Nationwide, more than 600,000 individuals are released from state or federal prison each year. Within three years, two-thirds will be rearrested, and nearly half returned to prison for a new crime or parole violation. In response, criminal justice officials are focusing on reentry as an issue that affects public safety, economic revitalization, and the well being of families and neighborhoods. Reentry courts, like the Harlem Parole Reentry Court, use community-based services like drug treatment and job training as well as strict judicial supervision, to help ex-offenders successfully transition back to life at home.

Judge Brigitte Fortune presides over the Harlem Parole Reentry Court, a component of the Harlem Community Justice Center.The reentry court helps parolees from the Harlem community who have been imprisoned for non-violent, drug-related offenses make the transition from life in prison to responsible citizenship. To promote accountability, participants are required to return to the court frequently to meet with case managers and parole officers and appear before Judge Fortune, who closely monitors their compliance with court orders.

Q: Has the problem-solving court model shaped your thinking about parole?
I visited the drug court in Brooklyn and was impressed by how they treated drug offenders as people with a condition—they didn’t excuse the fact that the offenders had committed a crime against the state, but they attempted to deal with the underlying condition. That’s what made me want to be more than just the person who returns offenders to prison at the end of the process. I wanted to make a difference, to get in there at the beginning and allow these men and women to have a true opportunity to succeed.

Q: Why do you think the reentry court model works?
It’s very hands-on, very intensive supervision. It’s probably harder in many ways than regular parole because you have a great many people who are monitoring everything you’re doing. The idea is to set up a plan that best suits you and that’s going to give you the best chance of succeeding. So it’s intensive, it’s more personalized, and that to me is the best part of the reentry program. When you have all this focus on you, everyone can see what’s going on—what’s working with you, what’s not working with you—you can get adjustments at any time during your supervision.

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Six months later, she completed the program and had an entirely new perspective: “Putting me in the parole reentry program was the best thing they ever could have done for me and my life,” she says. “I think they should put more people in it. If you’re coming home to do the right thing, it’s the place to be.”

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