This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Pettus, C. A. Articles by Severson, M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Paving the Way for Effective Reentry Practice

The Critical Role and Function of the Boundary Spanner

Margaret Severson

University of Kansas, Lawrence

In 2002, 69 sites were awarded funding under the Federal Partner's Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative. This initiative calls for each site to design and implement an efficacious three-part program for the successful reintegration of offenders returning from prison into communities across the United States. The Kansas Department of Corrections and the University of Kansas worked together to design, implement, and evaluate the Kansas program, building into it a boundary spanner: that person who works within and between systems to effect integrated system change. This article explores the role of the boundary spanner in confronting the 21st-century challenges facing corrections and communities. A look at how boundary spanning in Kansas is helping to pave the way to achieving optimal systemic change illustrates its usefulness in reentry efforts.

Key Words: boundary spanner • prisoner reentry • corrections

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?