released individual. Tailored training is provided to case managers and community corrections officers in family case management and in working with families.

Because there are so many different roles that families want to and do take when a family member is returning from prison, one of the first responsibilities for those working with families is a family assessment. Families of released individuals are likely to have both needs that should be addressed and resources that should be tapped if they are to contribute to a person's successful re-entry. Issues to be explored with the individual and his or her family include housing, employment, health care, counseling, substance abuse treatment, and economic assistance. In some areas, the family may provide assets or assistance to help a released prisoner comply with terms and conditions of supervision. For instance, one family member might be able to provide housing, while another may be able to assist with child care while the person re-entering the community looks for a job. Assessment may also reveal areas of need. The family of a person who has just been released is likely to have experienced, and may continue to experience, economic strain due to his or her involvement in the justice system and difficulty finding and maintaining employment. (See Policy Statement 8, Development of Intake Procedure, for more on considering the family's needs and strengths related to the individual.)

After a thorough assessment of the family, the family services team should then develop a family action plan and match the inmate and family members needing support to appropriate services, based on the issues raised by that particular family. For instance, the family services team should consider the possibility and appropriateness of family reunification. If the individual intends to return to live with his or her family, and the family is willing to accept his or her return, certain needs and strengths may require particular attention. If the family includes minors, preventive and protective services might be consulted and, where appropriate, engaged in providing any needed support to the household. Children of individuals convicted of an offense are at high risk of dropping out of school, delinquency, and substance abuse. (See Policy Statement 13, Children and Families, sidebar on Family Risk and Protective Factors Impacting Youth Development.) Engaging positive prevention services for these children and other minors living in the released individual's household may help prevent these children and other family members from being negatively affected by the re-entry and related risk factors. ^[1]   Further, the individual and his or her co-parent, spouse, or partner might be encouraged to attend parenting skills training classes in the community, where appropriate. The case manager or the individual's community corrections officer should be able to refer parents to services that offer these or other family-support programs.

The relationship between members of the family services team, the individual released from prison or jail, and his or her family should continue beyond the development of the initial plan so that the family's changing needs can be addressed. For example, if reabsorbing a family member generates stress or conflict, the family case manager or a trained community corrections officer can identify family members in need of services and refer them appropriately to community providers for counseling. Where a family is struggling financially and the recently returned family member does not yet have the means to contribute support to the family, those who work with the family can intervene with community corrections officers to ensure that any payment plan imposed on the individual is achievable and can refer the family to assistance in the community.

Example: Family support services, Gracious Promise Foundation (KS)

Gracious Promise provides material support for families that have a member who has been recently released from incarceration. In addition to other services, Gracious Promise provides access to donated food and clothing supplies. Currently, the organization is also developing a job training and placement program for both family members of incarcerated individuals and re-entering individuals.

Whatever issues the family faces when a family member has recently been released from prison, family case managers and community corrections agencies should partner with community-based organizations to provide the family with locally based services. Such partnerships will help to ensure that services are accessible and foster engagement of the individuals in the community, and can magnify the positive effects of neighborhood-focused caseloads for community corrections. When provided in the community context, family support services are likely to be successful in engaging the individual and encouraging him or her to remain crime-free, and thereby reducing the public safety risk to the community, including the risk of criminal justice involvement by the individual's children or other family members. (See Policy Statement 26, Implementation of Supervision Strategy, for a discussion of focusing caseloads and leveraging community-based networks.)