Announcing The 2011 Discharge Planning Manual (DPM). You may have seen copies at the Prison Summit during AIDS Education Month. The DPM was created to supplement the AIDS Library’s ongoing prisoner correspondence program. We reply to letters from prisoners with questions about HIV/AIDS, other health issues, reentry resources, and more. Last year we answered 747 letters! If you know someone incarcerated, please put them in touch with us and we can mail them vital information.
A note about who the DPM is for: The DPM contains general advice on reentry and specific resources for individuals coming out of prison to Philadelphia and the surrounding area. It also contains an introduction to HIV/AIDS, tips for HIV-positive people being released from prison, and a medical summary form intended to help HIV-positive people maintain consistent care during their reentry. As such, the ideal audience for the DPM is an HIV-positive person returning to Philadelphia, but it contains content that would be of use to someone who is HIV-negative and returning to Philadelphia, or something who is HIV-positive and returning elsewhere.
Below you’ll see how to get a copy of the DPM, a list of prison & reentry resources available in the AIDS Library, a collection of links to the web presences of Philadelphia reentry organizations, and a variety of web resources around reentry. If you have any questions about the information here, or about anything else, let me know.
How to Get the 2011 Discharge Planning Manual
The DPM can be accessed at The Discharge Planning Manual page of the Library’s website. You can open it up and print it. Please also check out the Library’s Publications page to access our Resource Guide and other Library publications.
If you would like a DPM in booklet form, they are available in the AIDS Library or at FIGHT’s reentry program, the Institute for Community Justice. We can mail a copy to anyone who requests one, as well as answer questions about discharge planning to the best of our ability. Please contact the AIDS Library by phone (215-985-4851) or email (library@fight.org) to request a copy.
Prison & Reentry Resources in the AIDS Library
The following materials are available in the AIDS Library. Come check us out! (See our hours.)
- Putting the Bars Behind You: Instructor’s Resource Manual – by Ronald C. Mendlin & Marc Polonsky
- Networking & Interviewing for Jobs (from the Putting the Bars Behind You series) – by Ronald C. Mendlin & Marc Polonsky
- But They All Come Back: Facing the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry – by Jeremy Travis
- When Prisoners Come Home: Parole and Prisoner Reentry – by Joan Persilia
- The Job-Loss Recovery Guide: A Proven Program for Getting Back to Work Fast! – by Lynn Joseph
- Best Resumes & Letters for Ex-Offenders – by Wendy S. Enelow and Ronald L. Krannich
- Job Hunting Tips for People with Hot and Not-So-Hot Backgrounds: 150 Smart Tips That Can Change Your Life – by Ron and Caryl Krannich
- Resume, Application, and Letter Tips for People with Hot and Not-So-Hot Backgrounds: 185 Tips for Landing the Perfect Job – by Ron and Caryl Krannich
- Reentry Today: Programs, Problems, and Solutions – by the American Correctional Institution
- Behind Bars: Surviving Prison – by Jeffrey Ian Ross & Stephen C. Richards
- Celling America’s Soul: Torture and Transformation in Our Prisons and Why We Should Care – by Judith Trustone
- The Dhamma Brothers: East Meets West in the Deep South – a film about “an overcrowded maximum-security prison in Alabama, dramatically changed by the influence of an ancient meditation program”
Reentry in Philadelphia
The DPM covers all major reentry service providers in Philadelphia in more detail than I’ll go in to in this email. For quick reference, though, here are the websites of some useful organizations. More information, programming, and contact info can be found at each website.
- Philadelphia FIGHT’s Institute for Community Justice
- PA Prison Society’s Reentry Services
- Kingdom Care Reentry Network
- R.I.S.E – The Mayor’s Office of Reintegration Services for Ex-Offenders
- Reconstruction, Inc.
- JEVS Program for Offenders
- Impact Services Corp. Reentry Services
- X-Offenders for Community Empowerment
- Turning the TIDE
In previous Reference Librarian blog posts I’ve covered two topics central to reentry. Take a look at them for much more info on Job Training and Recovery (including how to get in to Drug & Alcohol Recovery programs).
And for the resources and info about a third important reentry piece, check out the AIDS Library’s Housing Guide.
Online Resources on Reentry
Some of these resources are aimed at the people being released. Some are aimed at those creating programs for those people. Some could be used by both populations.
The National H.I.R.E. Network has a website with a lot of information, including:
- Fact sheets and FAQs on Criminal Records and Employment
- A survey of Model Practice to Promote the Employment of People With Criminal Records
- Advice on Completing Employment Applications with a Criminal Record
- A selection of Employer Resources, encouraging employers to hire formerly incarcerated people
The National Institute of Corrections collects a lot of useful publications on its Offender Employment webpage, including:
Public/Private Ventures has a webpage of Reentry Publications that can be downloaded freely online, including:
- Mentoring Former Prisoners: A Guide for Reentry Programs
- From Options to Action: A Roadmap for City Leaders to Connect Formerly Incarcerated Individuals to Work
- Going to Work with a Criminal Record: Lessons from the Fathers at Work Initiative
The Legal Action Center has a lot of great content including:
- A useful summary of legal roadblocks called “What’s the Law”, searchable by subject (Parenting, Public Assistance, Voting, etc.) and by state. Here’s a direct link to the Pennsylvania State Profile.
- A collection of Advocacy Toolkits to Combat Legal Barriers for Individuals Leaving Prisons and Jails (toolkits, that is, for people combating policies, not for people getting their individual needs met)
- The issue-by-issue, state-by-state (and federal) data is also analyzed in a 2009 report After Prison: Roadblocks to Reentry.
The U.S. Department of Justice Reentry website has:
- Local Reentry Resources by state
- Publications of Reentry Research sorted by topics like Health, Housing, Substance Abuse
The Council of State Governments Justice Center Reentry Policy Council website has:
- An online Reentry Policy Newsletter
- Reports on Succesful Reentry Programs around the country
- A wepage collecting Reentry Policy Publications on a wide range of issues
The National Reentry Resource Center has:
- Information about the 2008 Second Chance Act
- Collections of popular and scholarly articles, broken down by Reentry Topic, including Employment, Housing, Substance Abuse, Juveniles, and more
The Urban Institute has a webpage collecting some Reentry Research papers, including a report on Partnering With Jails to Improve Reentry: A Guidebook for Community-Based Organizations
The PBS series Frontline has a documentary called The Released that can be watched online. It focuses on reentry and the cycle of recidivism among people with mental illnesses.