August 2010 National Reentry Resource Center Newsletter
Feature
Reentry at the Local Level
The challenges facing local governments in addressing jail reentry mirror many of the challenges facing state governments trying to address prison reentry. However, there are significant differences, too. According to the Urban Institute, jails house a more diverse array of offenders than prisons (e.g., individuals awaiting trial, conviction, or sentencing; individuals sentenced to less than a year; and probation and parole violators); individuals stay in a jail for a shorter period than individuals in prison (average jail incarceration is twenty-seven days for large jails, compared to an average prison incarceration of two-and-a-half years); the capacity of jails to address individual needs, including substance use, mental and physical health, housing and employment, is limited compared to prisons; jails are administered by cities or counties; and there is no community-based system designated to provide post-release services such as employment, housing, and mental health treatment. Despite these challenges, jails are uniquely situated to improve offender reentry outcomes and public safety by staging interventions at the individual level. The Urban Institute's Life After Lockup: Improving Reentry from Jail to the Community highlights five of these targets for intervention.
To continue reading this feature, please click here.
Recording Available of "Local Governments' Role in Reentry" Webinar
On August 26, 2010, the National Reentry Resource Center hosted a free webinar for local government officials interested in offender reentry. The webinar discussed the role of local government in reentry, how local government agencies can establish and sustain reentry efforts, and how these efforts affect local budgets. Reentry tools and resources available to local governments, such as the Urban Institute's Transition from Jail to Community Implementation Toolkit, were profiled.
This webinar was supported by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance. To view the archived version of the webinar, please click here. To download the PowerPoint slides used in the webinar, please click here.
Second Chance Act Grantee Profile
Grantee: San Mateo County, California
Grantee Type: Adult Demonstration
Location: San Mateo County, California
Program Name: ACHIEVE 180
San Mateo County, California, is using its Second Chance Act Reentry Demonstration grant to help implement their Community Reentry Strategic Plan. Under the title of ACHIEVE 180, the program targets sentenced individuals, both men and women, with a minimum of sixty days or more to serve in the San Mateo County jail. ACHIEVE 180 provides reentry services and supports specifically to high-risk offenders planning to return to the County of San Mateo following release. Part of the grant funds were used to hire a reentry coordinator. This new position was created within the County Manager's Office, rather than within the Probation Department or the Sheriff's Office, specifically to facilitate cross-agency collaboration.
As of August 2010, Achieve 180 is serving eighty-one clients, seventeen of whom have released ninety days post incarceration and successfully engaged in their transition plans. Additionally, fifty-one mentor/mentee matches have taken place. A Transition Planning Team—chaired by the reentry coordinator and includes representatives from the Sheriff's Office, Probation Department, and the nonprofit Service League—collaboratively develops individualized case plans that are informed by the Correctional Assessment and Intervention System (CAIS), a validated risk/needs assessment instrument. Case managers procure services identified by CAIS, including substance abuse treatment, mental health treatment, housing services, healthcare services, mentoring services, and family reunification services.
The National Reentry Resource Center is Hiring!
The Council of State Governments Justice Center is seeking outstanding applicants to fill four positions on its reentry staff. For more information about the positions and instructions on applying, please click here.
Consensus Project Launches New Online Discussion Forum
The Justice Center is excited to announce the launch of a new online discussion forum, where policymakers and practitioners from across the country can exchange ideas, ask questions of each other and national experts, offer comments and suggestions, and network around their collaborative criminal justice/mental health initiatives. The forum, funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Justice Programs, U. S. Department of Justice, is located on the Justice Center's Justice/Mental Health Consensus Project website, and can be accessed here.
To learn more about the new forum, please click here.
Announcements & Events
On September 1, 2010, the National Reentry Resource Center will host a free webinar on how best to address the challenges faced by children of incarcerated parents. This webinar will cover the emotional and physical needs of children of incarcerated parents and the complex family dynamics among children, incarcerated parents, and caregivers. Practical tips and sample resources developed by experienced service providers, such as co-parenting agreements, will be shared.
To learn more about this webinar, including how to register, please click here.
This Bureau of Justice Assistance's National Training and Technical Assistance Center webinar will focus on the components of the solicitation process, including skills for creating an effective business plan, operational and funding management, and strategic planning. It will also offer how-to information for competing for grants and resources in a highly competitive environment. The webinar will be presented by Mr. Michael Zagury.
Date: Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Time: 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EDT
To register, please click here.
The 3rd Annual Freedom's Voice Conference will examine the unique needs of individuals reentering communities who have histories of mental illness or substance abuse. University Legal Services and the Drug Policy Alliance Network will offer specialized and intensive workshops that address mental health and substance abuse concerns among individuals in reentry. In addition, Soledad O'Brien, CNN anchor and special correspondent, and Jamal Simmons, political commentator and journalist, will facilitate discussions with widely respected reentry experts on what can be done to address this urgent issue.
For more information, please click here.
Christian Association for Prison Aftercare (CAPA) and the Milwaukee Fatherhood Initiative (MFI) have entered into an exciting and unique conference collaboration to offer the community two life-changing, concurrent conferences. Prisoner reentry service/program providers, volunteers, or reentry stakeholders should attend the CAPA conference. Men and women returning home from prison will be able to attend the MFI conference, which will feature many workshops that are ideal for them. A health fair, job fair, and assistance with child support debt reduction, and driver's license recovery will be available at the MIFI conference. There is NO COST for the MFI conference.
For more information and to register, please click here.
Publications
This two-page document provides a brief overview of the Maryland Proactive Community Supervision Model.
This bulletin provides an overview of research on the deterrent effects of transferring youth from juvenile to criminal courts, focusing on large-scale comprehensive Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention-funded studies on the effect of transfer laws on recidivism.
This paper provides an overview of family homelessness in the United States. It examines the key strategies that communities are implementing to respond to increased family housing instability and homelessness. The need for federal leadership is discussed.
The Huikahi Restorative Circle is a group process for reentry planning that involves the incarcerated individual, his or her family and friends, and at least one prison representative. The process was developed in 2005 in collaboration with two community-based organizations — the Hawaii Friends of Civic & Law Related Education and the Community Alliance on Prisons — and the Waiawa Correctional Facility located on the island of O'ahu.
Reentry in the News
Articles from newspapers around the country covering reentry issues can be found on the National Reentry Resource Center website. Some recent headlines from the homepage are posted below.
8/21/10 — "Nacogdoches County could have the pilot program other areas look to when beginning prisoner reentry programs," Nacogdoches County Commissioner Reggie Cotton said. Commissioners approved a resolution supporting the reentry program during the last commissioners court meeting, which will help the program secure grants to fund the project.
8/20/10 — In Tulsa, Project Reconnect, a Girl Scouts Beyond Bars program, offers such training as welding, hospitality, and computer courses to incarcerated mothers. The yearlong re-entry program is sponsored by the George Kaiser Family Foundation and aims to successfully reunite the women with their children.
8/12/10 — "The mobile center is making its way into some of Baltimore County's most economically distressed neighborhoods, after it spent its early months making the rounds of county parole and probation divisions and the detention center to help ex-convicts with re-entry. County officials said people with convictions on their records face mounting difficulties, but many other residents in areas with high unemployment can also take advantage of the service."
8/16/10 — "Getting businesses to hire ex-cons wasn't an easy sell in a good economy, probation officials and social service agencies say. And with some 69,000 Rhode Islanders unemployed, it's gotten harder."
8/14/10 — "As Texas prison programs go, this one was tiny. Just a few hundred ex-cons would be eligible for housing vouchers those who had been approved for parole but were stuck behind bars because they had no place to live, either because their families didn't want them or they had no place to go. It was also supposed to save taxpayers money, since the housing would cost less than a $47-a-day prison bed. Instead, state records show, the 8-month-old Temporary Housing Assistance Program appears to have accomplished just the opposite. In some cases, parolees have been moved into state-rented homes from less expensive halfway houses."
8/10/10 — "Woods is just one of a group – tens of thousands strong – of ex-convicts paroled in California every year. They often face bleak prospects for employment and debilitating drug addictions. About 400 reside in Richmond, a city long plagued by crime. More than 70 percent of the time, they prove unable to comply with the terms of their parole."
8/12/10 — "As hard as it is to find a job right now, it's even harder if you're an addict and a parolee. Seventeen men and women considered high-risk parolees celebrated Thursday the 90-day and 180-day marks in their freedom from jail and prison, having so far successfully navigated a new federally funded county re-entry program called Achieve 180, named for what organizers hope will be a complete turnaround in the lives of the program's participants."
8/4/10 — The Nevada Department of Corrections works to provide re-entry services for inmates who are leaving the correctional facility and re-acclimating themselves into society. The re-entry program provides elective program services to inmates to help prepare them for the transition back into the local community. Nevada business owners can help support this program while also receiving tax incentives by employing individuals leaving the department's Casa Grande Transitional Housing facility.
8/7/10 — Governor Deval Patrick signed into law yesterday a long-sought overhaul of the state's criminal records system that proponents say makes Massachusetts the first state to ban most employers from inquiring about applicants' criminal history on job applications.
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