INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Infusing Well-Being Throughout the Criminal Justice System: Testing Innovations & Developing Professional Trainings
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he Institute for Justice Research and Development (IJRD) uses science to improve lives, communities, and institutions by developing and researching innovations that reduce unnecessary reliance on the criminal justice system. IJRD’s innovative research offers solutions that produce equity and prosperity across race, socioeconomic class, and behavioral health status, infusing well-being throughout the criminal justice system. They define well-being as a state of satisfying and productive engagement with one’s life and the realization of one’s full psychological, social, and occupational potential. IJRD recently released early findings from their flagship project, the 5-Key Model for Reentry, a well-being-based program that connects individuals leaving incarceration with IJRD practitioners who work collaboratively to help individuals develop along with the 5-Key Facilitators of Well-Being Development: Healthy Thinking Patterns, Meaningful Work Trajectories, Effective Coping Strategies, Positive Social Engagement, and Positive Interpersonal Relationships. Each of the 5-Keys helps individuals envision and achieve their full potential after they return home from prison.
The well-being orientation of the 5-Key Model stands in stark contrast to decades of existing correctional practices, which focus on individual deficits and have not been associated with decreased return to incarceration after release. Key preliminary findings from the 5-Key Model for Reentry show: • Participants who received the 5-Key Model report fewer reincarceration events than those in the comparison group who were eligible to receive standard available services in their communities. • Participants who received the 5-Key Model also reported higher levels of overall well-being, which was associated with a reduced likelihood of reincarceration. These results suggest that IJRD’s signature well-being orientation, upon which the 5-Key Model was developed, helps individuals to not only avoid reincarceration but to thrive after they leave incarceration and return home. Corrections officials from four states reflected on the early success of the 5-Key Model to help individuals thrive after leaving incarceration and returning home to their families and communities. “What the 5-Key Model has taught us, is that well-being is fundamental to reducing the likelihood of reincarceration,” said Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Executive Deputy Secretary George M. Little.
“The 5-Key Model for Reentry program has helped me find myself as a man. It has taught me the tools I need to make it in everyday life and how to deal and cope with everything that comes with it.”
“Data-backed research like the 5-Key Model is crucial to developing innovations that ultimately reduce unnecessary reliance on the criminal justice system and produce equity and prosperity across race, socioeconomic class and behavioral health status,” said Carrie Pettus, PhD, MSW, founder and executive director of IJRD. “IJRD is an exciting new force making meaningful change in our Florida communities,” said Mark Inch, secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections. Learn more about the 5-Key Model study and the experiences of study participants through our quarterly research reports!
CARRIE PETTUS FOUNDING EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 14
College of Social Work
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