Promoting Reentry Well-Being: A Novel Assessment Tool for Individualized Service Assignment in Prisoner Reentry Programs.

Within multimodal prisoner reentry programs, an important challenge for practitioners is how to effectively assign participants to services based on individual need. The Reentry Well-Being Assessment Tool (RWAT) is an innovative practice tool to systematically guide individualized assignment into reentry program services based on a participant’s changing needs during the transition from prison to the community. Clearly defined treatment targets that promote an individual’s well-being are paired with a comprehensive set of assessments within the RWAT to measure progress throughout a prisoner reentry program. This assessment data is then integrated with practitioner expertise to decide whether the type and intensity of services should be increased, decreased, or maintained at pre-determined programmatic time points. The use of the RWAT is a collaborative process between the practitioner and the participant that guides treatment planning towards increased well-being of formerly incarcerated individuals. Future research into the effectiveness of the RWAT within prisoner reentry programs is discussed.