April 19, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
NEW BOOKS
Call to Action: How Programs in Three Cities Responded to the Prisoner Reentry Crisis, by Paul VanDeCarr, details successful efforts in Jacksonville, Fla., Memphis, and Washington to help recently released prisoners return to society. In the Jacksonville program, ex-prisoners helped build low-cost housing, gaining work experience and marketable skills in the process. The Memphis program provided a link between potential employers and people just out of prison. In Washington, ex-prisoners worked with mentors from local churches to reintegrate into the community and find employment. All three programs were eventually supported by Public/Private Ventures’ Ready4Work Initiative. The publication’s concluding section analyzes the leadership, services, structure, and staffing of these projects, as well as the projects’ relationships to local governments, job markets, and criminal-justice systems. A summary of lessons is included.
Publisher: Public/Private Ventures, 2000 Market Street, Suite 600, Philadelphia, Pa. 19103; (215) 557-4400; fax (215) 557-4469; http://www.ppv.org; 48 pages; $7.50 for hard copy or available free for download on the organization’s Web site.
