Dr. Flower was engaged to assist in the development of strategies and policies to reduce offender recidivism by developing a focused comprehensive reentry strategy. The objective of the project was to work collaboratively with the Mayor’s Office, representatives from the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS), and review the extant literature to incorporate evidence based strategies to propose a jail reentry model. Multiple sources of data were utilized to inform this project including Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) official criminal history data, arrestee self-report of the Proxy Risk Assessment Tool, Offender Case Management System (OCMS) data providing release time and dates and release status, survey data from the Window Replication Project, and Level of Service Inventory Revised (LSI-R) assessment data of BCDC inmates and detainees.

The project report details the methodology and process to obtain information related to the project objectives and to support the final recommendations, including findings from the literature review, a discussion of a key innovative programs, data analysis from the five data sources utilized in the project and incorporate key discussions from the Mayor’s Office Adult Population Subcommittee and the DPSCS Detention Reentry Model Development Committee meetings. Additional resources will also be highlighted to assist in the implementation of jail reentry strategies. The full report is available here.