RESOURCES
Baltimore, Maryland
The Enterprise Foundation: Maryland Reentry Partnership
Omar and Pete both benefited from the Partnership for Reentry Program that is run by the Enterprise Foundation. The Foundation runs a number of programs in Baltimore and in other communities across the country. Check out their Baltimore page to learn more about the situation there. (Also, see our interview with Rada Moss, director of the Maryland Reentry Project in Special Features.)
Reentry National Media Outreach Campaign
Learn more about the Maryland Reentry Partnership and Tuerk House programs in these downloadable video clips.
NPR: Morning Edition: Giving Convicts a Second Chance
This spot highlights Baltimore businesses that help prisoners enter the workforce, focusing on K&W Finishing Supervisor Kathy Holmes, who talks about why she hires ex-convicts and her experiences with them. (August 27, 2003)
Urban Institute Reports
The Urban Institute is a commission of government officials and civic leaders that conducts research about urban policy issues. The Institute was set up by President Johnson in 1968. The Institute has produced several informative research reports on the topic of prisoner reentry in Baltimore, including Baltimore Prisoners' Experiences Returning Home, A Portrait of Prisoner Reentry in Maryland and Maryland Sees Major Jump Since 1980 in Release of Prisoners.
Maryland Public Television: Navigating the Road to Reentry
A special Maryland Public Television (MPT) Outreach Initiative with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, aims to educate the community about reentry in general and the benefits of successful reentry programs. The website includes links to special programming on MPT and links to local programs and projects in the resource section.
Smart Steps: Treating Baltimore's Drug Problem
This site provides a history of and plans for a solution to Baltimore's drug problem, which Mayor O'Malley refers to as "the crisis that's killing our city."
Maryland Newsline: Baltimore Struggles to Slow Spread of Drug-fueled HIV
This article discusses the climbing rates of HIV and AIDS in Maryland due to intravenous drug use, mentioning current methods of prevention such as the needle exchange program, but pointing out that ultimately Baltimore hopes for and needs more funding to develop better prevention programs.
Addiction
National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month
September is National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. This site helps celebrate those who have recovered and supports those who want to recover, offering resources and listings of recovery events held throughout the month.
Behind Bars: Substance Abuse and America's Prison Population
This report from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University is the result of a three-year study done in the mid-1990s that analyzes the impact of drug and alcohol abuse on the nation's prison population. (1998)
PBS: Close to Home - Moyers on Addiction
This five part series premiered in 1998 and closely examines addiction and recovery in America, including six personal stories and in-depth reports on the science and politics of addiction, treatment and prevention. (Note: There are more related programs and links to their companion websites in the Also on PBS and NPR page.)
PREVLINE
Created by the US Department of Health and Human Services and SAMHSA's National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information, this site offers guidance and advice, recent article postings and an online research library.
Addiction Resource Guide
A comprehensive directory of addiction treatment facilities online.
The Addiction Recovery Guide: Your Online Guide to Drug & Alcohol Addiction Recovery
This site was created in order to assist individuals and families in choosing the most appropriate type of care for individuals suffering from alcohol or drug addiction.
Reentry Programs
Reentry National Media Outreach Campaign
Founded by Outreach Extensions, the Reentry National Media Outreach Campaign seeks to motivate and unify individuals and communities through diverse media promoting community safety and health. The site offers a collection of focused reentry programs ranging in topic from health and housing to family and safety. Also check the series of video segments which give a national snapshot of community- based prisoner reentry programs.
Office of Justice Programs: Reentry
This site offers government statistics and details about what reentry programs are trying to accomplish in each state and who is helping to make these efforts possible.
Federal Probation Journal: What Works in Prisoner Reentry? Reviewing and Questioning the Evidence
Written by Joan Petersilia of the University of California, this article explores exactly what constitutes a prison reentry program and the methods of evaluating their effectiveness.
Ezine Articles: Prisoner Reentry: What it Takes to Succeed
In this article former prisoner Andre Norman describes the type of self-made plan and discipline it takes to survive back in the real world.
Also on PBS and NPR
Related POV Websites
POV: What I Want My Words To Do To You
This 2003 documentary focuses on a writing group led by playwright and activist Eve Ensler at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. Ensler's classes have given birth to a powerful writing community in which women from strikingly different strata of society, all of whom are serving long sentences, help each other tell their stories. (December 2003)
Notable feature: We ask prison reformers, victims' advocates and criminal justice policy advisors to think about the role of prison in American society. Are all prisoners entitled to programs aimed at reform?
POV: Love & Diane
This frank and astonishingly intimate real-life drama tells the story of a mother and daughter desperate for love and forgiveness, but caught in a devastating cycle. During the 1980s, a crack cocaine epidemic ravaged and impoverished many inner city neighborhoods. As parents like Diane succumbed to addiction, a generation of children like Love entered the foster care system. Shot over ten years, the film centers on Love and Diane after the family is reunited and is struggling to reconnect.
POV: West 47th Street
Life on the streets of New York City for the poor and homeless is an unforgiving struggle. For those who also battle mental illness, it is marked by the additional pressures of fear, isolation and misunderstanding. "West 47th Street" reveals the human face of mental illness -- and the faith and courage with which its victims fight to recover control of their lives.
POV: Larry v. Lockney . Resources . Drug Education
Helpful links to educating yourself about drugs and their effects. (Mostly aimed at teenagers.)
PBS.org Websites
NOW: Truth & Lies -- Prisons in America
Bill Moyers follows up on a story he did a decade ago about a group of men determined not to let drug addiction, alcoholism and prison ruin their lives. In this segment, he interviews former prisoner and drug addict David Lewis, who travels the country today giving lectures and workshops to prisoners, social workers, policy makers, academics and others. (June 2003)
NOW: Rebuilding Lives
In this special report on Tulia, TX, Bill Moyers takes a look at the US prison population and explores its rapid growth -- more people are locked up now than at any time in our history and we keep a higher percentage of people behind bars than any other nation. In 2001, one out of every 32 Americans is either in prison, on probation or on parole. (June 2003)
Religion & Ethics Newsweekly: Prison Ministry
A special report on a prison ministry in Texas that is often cited as a model program for the faith-based social services that President Bush supports. Prisoners in this program read the Bible to learn how to make better choices when they leave. (June 6, 2003)
Close to Home: Moyers on Addiction
This five part series premiered in 1998 and closely examines addiction and recovery in America, including six personal stories and in-depth reports on the science and politics of addiction, treatment and prevention.
Frontline: Drug Wars
"From both sides of the battlefield, a 30-year history of America's war on drugs - a war with no rules, no boundaries, no end."
Be sure to check out the section The Buyers: Who They Are, What They Use, and What It Does to Them.
Independent Lens: Red Hook Justice
This film is about a new experimental court set up in Red Hook which focuses on problem solving and rehabilitation rather than punishment by imprisonment. The film follows the stories of three Red Hook defendants.
Independent Lens: Why Can't We Be A Family Again?
This film follows the Jacob family in which two brothers, Danny Jacob, 5, and Raymond Jacob, 1, were taken into custody by their grandmother after their drug-addicted mother ran out of the apartment and left them on their own for weeks. Picking up nine years later, mother Kitten Jacob is given one last chance by welfare authorities to get clean.
NPR Stories
Speaking of Faith: Spirituality and Recovery
This radio program explores the spirituality of addiction and recovery with author and recovering alcoholic Susan Cheever and Lakota teacher, healer and recovering alcoholic Basil Brave Heart. (August 25, 2005)
NPR Stories: Recovering Addicts, Playing By House Rules
Article tells the story of David Dixon, taken into the Oxford House as a recovering drug addict, and eventually kicked out because he went on a cocaine binge. (July 16, 2002)
Talk of the Nation: Reducing Recidivism
Part II of a four part Law and Order Series, this segment features discussion on possible recidivism prevention methods prisons can employ, and also examines who is accountable if/when ex-cons re-offend. Also listen to Part IV of the Law and Order Series: Life After Prison. (June 2003)
Morning Edition: Giving Convicts a Second Chance
This spot highlights Baltimore businesses that help prisoners enter the workforce, focusing on K&W Finishing Supervisor Kathy Holmes, who talks about why she hires ex-convicts and her experiences with them. (August 27, 2003)
NPR: Housing First - Ex-offenders, Who Needs Housing
For more than a decade, the greatest increase in U.S. government-subsidized housing has come in the form of cells. America has been on a prison building spree, nearly doubling the number of people held behind bars since 1990. Almost 2 million people were locked up at the federal, state or local level as of June 2001, according to the latest statistics from the Justice Department. (2002)
Tavis Smiley: Oakland Ex-Cons
Rev. J. Alfred Smith Sr., pastor of Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, and Jeremy Travis, senior fellow at the Urban Institute, explain why so many ex-convicts are returning to urban centers, like Oakland, Calif., where the city is labeled, "the ex-con capital of California." Smith and Travis also discuss why most of the ex-offenders are not prepared to integrate back into society and about possible solutions to help them. (July 11, 2003)
All Things Considered: Hooked
Lonnie Siegel discusses his new book "Hooked" which follows five drug addicts as they struggle for treatment, ultimately pointing out the shortcomings of the American drug treatment system. (June 18, 2001)