Community Capacity-Building and Implementation Advances to Addressing the RNR Framework
The recent emphasis on reentry has fostered discussions about the community, including the capacity of the community as a means to reduce recidivism. Part of the emphasis is on developing protective factors that are readily available and accessible to reduce the odds of recidivism. This chapter will examine the concept of community capacity as it relates to building infrastructures and implementing sound recidivism reduction efforts within communities. The chapter will emphasize a data collection strategy using a modified risk-need-responsivity framework that focuses on assessing the characteristics of the programs and services for specific target populations with the needs of the population in each community. A case study will be used to illustrate the importance of building capacity for resilient programming and services that can serve as protective factors to reduce recidivism. Examples from the RNR methodology will be used to discuss issues regarding data collection and advancing methodologies to understand capacity issues as well as resilient programming and services. The case study will identify policy and programmatic areas that need enhancing to address critical reentry and recidivism reduction efforts.