About the Report The Report, Part II: Review of the Re-Entry Process:

chapters and policy statements:
About the Report of the Re-Entry Council

Policy Statement 17, Recommendation A

Convene a transition planning team to review the inmate's progress in the implementation of the programming plan and collect other information to advise the releasing authority and initiate the transition planning process.

As noted in the introduction to this policy statement, depending upon the sentencing and release policies in a given jurisdiction, different types of decisions are made around the time a person becomes eligible for release from incarceration. Regardless of the specific decisions before a releasing authority, a transition planning team should be established to gather information about the prisoner and to provide it to the releasing authority or use it for transition planning. The team should have the authority to review any public safety information (including risk assessments, court records, and other law enforcement documents), the programming plan, and any reports describing compliance with the programming plan. If criminal justice agencies maintain an integrated data management system and the program planning team uses an automated record-keeping system that staff regularly update, a review of those records can provide a convenient, solid foundation for the work of the transition team. (See Policy Statement 9, Development of Programming Plan, for more on integrated data management.)

The transition team should also be charged with presenting to the releasing authority information and opinions from a variety of stakeholders about the development and possible future in the community of each individual being considered for release. Such stakeholders could include the prisoner's family, community-based service providers, peer supporters, religious leaders, victims or victim advocates, law enforcement representatives, and community corrections officials. The transition team should either include representatives from each of these perspectives or understand how to reach out to each of these sources for information and ideas that could assist in making thoughtful recommendations and decisions about release, conditions of release, and transitional plans. (See sidebar, "The Evolving Role of the Transition Team," for more on the composition of the transition team.)

Example: Reentry Management Team, Community-Oriented Reentry, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections

Ohio's Reentry Management Team membership shifts as the needs of the person in prison shift. During the bulk of a person's incarceration,the management team includes a variety of program staff who are responsible for setting and monitoring a person's programming while he or she is in prison. Approximately six months prior to an individual's release, however, a family member and/or other community-based volunteer, such as a mentor from a local church, joins the group to plan for the person's transitional period and release. The Reentry Management Team is one component of Ohio's Community-Oriented Reentry Program, which is funded by a SVORI grant.

The Evolving Role of the Transition Team

This Report uses the term "transition planners" or "transition team" to describe the person or team responsible both for providing information and recommendations to the releasing authority and for making final preparations for an individual to re-enter and helping him or her to establish the necessary linkages to community-based programs. The transition planning team may be simply what this Report calls the "program planning team" with a different title and mission, or it could be a subset of that team. Alternatively, corrections administrators could charge a single individual or contract with a community-based organization to collect and present the relevant information. The releasing authority may even appoint members of its own staff to gather the relevant materials. Each jurisdiction may have its own way of determining which individuals the team should comprise and whether the team should be separate from those which provide assessments and programming for individuals either during their incarceration or as they transition back to the community.

Community Supervision: A Concise Guide

Releasing Authority

A state parole board or commission vested with the statutory authority to grant the discretionary release of an individual from prison or jail prior to the service of his or her full term of imprisonment. For jurisdictions with determinate sentencing and, accordingly, no discretion for the timing of release, the releasing authority still may determine conditions of release. These agencies often have the authority to conduct revocation hearings for those under community supervision who violate the terms and conditions of their parole or other postrelease supervision.

Discretionary Release

The release of a person from prison decided by a parole board or other discretionary authority, generally following the service of a minimum period of imprisonment, but short of the maximum term of confinement.

Mandatory Release

The release of a person from prison or jail that is determined by statute or sentencing guidelines and not by the discretionary decision-making authority of a parole board. Under determinate sentencing codes, the exact prison term is set at the time of sentence, and the person is released following a prescribed period of confinement. In some instances, the person may have served the entirety of an indeterminate sentence and thus must be released.

Conditional Release

The release of an individual from prison to a period of community supervision, typically with a standard set of conditions he or she must abide by in order to remain on parole or other postrelease supervision. These conditions may include regular reporting, maintenance of a known residence, drug testing, compliance with a curfew, and other such conditions. Violation of the conditions of supervision may result in the imposition of sanctions. Such sanctions may be community-based or may result in the revocation of supervision status and a return to prison.

Unconditional Release

The release of a person from prison to the community without a requirement that a period of supervision follow. Upon release the person is no longer under the jurisdiction of the correctional system, or the justice system, and is not required to abide by any conditions of supervision. Such individuals cannot be returned to prison absent a conviction for the commission of a new crime. Conditional release practices vary widely by state.

Parole

The traditional name for the period of community supervision imposed on an individual granted conditional release from prison by a discretionary authority (such as a parole board) prior to the expiration of the sentence. In some states this period is referred to as postrelease supervision, community punishment, and/or controlled release.

Conditions of parole typically include requirements for regular reporting, maintenance of a known residence, drug testing, compliance with a curfew, and other such terms. The supervision is often performed by a parole agency, though in some states the functions of probation and parole supervision are combined. Violation of the conditions of supervision may result in the imposition of sanctions permitting the person to remain in the community, and/or the revocation of parole and return to prison. Compliance with conditions of supervision may result in rewards or other positive reinforcements.

Split Sentence

Judgment made at the time of sentencing mandating that a defendant serve a certain portion of his or her total sentence in prison or jail. The balance of the sentence is "suspended" while the person serves a period of community supervision as a probationer, rather than as a parolee. If the person violates his or her terms of probation during that community supervision period, he or she may be brought for a hearing before the sentencing judge, instead of a parole board. The judge may then choose to revoke the period of probation and impose some additional sanction up to and including a period of incarceration equal to the suspended balance of the original sentence.

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