Nearly 700,000 prisoners return to communities annually, and approximately two-thirds are rearrested within 3 years of release. The cyclic pattern of recidivism presents risks to both returning offenders and the communities that accept them. Reentry research tends to include the voice and experiences of juveniles, community members, and service providers, and narrowly focuses on the socioeconomic conditions of adult ex-offender populations pre- and post-release. Few researchers have explored the attitudes of those returning citizens or the perceived impact on treatment success, as related to employment-based, post-release reintegration programs. This study investigated the attitudes of 32 participants of Project Empowerment, the District of Columbia's post-release program. The ecology of public administration theory and empowerment theory provided the theoretical frameworks for understanding offender reentry within employment-based programming. Interview data were coded and analyzed consistent with a modified van Kaam method. A key finding indicates job-readiness training completion is largely contingent upon development of positive attitudes from both public administrators and participants. Additionally, participants were cognizant of the attitudes of community members regarding reentry and employment, and were more likely to see program participation as beneficial if perceived community support was high. The implications for positive social change include recommendations for reentry programs, such as Project Empowerment, to create an empowerment environment conducive to attitude development concerning self and society. Such an environment creates trust and opportunities for successful engagement in employment programs and decreases the risk of recidivism among communities that support individuals returning from incarceration.

Returning citizens face a host of barriers when attempting to reintegrate into society; thus, services for these concerns are imperative for successful reintegration. Unfortunately, services are often lacking, particularly in rural communities which tend to be overlooked in reentry research. In order to better determine service need for justice-involved populations in rural communities, the current study completed a gap analysis, both inspired and supplemented, by qualitative information collected from mental health providers (MHPs) in a rural Appalachian region of Tennessee. To complete the gap analysis, an estimation of need was collected via local crime statistics. Using this data, a two-sample t-test revealed that increased rurality was related to a significantly higher percentage of substance use related crimes, but not to crimes against persons or sexual crimes. Service availability data was then collected for local providers in the domains of general mental health, substance abuse, anger management (or anger management aligned), and sex offender treatment. It was found that nine of the ten counties in the identified region are considered mental health professional shortage areas (MHPSAs) for general mental health care. Using average caseload data from local MHPs, a calculation of provider shortfall was completed for specialty services for returning citizens. For the identified 10-county region, provider shortfalls were existent in all treatment domains. The largest gap identified was for anger management aligned services, while the smallest gap identified was for sex offender treatment services. An increase in rurality did not ensure an increased provider shortfall across domains. Overall, MPHs in the area identified similar needs in treatment services via two major qualitative themes and five subthemes. The findings from the current study provide a specific example of what services are missing for rural returning citizens. It is hoped that the results of this study help inform policy and programming efforts in rural communities as they attempt to close the service gap and successfully reintegrate rural returning citizens.