Short term strategies to improve re‐entry of jail populations: expanding and implementing the APIC Model

ABSTRACT

Almost all jail inmates will leave correctional settings and return to the community. Inadequate transition planning puts jail inmates, who entered the jail in a state of crisis, back on the streets in the middle of the same crisis. The outcomes of inadequate transition planning include the compromise of public safety, increased disability secondary to health and behavioral health symptoms, hospitalization, suicide, homelessness, new criminal offenses, and rearrest. With the majority of inmates being released within a very short period of time, often without notice, jails present unique challenges to transition planning. While there are currently no outcomes studies to guide evidence-based jail transition planning practices, there is enough guidance from the multi-site studies of the organization of jail health programs to create a best practice model. This manuscript presents one such model that was derived from efforts to address offenders with mental illnesses, but has applicability to the general inmate population. The APIC model—Assess, Plan, Identify, and Coordinate—describes elements of reentry associated with successful integration back into community. Experience with this model will be reviewed. The focus of this monograph will be on the process of transition planning rather then specific measurement and assessment tools, with the principle aim to improve linkage of inmates released from custody to the community-based services that can support their community tenure.