Do Prisoners With Reintegration Needs Receive Relevant Professional Assistance?

• Author: Amanda J. Pasma,Esther F. J. C. van Ginneken,Hanneke Palmen,Paul Nieuwbeerta
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X221086554
• Published date: 01 February 2023
• Date: 01 February 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2023, Vol. 67(2-3) 247 –269

© The Author(s) 2022

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/0306624X221086554

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Article

Do Prisoners With

Reintegration Needs Receive

Relevant Professional

Assistance?

Amanda J. Pasma1, Esther F. J. C. van Ginneken1,

Hanneke Palmen1, and Paul Nieuwbeerta1

Abstract

Ex-prisoners often experience barriers to successful transition regarding employment,

finances, housing, healthcare, and valid identification. Based on the Offender

Management framework, assistance during imprisonment by prison- and community-

based professionals is considered key in preparing prisoners for release regarding

these reintegration needs. Therefore, the current study examines the degree to

which prisoners with reintegration needs are assisted by relevant professionals. We

used self-reported data from 4,309 prisoners of the Dutch Prison Visitation Study,

part of the Life in Custody Study. The results showed that prisoners have more

contact with prison-based than with community-based professionals, but that the

latter relatively often have contact with prisoners with related reintegration needs.

Yet, a specific group of prisoners with reintegration needs remains invisible. Prisoners

with complex, health, or valid identification needs, and prisoners in the start or pre-

release phase require further attention. It is discussed what can be learned from

these findings on Dutch Offender Management practices.

Keywords

prison, reentry, needs, reintegration, professional assistance, support

Transitioning back to society can be a challenging event for prisoners (Petersilia,

2003; Visher & Courtney, 2007). Upon release, more than 70% of Dutch prisoners are

1Leiden University, The Netherlands

Corresponding Author:

Amanda J. Pasma, Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, Leiden University, PO Box 9520, 2300 RA

Leiden, The Netherlands.

Email: a.j.pasma@law.leidenuniv.nl

1086554IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X221086554International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyPasma et al.

research-article2022

248 International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 67(2-3)

unemployed and more than half encounter financial difficulties (Beerthuizen et al.,

2015; Ramakers, 2014). Moreover, one third of Dutch prisoners find themselves in

unstable housing situations or experience drug related problems (Den Bak et al., 2018;

Wensveen et al., 2016) and 15% do not possess valid identification (Weijters et al.,

2018). Similar problems are reported worldwide (e.g., Abbott et al., 2016; McSweeney

& Hough, 2006; Visher et al., 2004). These unmet reintegration needs form barriers to

successful transition (Graffam & Hardcastle, 2007; Visher & Courtney, 2007) and

enhance the likelihood of recidivism (Visher et al., 2004, 2017).

According to the Offender Management (OM) framework, support by and coopera-

tion between prison-based and community-based professionals is vital in overcoming

these transitioning problems. In most prison institutions, prison-based professionals

such as case managers or mentors are primarily in charge of preparing prisoners for

release. These prison-based professionals often take care of intake assessments, keep

track of the reintegration needs and refer prisoners to specialized help from commu-

nity-based professionals (Day et al., 2012; Hardyman et al., 2004). In turn, these com-

munity-based professionals, among whom parole officers, municipal officers,

health- and care professionals, and volunteers, can provide further access to commu-

nity resources and help prisoners prepare for release. For example, parole officers and

municipal officers can assist in employment, finances, housing, or valid identification

(Bares & Mowen, 2020; Viglione et al., 2015), healthcare professionals can take care

of discharge planning and continuation of healthcare upon release (Hopkin et al.,

2018) and volunteers can help with social services, such as housing, debt counseling,

and job training (McSweeney & Hough, 2006; O’Connor & Bogue, 2010).

In theory, then, professional support can help prepare prisoners for release, but in

practice this appears challenging. Prisoners often report a lack of professional assis-

tance (Crewe & Ievins, 2021; Hamilton & Belenko, 2016; Loeliger et al., 2018), no

intake or needs assessments (Hamilton & Belenko, 2016), no in-prison access to com-

munity resources (Lloyd et al., 2015; McCauley & Samples, 2017), poor pre-release

programing (McCauley & Samples, 2017), or a lack of collaboration between prison-

based and community-based professionals in throughcare and aftercare (Abbott et al.,

2016; Lloyd et al., 2015; Smith et al., 2018). Although this overall picture of profes-

sional assistance in prisons is bleak, these studies do not give information about the

extent to which assistance is offered in relation to specific reintegration needs. For

example, does a prisoner with employment needs actually receive assistance from a

professional who can help with finding employment? It is important to examine the

relationship between needs and assistance, because unassisted needs can be problem-

atic for prisoners and for post-release outcomes.

Therefore, the current study aims to examine the degree to which reintegration

needs of prisoners are met with support from prison-based and community-based pro-

fessionals. More specifically, we are interested in (1) how many prisoners with reinte-

gration needs report any assistance by prison-based or community-based professionals;

(2) the extent to which specific needs are related to assistance by relevant profession-

als; and (3) the extent to which the overall level of needs is related to the overall level

of assistance. Finally, because continuity of care is considered crucial in preparing