Volunteers and Community Corrections

Although the field of corrections has used volunteers to provide religious counseling and tutoring services for inmates incarcerated in prisons and jails and for offenders under correctional supervision in the community (probation and parole), today there is much more attention to the role of volunteers in reentry and community corrections. Volunteerism involves building strategic alliances, or partnerships, between departments of corrections' probation and parole divisions and community stakeholders. Volunteerism can help county probation officers and state parole agents with goals related to offender reform and community restoration, as long as the purpose and goals of the programs are clear.

In the 1990s, the loss of support for “get tough” crime control policies and practices and the over-reliance on incarceration led to an interest in using community placements as means of helping with offender reintegration. The U.S. Department of Justice is interested in the successful implementation of the reentry and community corrections laws that require day reporting, work release, halfway houses, therapeutic residential programs, probation, parole, and agents of government providing correctional services to work with the community stakeholders to help offenders achieve expectations upon reintegration. Examples include the Kansas Department of Corrections, which works with volunteers to operate the JEHT Foundation's intensive supervision program to help offender reentry; the sex offender management training program developed by Massachusetts in conjunction with the Parole Authority to improve the decision-making process and minimize risk upon release of sex offenders; and work with partners in Ramsey County, Minnesota, to help juveniles become successful during probation. U.S. Department of Justice statistics indicate that 44 to 70 percent of offenders released from incarceration back into the community are rearrested within one to three years. Minority and younger offenders have disproportionately higher recidivism rates. Some believe that community programs and volunteerism are appropriate for nonviolent offenders. Others believe that corrections is sufficiently challenged to meet its mission and goals without including community volunteers. If used correctly, however, volunteers can be an important resource.

Types of Volunteers

Volunteers are typically stakeholders in the community and can include the family, friends, and guardians of offenders, as well as members of civic, faith-based, nonprofit, and private business organizations and even former victims eager to ensure that offenses similar to those they experienced do not occur in the future. Volunteers can advocate for improvements in correctional services and become involved as mentors, tutors, teachers, job trainers, and helpers in drug rehabilitation programs, juvenile courts, and police athletic leagues (PALs). Statistics indicate that in St. Louis, some 17,000 offenders return to the community yearly, and 53 percent are unemployed and return to custody (or recidivate) within a year after release. Private companies work with the probation offices and parole divisions for altruistic reasons—that is, everyone must get a second chance.

Experienced probation and parole officers partner with community volunteers to ensure that safety and security is maintained during the corrections volunteer process.

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The U.S. Department of Justice provided funding to states for reentry programs, and there was a volunteer component incorporated into each program. In St. Louis, the departments of corrections [Page 448]developed a model to cross-train probation and parole officers so that they learned special skills to work with private business partners and help the offenders with employment. A position known as case management specialist was created; people in this position are trained to find jobs and work interdependently with employers to hire offenders. Corrections professionals recognize that lack of work and poor literacy are the greatest challenge to the successful reintegration of offenders under correctional supervision in the community.

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