Police Officer and Parolee: Partners in Preventing Crime

As traditional approaches to reducing returns to prison among formerly incarcerated individuals continue to fail across the country, police departments have begun teaming up with community partners to employ untraditional, but effective crime prevention methods. A recent article published by USA Today, tells the story of one police officer's bargain with a former inmate- "Stay out of prison and I'll find you a job"-as part of Michigan's successful Prisoner Re-entry Initiative (MPRI). Since the introduction of MPRI four years ago, USA Today reports that the rates of ex-offenders sent back to prison have dropped from 55% to 38%.