Criminal justice personnel and community-based service providers are often serving overlapping populations but fail to recognize this overlap or to pool their resources. For a variety of reasons, including different organizational cultures, criminal justice personnel are often unsure what services are available in the communities to which people released from prisons and jails return. At the same time, community-based service providers often lose track of their clients while they are incarcerated, resulting in interruptions in health care and other services.

In jail, corrections, and community supervision settings, staff often do not have sufficient time, expertise, or resources to meet the extensive service needs of people who are under criminal justice supervision. Collaborating with community-based organizations enables administrators and staff in jail, corrections, and community supervision settings to draw upon the resources of community-based organizations to provide services within the facility and connect people with providers in the community for continued care after release. It also allows community-based organizations to maintain contact with their clients during periods of incarceration, which can be important in the management of chronic diseases common to incarcerated populations, such as diabetes and HIV.

To engage community-based service providers, criminal justice personnel should compile lists of service providers in the communities to which people who are incarcerated will likely return. At a minimum, staff can distribute these lists as part of prerelease materials, and use these lists to make appropriate service referrals. Ideally, staff will develop working relationships with community-based service providers, and develop agreements (such as Memoranda of Understanding) in which community-based providers agree to inform and administer assessments in their areas of expertise (such as child support) within the facility, prepare individuals for release, and / or provide individuals with follow-up care upon release.

To ensure that community-based service providers have the information needed to provide people with follow-up care upon release, prison and jail administrators should create a 2-3 page health record that summarizes individuals’ medical treatment and program participation in the facility. Corrections personnel should then provide individuals with a copy of these records upon release, and forward these records to individuals’ community-based service providers as well. In areas where correctional facilities are far from urban centers in which services are typically located, transferring people who are nearing release to a re-entry facility can also facilitate access to the prison or jail for service providers and help individuals have a safe and successful transition to the community.