Applying a Lived Experience Lens to Analyses of Long-Term Reentry Experiences

• In Event: Exploring the Future of Reentry: Emerging Research, Policy, and Practice Issues

Abstract

Incorporating the input of individuals with lived experience in reentry research can generate important insights on reentry programming, support, and outcomes, and ultimately improve the relevance of both research findings and policy and practice recommendations. With this goal in mind, researchers conducted qualitative interviews with more than 60 people in the community approximately 3.5 years after their release from state prison as part of the NIJ-funded Long-term Evaluation of the 5-Key Reentry Model Multisite Randomized Control Trial (RCT), a follow up study to the initial 5-Key RCT conducted by researchers at Wellbeing and Equity Innovations. The goal of these interviews was to explore the long-term reentry experiences of people in the community, specifically, and how people navigate reentry including the services and supports they may have received, their range of ongoing needs, reentry successes and challenges, and their expectations for reentry compared to the reality of community integration. Research consultants with lived reentry experience supported the study’s qualitative interviewer training, coding review, analysis, and data interpretation. This presentation highlights key findings from the qualitative interviews and discusses how our consultants applied their lived experience lens to the analysis to examine the complicated pathways and emotional impact individuals face during reentry.

Authors

• Kristin Stainbrook, RTI International

• Janeen Buck Willison, RTI International

• Pamela Keye, Keye Global Group