This monograph was written for NDCI in 1999 and was the first published document describing, analyzing, or visioning the reentry court concept,. As part of the preparation for the writing of that monograph, NDCI convened two two-day focus groups, attended by over seventy participants from Reentry jurisdictions across the nation. At the time of that monograph’s publication, we had high hopes for the growth of the Reentry Court model as a means of reducing recidivism.
Unfortunately, that has not been the case. For while the number of drug courts has more than tripled in the intervening years (from approximately 600 to over 2000), the number of reentry courts has remained relatively static (according to NDCI’s December 2007 review, 28 exist nationwide). In retrospect, it may be that we were early to the party (or to the fire as the case may be). For as noted elsewhere, the numbers of Americans imprisoned and the cost of that imprisonment is now spiraling out of control.
