Rethinking the Reentry Paradigm: A Blueprint For Action

Rethinking the Reentry Paradigm: A Blueprint For Action, by Melinda Schlager, Carolina Academic Press, Durham, N.C., 2013,342 pp.

Every person in the criminal justice system who has anything to do with inmate reentry should read Melinda Schlager's Rethinking the Reentry Paradigm: A Blueprint for Action. This book is well-researched on the subject of inmate reentry. Schlager does much more than define and elaborate on the nuances of inmate reentry and the various legislative and community obstacles faced by returning citizens. She explores promising programs in crucial areas of service and advocates for a strengths-based practice of assisting ex-offenders returning to society. She does not shy away from the sensitive topics - such as how people of color have an even more difficult time in successful reentry. The theme that resonates most is her call to proceed with a paradigm shift on the process of reentry. Thomas S. Kuhn's seminal work on The Structure of Scientific Revolutions defines how scientists converge and attack a "problem" in a certain manner. If this principle is adapted for the field of corrections, it would advocate for a common understanding of how to address a particular need. Schlager says that the corrections field should utilize a strengths-based system, which assesses the strengths of an inmate who is returning to society and engages them in the process of their reentry.

Unique chapters include: Physical Health and Reentry; Resilience and Desistance; Risk Management; and Risk Reduction. The main strength of the book lies in its last two chapters: A Strengths-Based Approach to Offender Reentry, and A Narrative for Offender Reentry. In these chapters, Schlager insists that corrections professionals need a new paradigm of thinking and provides suggestions on how to improve reentry strategies.

The first chapter of the two, A Strengths-Based Approach to Offender Reentry, insists that corrections professionals have handled inmate reentry much like anything else in criminal justice - with a deficit-based approach. Simply put, this adds up all of the deficit needs of an offender, a program or a process, and aims to correct these deficits in order to be successful. Instead, Schlager suggests that corrections professionals should be taking a strengths-based approach in dealing with offenders returning to society. Table 1 demonstrates the difference between a deficit-based approach and a strengths-based approach.

Schlager is the first to admit that some may find this suggested change in how corrections professionals approach reentering offenders naive, because they believe that inmates are by their nature, "manipulative, destructive and dangerous." However, most who work in corrections believe that while some inmates may exhibit these traits, not all do. A large portion of inmates want to succeed. In order for these inmates to have a chance, corrections professionals must do their best to identify and assist this group of inmates in utilizing their strengths. As Schlager states, "Strengths-based practice contends that the ability to change one's future behavior is the ultimate act of accepting responsibility for one's prior actions." There are already examples of strengths-based reentry practices, such as reentry courts and motivational interviewing. However, Schlager contends that to be successful in shifting the paradigm, the field needs to accept this change from deficit to strength as the norm.

The final chapter, A Narrative for Offender Reentry, provides a blueprint of suggestions on how to use a strengthsbased approach to help the returning offender develop a positive identity and enhance his or her ability to remain in the community. A significant part of the chapter explains that there are very few initiatives to support offenders' return to the community. Schlager suggests that corrections professionals must encourage "rites of passage" that take a returning offender from the degradation of prison to being a productive citizen. Rites of passage are very important in every other aspect of our social fiber - such as obtaining a high school diploma, getting married or getting a job. Corrections professionals should emphasize the importance of reentry as an offender's rite of passage back into the community. The general belief is that if corrections professionals simply put offenders back into society, their identity will transform. This is unrealistic, but the field continues to act as if it is not. Schlager notes that when what she calls an "identity transformation" occurs: "Officeroffender relationships emphasize collaboration, promoting law-abiding, pro-social behavior; offenders who are empowered will be more likely to seek change; and cooperation from the community is key to successful inmate reentry." Simply stated, a restoration of a person's identity must include community factors.

Schlager's book is an excellent read. Her call for a paradigm shift is real and meaningful. However, more time could have been spent elaborating on how successful reentry begins the day a person is sentenced and incarcerated. It would be helpful to include more discussion about how the community has to determine if the collateral consequences of not helping offenders with reentry are the public policies they desire. Corrections professionals should be educated about the breadth of these consequences and how they impact successful reentry.

Art Beeler is an instructor of criminal justice at North Carolina Central University and a former complex warden with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.