David Eichenthal

Creation of the Tennessee Department of Correction’s Rehabilitative Services division in June 2004 indicated a fundamental shift in crime prevention policy — the return to a stance that hadn’t been popular since the 1970s.

“It was difficult to get anybody to talk about rehabilitation ten years ago,” said Tim Dempsey, chief executive officer of Chattanooga Endeavors Inc., a nonprofit organization that helps former prisoners find employment. “The notion of reentry (of prisoners into the community) wasn’t really anything anybody was talking about or thinking about in the least.”

That’s because policymakers have yo-yoed over the years between rehabilitative strategies and lengthy incarceration in an effort to please the public and reduce repeat offenses at the same time, said Dr. Douglas Thompkins, an assistant professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

The recent nationwide push back to rehabilitation is the latest in these shifts, Dr. Thompkins said, but experts agree that it’s more than a trend: it’s the means to finally finding a solution.

Several decades ago, he explained, “the powers that be began to think that all of the monies going into rehabilitation were going to nothing, so there was a shift in policy to more of a controlled movement. But that wasn’t really rooted in any true investigation.”

The war on crime and drugs popularized by politicians in the 1980s led to increased prison sentences and a lock-’em-up-and-throw-away-the-key attitude, said David Delbridge, executive director of Project Return, a nonprofit organization founded in 1979 to aid prisoner reentry in Nashville.

“I think it’s about public opinion,” Mr. Delbridge said. “Then the politicians get involved with it and my God, everybody wants us to be tough on crime.”

However, he said, budgetary concerns have forced a reevaluation of the issue.

“People are finding out that you can’t build your way out,” he said. “If you continue with the mandatory minimum sentences, you’re going to end up with more people in prisons, and you have more prison beds to build.”

On top of the financial pressures involved, studies published in recent years provide more concrete evidence than ever before that rehabilitative programming works, said Jim Cosby, assistant commissioner of rehabilitative services for the Tennessee Department of Correction.

“Fifteen years ago, we did not have a lot of studies or data on what we can do to increase an offender’s success,” Mr. Cosby said.

But recent TDOC studies have shown that the state’s current reentry initiatives have reduced recidivism by about 10 percent, according to spokeswoman Dorinda Carter.

Among recent national publications on the issue is the December 2008 Brookings Institute discussion paper “From Prison to Work: A Proposal for a National Prisoner Reentry Program,” by Dr. Bruce Western, director of Harvard University’s Program in Inequality and Social Policy.

In the paper, Dr. Western cites several different studies with mixed results — anywhere from a 24 percent decrease to a 6 percent increase in reincarceration. He indicates the variance is based on program design, participation and timeliness.

According to Dr. Western, well-designed programs ultimately benefit society.

David Eichenthal, president and chief executive officer of the Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies in Chattanooga, said politicians on both sides of the aisle are beginning to agree.

The need to address the problem on a national level led to bipartisan efforts to find a solution, he said, and former President George W. Bush’s signing of the Second Chance Act last year was a symbol of that.

“There’s been an incredibly high level of support for the bill, because it’s consistent with both the ‘lock-’em-up’ approach and those more focused on rehabilitation,” Mr. Eichenthal said.

The legislation authorized federal grants to government agencies as well as community and faith-based organizations for programs to assist those returning home from prison.

“Even the people who believe that you should lock everybody up recognize that, except for with the most heinous crimes, they’re going to get out eventually,” Mr. Eichenthal said. “This isn’t a liberal solution or a conservative solution. It’s a common-sense solution.”