Prisoner re-entry is not a program; it is an issue encountered by every community. One of the most profound challenges facing our communities and healthcare system today is the reintegration of more than 600,000 individuals who leave State and Federal prisons and return home each year. This process of “re-entry” is more than a trend—the wave of releases has already begun and has become an ever-growing reality.

Why focus on prisoner re-entry as an issue for Cross-Training? As our Cross-Training team has traveled around the country, we have been asked to address particular issues through training and technical assistance offered to various communities. We have been struck by the knowledge gap among human service providers about the dynamics of the criminal justice system and its services in the community. Likewise, among criminal justice personnel, there is a knowledge gap about the health and human services. Consequently, there is a gap in collaborative efforts to connect inmates with the service pathways available for supporting their successful re-integration into the community following release from the correctional system. (Reference #1)

Dialogue and collaboration across our health care and corrections agency lines have become critical needs with the release of so many offenders, and Cross-Training has begun to serve as a successful strategy for accomplishing these goals. To better serve the needs of the nearly 1,600 men and women released from prison each day, we must pull together, collaborate, and use our resources more wisely then ever. It is important to remember that by improving the health status of returning inmates, we improve the health of the larger community.