The 5-Key Model for Reentry
The 5-Key Model for Reentry™ translates the key ingredients of successful reentry into a flexible approach that can be implemented by professionals across diverse settings at different levels of intensity. Specialized enhancements are provided based on individual needs, which means resources are not wasted on a one-size-fits-all approach.
The model is paired with evidence‑driven engagement and retention strategies that help people preparing to return home show up, participate, and succeed.
The model helps individuals prepare for reentry by addressing substance use and mental health challenges while building strong support networks to find meaningful work and foster long-term stability.
The 5-Key Model is based on an extensive research review of over 100,000 studies worldwide which found that, in general, there are five key ingredients to successful reentry: Healthy Thinking Patterns, Positive Relationships, Positive Social Engagement, Meaningful Work Trajectories, and Effective Coping Strategies.
The 5-Key Model is a randomized controlled trial across seven states in over 100 correctional facilities and 24 urban, rural and suburban counties.
The model has been implemented in correctional facilities and communities in Florida, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Indianapolis, Texas, and Nebraska.
The model is a package of service approaches that addresses each of these ingredients as early as possible during an individual’s incarceration to help ease the transition and catalyze growth
Why Adopt the 5-Key Model for Reentry™?
Hear from staff, residents, and peer facilitators about how the 5‐Key Model has shaped their lives, their work, and their outlook on the future.
CORRECTIONAL FACILITY STAFF
FACILITY RESIDENTS
FACILITY RESIDENTS
Impact
The model has been implemented in correctional systems and communities across the country and adopted within every Nebraska Department of Correctional Services facility – with successful early indicators, including:
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- Reduced dangerous and disruptive behaviors
- Higher engagement and increased program completions
- Stronger decision‐making and conflict‐resolution skills
- Better workforce preparation and job retention
- Lower rates of recidivism among participants reentering their communities
Survey Data
From 2023 to 2025 within the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, survey data shows:
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- 30% decrease in segregation housing placements
- 33% decrease in resident-on-staff assaults
- 99% decrease in serious injury assaults on staff
- 7,914% increase in program participation
Peer Facilitators & Testimonials
The 5‐Key Model includes training for residents to serve as Peer Facilitators who co‐lead programming with peers and correctional facility staff to deepen learning, strengthen engagement, and improve relationships — both among residents and between residents and correctional facility staff.
Hear how serving as a Peer Facilitator improves relationships, promotes personal growth, and creates a more stable, supportive environment for staff and for residents navigating reentry.
“Everything you can think of that I’ve ever struggled with, there’s literally a class for it. We’re here in prison; there are a lot of classes offered, but there isn’t a program like the 5-Keys that can cover every area of your life that you’re struggling with. And, having peer facilitators makes it that much more relatable, and it makes it a lot more comfortable to learn, open up, share, and participate.”
– RESIDENT
“I’ve also taken other programs because of this program…Now I know what I need to address and how to plan. It’s such a network.”
– PEER FACILITATOR
“I’ve seen a lot of changes from a lot of people in this room. For several individuals that have been here a long time…they’re just planting the seeds throughout the entire facility for all the peer facilitators and it’s just nice to see that it’s gonna keep going. Because they’re getting younger people involved in all the programming so it’s just building.”
– CORRECTIONAL FACILITY STAFF
“Everything that we talk about is useful…For example, I’ll be having an argument with my husband and realize that I responded aggressively.”
– CORRECTIONAL FACILITY STAFF
The 5-Key Model study is a randomized controlled trial (RTC), also referred to as an experimental or clinical trial, which is the gold standard research approach when examining interventions for human beings, whether the intervention is medical, pharmaceutical, or behavioral in nature.
Since May 2018, the study has enrolled 2,384 incarcerated individuals (residents) from more than 100 correctional facilities into the 5-Key Model study – 1,192 of whom were randomly assigned to receive the 5-Key Model across 7 states with the other 50% as a comparison group who did not receive any 5-Key Model interventions (these individuals released from prison and received existing services while incarcerated and in then in their communities).
5-Key Model for Reentry Pilot Test
The 5-Key Model RTC launched through the Institute for Justice Research & Development (founded by Dr. Carrie Pettus in 2018) at Florida State University. Pettus and her research team gathered baseline (pre-release) data on 1,563 participants in four study states (Florida, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Texas). Data was also collected from participants immediately after release from incarceration, 4 months post-release, 8 months post-release, and 15 months post-release. We also have post-release qualitative data from participants on their experience of reentry and their perception of reentry service needs, availability, and what supports they have accessed since leaving incarceration.
Healthy Thinking Patterns
Adaptive mental actions or processes, the presence of empathy, and the acceptance of internalization of values and norms that promote pro-social behavior.
Positive
Relationships
Reliable, mutually beneficial relationships between two people that range from brief to enduring in duration within formal or informal social contexts.
Positive Social Engagement
Social experiences organized for beneficial social purposes that directly or indirectly involve others, engaged in during discretionary time, and experienced as enjoyable.
Meaningful Work Trajectories
Sustainable compatibility of an individual’s goals and abilities and the demands of that individual’s occupation (obligations/job paid or unpaid) is sustainable.
Effective Coping Strategies
Adaptive behavioral and psychological efforts taken to manage and reduce internal/external stressors in ways that are not harmful in the short or long-term.
5-Key RESEARCH & DISSEMINATION
5-KEY MODEL REPORTS
Community Stability & Reentry
Accelerating Science Using the Research-to-Practice Feedback Loop
Employment and Behavioral Health-5-Key Model Preliminary Results for Policy Stakeholders
Housing Stability After Incarceration
Measuring Well-Being During Reentry
Researching and Responding to Barriers to Prison Reentry
Stories & Nuances of Reentry
Associations Between Well-Being and Reincarceration
Going Back to Jail Without Committing a Crime
The 5-Key Model for Reentry Program Evaluation Highlights
How Peers are Transforming Reentry Through the 5-Key Model for Reentry and Well-Being Development
The Psychological Toll of Reentry
Covid & Opiates & Reentry
Covid-19, Incarceration, and Reentry
COVID-19’s Impact on Reentry Research
The Opioid Crisis Among 5-Key Model Study Participants
The Opioid Crisis Among Individuals Who Have Experienced Incarceration in Kentucky
The Opioid Crisis Among Individuals Who Have Experienced Incarceration in Pennsylvania
The Opioid Crisis Among Individuals Who Have Experienced Incarceration in Texas
The Opioid Crisis Among Individuals Who Have Experienced Incarceration in Florida
PODCASTS & INTERVIEWS
Texas Standard
Formerly Incarcerated People Experience High Rates of Trauma After Leaving Prison
WFSU
Perspectives: Life After Lockup
Fluent in Floridian
Institute for Justice Research and Development Founder + Executive Director Dr. Carrie Pettus
YouTube
Dr. Carrie Pettus Presents Purpose & Goals of the 5-Key Model for Reentry.
Passionate Pioneers with Mike Biselli
Reducing Reliance on the Criminal Justice System
Public News Service
Life After Prison: A Challenge in KY Communities
REFERRED PUBLICATIONS
• Association of Reentry Well-Being with Psychological Distress, Employment, and Housing Instability 15 Months After Incarceration
Veeh, C., Renn, T., Pettus, C., & Moore, J. (2025). Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, https://doi.org/10.1086/736158
[ARTICLE]
• Service utilization patterns and psychological distress among formerly incarcerated individuals: a latent class and longitudinal mixed effects analysis
Graves, B. D., Mowbray, O., Aletraris, L., Shannon, S., Atkin-Plunk, C. A., & Pettus, C. (2025). Journal of Crime and Justice, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/0735648X.2025.2592204
[PDF]
• Trauma and Incarceration: A Latent Class Analysis of Lifetime Trauma Exposures for Individuals in Prison
Morrison, M., Pettus, C., Drake, B., Roth, K., & Renn, T. (2024). Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 25(2), 168-184. https://doi.org/10.1080/15299732.2023.2289189
[ARTICLE]
• The Impact of Traumatic Brain Injury on the Receipt of Services Following Release from Prison
Veeh, C. A., Lattimore, P. K., Stainbrook, K., Aldridge, A. P., & Pettus, C. (2023). Concussion-State-of-the-Art: State-of-the-Art, 81.
[PDF]
• “I feel like I have ‘prison’ tattooed on my forehead”- Women’s trajectories after release from inca…
Tripodi, S. J., Kennedy, S. C., Miller, F., Renn, T., Veeh, C., Pettus, C., & Schelbe, L. (2023). Women & Criminal Justice. DOI: 10.1080/08974454.2023.2297019
[PDF]
• Validation for Multidimensional Measure of Reentry Well-Being Among Individuals Who Are Incarcerate…
Veeh, C. A., Renn, T., Pettus, C., & Petscher, Y. (2023). Research on Social Work Practice, DOI: 10497315231151238
[ARTICLE]
• The well-being development model: A theoretical model to improve outcomes among criminal justice sy…
Pettus, C., Veeh, C., Renn, T., & Kennedy, S. (2021). Social Service Review, 95, 413-468. DOI:10.1086/715852
[ARTICLE]
• Incarcerated individuals’ experiences of COVID-19 in the United States
Pettus-Davis C, Kennedy S. C, & Veeh, C. A. (2021). International Journal of Prisoner Health. DOI: 10.1108/IJPH-11- 2020-0094. PMID: 33760428.
[ABSTRACT]
• Exploring the Service Utilization of Formerly Incarcerated Persons with Substance Use Disorders
Beeler-Stinn Sara (2021). Arts & Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 2397 Chair: David Patterson, Silver Wolf, Brett Drake; Committee: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Kathleen K Bucholz, Tonya Edmond, Vetta Sanders Thompson
[PDF]
• Building on Reentry Research: A New Conceptual Framework and Approach to Reentry Services and Research
Pettus-Davis, Carrie, Kennedy, Stephanie C. (2020). Handbook on Moving Corrections and Sentencing Forward. Routledge. 1st
[ABSTRACT]
• Early lessons from the multistate study of the 5-key model for reentry
Pettus-Davis, C., & Kennedy, S. (2020). Perspectives: The Journal of the American Probation and Parole Association, Vol 44, 19-31
[PDF]
• Intervention development study of the 5-Key Model for Reentry: An evidence-driven prisoner reentry …
Pettus-Davis, C., Renn, T., Veeh, C., & Eikenberry, J.* (2019). Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 58, 614-643. DOI:10.1080/10509674.2019.1635242
[ABSTRACT]
• Promoting reentry well-being: A novel assessment tool for individualized service assignment in pris…
Veeh, C., Renn, T., & Pettus-Davis, C. (2018). Social Work, 63, 91-96, DOI:10.1093/sw/swx050
[ABSTRACT]