Corrections administrators should also determine which (if any) community members, apart from crime victims and families, should be consulted concerning the specific conditions of a person's release. To accomplish this, the transition planning team will have to identify which people and/or agencies can be responsible for representing the community and presenting its interests to the releasing authority. These should be agencies that reflect the neighborhood, culture, family, affiliations, and service needs of the individual. Religious leaders can be a particularly important resource, especially if the person who is being considered for release is already invested in a faith-based community.

Local law enforcement, if not already represented on the transition team, should be advised about the results of any risk assessments and the input of law enforcement officers should be solicited on suggested conditions of release. For instance, officers from a community policing station might have information about local drug activity that could make the neighborhood an inappropriate residence for a re-entering person with a long history of substance abuse. Similarly, if gang intelligence work reveals a particular threat to the person leaving prison or jail, law enforcement representatives could suggest conditions of release that might help protect the releasee from the gang-based threat.

Community leaders and service providers can be engaged in the formulation of specific conditions of release in a number of ways. A number of jurisdictions have established "community reintegration circles," where the person who is being released and representatives of the community to which he or she is returning meet face-to-face to establish mutually acceptable expectations and conditions of release. Other jurisdictions have established community re-entry boards that function in a similar manner. Groups organized according to these models may help to craft conditions of release that can significantly enhance the probability that the returning individual will gain the support of his or her community and succeed in his or her efforts to reintegrate.

Example: Vermont Restorative Re-Entry Partnership, Vermont Department of Corrections

Individuals serving a sentence of one year or more are required to develop and complete an Offender Responsibility Plan (ORP), which addresses the ways in which they can become productive community members and make reparations to the community and to victims. In some communities, Re-Entry Panels, comprising citizens from the community to which the individual is returning, provide input into the terms of the ORP and monitor the individual's progress from the time of intake at a correctional facility through the period of reintegration. During incarceration, the panel follows the person's progress through reports from the corrections department and through videoconferences with the prisoner. Upon release, the individual meets with the panel and continues to do so for a period stipulated by the ORP. Re-Entry Panels may sanction negative behavior related to the ORP. In addition, supervision officers may bring individuals before the Panel to acknowledge successful compliance with the terms and conditions of release. The Vermont Department of Corrections has received SVORI funds to assist in the implementation of these and other re-entry programs.