The House recently began work on its Fiscal Year 2014 Justice Appropriations bill. As this process kicks off, Congress will prioritize programs with widespread support and it’s important that they be reminded of the critical need for continued funding of the Second Chance Act.
 
Please contact your Members of Congress today and urge that they support the Second Chance Act in 2014 by signing onto Congressman Danny Davis’s “Dear Colleague” letter in support of FY14 appropriations for Second Chance!
 
BACKGROUND
 
The Second Chance Act passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and was signed into law in April 2008. It is a common-sense, evidence-based approach to improving outcomes for people returning to communities from prisons and jails. This first-of-its-kind legislation authorizes federal grants to government agencies and nonprofit organizations to provide employment assistance, substance abuse treatment, housing, family programming, mentoring, victim support, and other services that can help reduce recidivism.

This report presents Year 1 findings from the process evaluation, summarizing early implementation characteristics of eight programs. These eight programs are quite diverse, as they vary widely in regional location, the population served, program size, and other design characteristics. During the Year 1 site visits, that were conducted from October 2011 – March 2012, evaluation staff conducted semi-structured interviews with program staff and representatives from partnering agencies and structured observations of court proceedings and pre-court staff meetings. Other data sources for the current report include program implementation plans, policy manuals, and other written program materials.

Click here for the full report.

On Monday, November 14, 2011, House and Senate conferees released the “minibus” appropriations report, which includes Fiscal Year 2012 Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) spending. The conference report, a consolidated appropriations bill for several agencies including the Department of Justice, provides $63 million for the Second Chance Act.

The compromise appropriations bill resolves differences in Second Chance Act funding between the House, which allotted $70 million for the program, and the Senate, which provided no funding. The bill is expected to go to the full House and Senate for consideration this week.

"The Second Chance Act is having a tremendous impact nationally. It has changed the way state and local leaders think about prisoner reentry and it's demonstrating how we can reduce recidivism, which not too long ago many thought was impossible. Continued funding is a victory for every community seeking to increase public safety and to help families and neighborhoods receiving people released from prison and jail," commented Justin Jones, Director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.

The bill provides $2.2 billion for state and criminal justice programs, including:

• $63 million for Second Chance Act programs;
• $9 million for Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act programs;
• $470 million for Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants;
• $6 million for comprehensive criminal justice reform and recidivism reduction efforts by states, also known as Justice Reinvestment;
• $35 million for drug courts;
• $10 million for residential substance abuse treatment programs;
• $20 million for Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act programs;
• $12.5 million for prison rape prevention and prosecution, and other programs.

In addition, the package contains a continuing resolution that funds other federal operations until December 16, 2011 – or until Congress completes the remaining nine FY 2012 appropriations bills.

Click here to see the legislative text approved by the conferees.  To read the conference report, click here.

Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that 118 programs have been selected to receive funding in 2011 under the Second Chance Act (SCA). Grantees include both local and state governments and nonprofit organizations.

The selection process was highly competitive. According to Laurie O. Robinson, Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, DOJ received more than 1,000 applications for Second Chance funding this year.
These grant awards are posted at the Office of Justice Programs web site

• Fiscal Year 2011 Grant Awards Office of Justice Programs' program grants funded through the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2010, Public Law 111-117. Click here to view all the awards ordered by state, and here to view all the awards ordered by solicitation title.

To see the list of Second Chance Act grant recipients, click on one of the specific grant tracks listed below.

Mentoring Grants

Funding under this section helps nonprofit organizations and federally recognized Indian tribes implement mentoring projects to promote the safe and successful reintegration into the community of adults and juveniles who have been incarcerated.

• Adult Mentoring
  
• Adult Mentoring, “Promoting Successful Reentry Through Responsible Fatherhood/Motherhood”
  
• Juvenile Mentoring
  

Demonstration Grants

Funding under this section helps state and local agencies implement projects and strategies to reduce recidivism and ensure the safe and successful reentry of adults and juveniles released from prisons, jails, or youth detention facilities back to the community.

• Adult Implementation
  
• Adult Planning
  
• Juvenile Implementation
  
• Juvenile Planning
  

Family-Based Substance Abuse Treatment Grants

Funding under this section helps state and local government agencies and federally recognized Indian tribes establish or enhance residential substance abuse treatment projects in correctional facilities that include family supportive services.

• State and Local
  
• Tribal
  

Adult Offenders with Co-Occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Health Disorders

This section’s funding helps state and local government agencies and federally recognized Indian tribes establish or enhance residential substance abuse treatment programs in correctional facilities that include aftercare and recovery supportive services.

• All grantees
  

Reentry Courts

This section’s funding helps state and local government agencies and federally recognized Indian tribes establish state, local, and tribal reentry courts monitor offenders and provide them with the treatment services necessary to establish a self-sustaining and law-abiding life.

• All grantees
  

Technology Careers

Funding under this section helps state and local governments and federally recognized Indian tribes to establish programs to train individuals in prisons, jails, or juvenile residential facilities for technology-based jobs and careers during the three-year period before their release.

• All grantees
  

In addition to these awards, other reentry research and technical assistance Second Chance Act awards were announced.

Last week the Senate Appropriations Committee eliminated funding for the Second Chance Act in the fiscal year (FY) 2012 Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill. In contrast, the House Appropriations Committee provided $70 million in their FY12 funding bill. (The Second Chance program was originally funded at $100 million in FY 2010, but that was reduced to $83 million in 2011). Although no funding for Second Chance was included in the bill, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy pledged to work to restore funding when the House and Senate Appropriations Committees attempt to resolve differences between the two spending bills.

The bill also provides $9 million for the Mentally Ill Offender Act (the legislation that authorizes the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program) for FY12. Overall it provides $2.3 billion for state and local law enforcement programs, including:

$9 million for the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act
$0 million for the Second Chance Act
$395 million for Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants
$21 million for Byrne Competitive Grants
$35 million for Drug Courts
$10 million for Residential Substance Abuse Treatment

Status of Federal Appropriations

Committee approval is only the first step in the appropriations process. The appropriations bills must be passed by the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, as well as the full House and Senate.

Click here for the summary of the legislation approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Click here for the bill report language.

Get Involved Today — Help Restore Second Chance Act Funding
Members of Congress need to hear from you immediately about the importance of Second Chance Act funding.

How You Can Help

• Please contact your members of Congress (link to sample letter) and ask them to support funding for the Second Chance Act in FY 2012.
• Sign the national sign-on letter in support of Second Chance Act funding.
• Share this information and ask your colleagues and friends to help protect funding for the Second Chance Act.

On Wednesday, July 13, 2011, the House Appropriations Committee approved the fiscal year 2012 Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill, which provides $70 million for Second Chance Act Programs. The bill, which contains $50.2 billion in total budget authority, provides $1.04 billion for state and local law enforcement programs, including:

• $9.96 million for Mentally Ill Offender Act (JMCHP)
• $357 million for Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants 

• $6 million for Byrne Competitive Grants
• $40 million for Drug Courts
• $12 million for Prison Rape Prevention and Prosecution 

• $15 million for Residential Substance Abuse Treatment


Committee approval is only the first step in the appropriations process. The appropriations bills must be passed by both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, as well as the full House and Senate.

Click here for the text of the legislation approved by the Appropriations Committee.

Click here for the accompanying bill report.

The Council of State Governments Justice Center is a national nonprofit organization that serves policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels from all branches of government. The Justice Center provides practical, nonpartisan advice and consensus-driven strategies, informed by available evidence, to increase public safety and strengthen communities.

The July 2011 BJA's Justice Today highlights the BJA "GrantStat" to Ensure Grant Program Performance; a highlight of a Featured Program; and the announcement of the new OJP CrimeSolutions.gov web site.  Click here to download the July 2011 BJA's Justice Today Newsletter

This week Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Rob Portman (R-OH) introduced the bipartisan Second Chance Reauthorization Act of 2011. First passed in 2007, the Second Chance Act provides resources to states, local governments and nonprofit organization to improve outcomes for people returning to communities from prisons and jails.

The reauthorization bill:

• Continues targeted funding for reentry programs at the state and local level to reduce recidivism;
• Helps ensure that reentry projects use methods proven through testing and review to lead to meaningful reductions in recidivism rates;
• Provides funding for the implementation of best practices in prison and jail education;
• Enables nonprofit organizations to apply for grants for programs promoting family-based substance abuse treatment and technology career training; and
• Requires periodic audits of grantees to ensure that federal dollars are responsibly spent.

Click here to view the Second Chance Reauthorization Act.  Click here to view a summary of the bill.
Click here to view materials about the bill and a press release from Senator Leahy's Office.
Click here to view a press release from Senator Portman's Office.
Click here to view the National Letter of Support for the bill.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities spearheads a National Tax Credit Outreach Campaign to promote the Earned Income Credit (EIC), Child Tax Credit (CTC) and free tax filing assistance.  These refundable tax benefits can provide needed financial assistance to individuals released from prison who are reentering society.   The tax credits can also be a resource to families caring for children of incarcerated relatives. Please go to the following links for more details.

•  The Earned Income Credit: A Powerful Benefit for People Who Work
  

•  The Child Tax Credit: An Extra Tax Break for Working Families!
  

• Individuals Released From Prison or Workers with a Relative in Prison
  

Customized flyers we developed this year for the reentry community:

• Flyer for formerly incarcerated individuals
  
• Flyer for caregivers of children with a relative in prison
  
  

Federal Grantees Gather to Promote Safe Communities and Successful Prisoner Reentry

Washington, DC—Senior officials from the Department of Justice, reentry experts, formerly incarcerated individuals, victims, and representatives of programs receiving federal funding through the Second Chance Act (Public Law 110-199) came together today for a three-day conference, convened by the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center, to share strategies that increase success rates for people released from prisons, jails, and juvenile correctional facilities.  Click here for the full press release.

The House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, held a hearing on September 29th on Reauthorization of the Second Chance Act this coming year. One of the witnesses was ASCA Member Gladyse Taylor, Acting Director of the Illinois Department of Correction. Secretary Walter McNeil (FL), Director Justin Jones (OK) and Secretary Tim Reisch (SD) submitted written testimony.

See the witness list below and links to download their testimony.

Le’Ann Duran, Director, National Reentry Resources Center, Council of State
Governments, New York City

Michele Banks, Manager, Richmond Second Chance Re-entry Program, Richmond
City Sheriff’s Office, Richmond, VA

Nancy G. La Vigne, Director, Justice Policy Center, The Urban Institute,
Washington, DC

David B. Muhlhausen, Ph.D., Senior Policy Analyst, Center for Data Analysis,
Heritage Foundation, Washington, DC

Gladyse Taylor, Acting Director of the Illinois Department of Correction

Walter McNeil, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections

Justin Jones, Director, Oklahoma Department of Corrections

Tim Reisch, Secretary, South Dakota Department of Correction
 

"TIME CHANGE -- The Second Chance Act: Strengthening Safe and Effective Community Reentry"

The hearing on " The Second Chance Act: Strengthening Safe and Effective Community Reentry" before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary was held Wednesday, July 21, 2010.  The following witnesses testified before the Committee:

Andrew Pallito, Commissioner, VT Department of Corrections Click this link to read the statement of Andrew Pallito

Le'Ann Duran, Reentry Project Director, Council of State Governments Click this link to read the statement of Le'Ann Duran

Sol Rodriguez, Executive Director, Open Doors, Providence, RI Click this link to read the statement of Sol Rodriguez

David Muhlhausen, Senior Policy Analyst, The Heritage Foundation  Click this link to read the statement of David Muhlhausen

Howard Husock, Vice President, Policy Research, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research  Click this link to read the statement of Howard Husock

Click this link to read the statement of Senator Russ Feingold

Click this link to read the statement of Senator Patrick Leahy

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A WEBCAST OF THE SENATE HEARING

The Second Chance Resource Center offers technical assistance to both Second Chance Grantees and non-grantees. Click this link to go to the Reentry Resource Center's "Training and Technical Assistance" page.

The National Reentry Resource Center April 25, 2013 Newsletter features a recap of the Five Year Anniversary of the Second Chance Act.  Other articles include the release of three publications: Lessons from the States: Reducing Recidivism and Curbing Corrections Costs Through Justice Reinvestment; Lessons Learned: Planning and Assessing a Law Enforcement Reentry Strategy; and The Implications of the Affordable Care Act on People Involved with the Criminal Justice System.  Click here for the April Issue of the NRRC Newsletter.

The March 27, 2013 National Reentry Resource Center Newsletter features a tribute to Colorado Executive Director Tom Clements by NRRC Director Michael Thompson.  Other articles include a link to the just released Planning and Assessing a Law Enforcement Reentry Strategy, a list of Reentry related grant opportunities, and highlights of upcoming webinars.
Click here for the March 27, 2013 Reentry Resource Center newsletter.

The National Reentry Resource Center March 4, 2013 newsletter features an article on the recently released Recidivism Reduction Checklists for Corrections Administrators, Reentry Coordinators and Executive and Legislative policymakers.  These checklists can help familiarize state leaders with key issues related to recidivism reduction, and help them honestly evaluate strengths and weaknesses in their reentry efforts through enhanced communication and coordination.

Other information in the newsletter includes Second Chance Act and SAMHSA reentry related funding opportunities; information about a Center for Justice Reform certificate program for workers that serve youth who are involved in the welfare and juvenile justice systems.  Other reentry related publications and news articles are included in the newsletter.   Click here for the March 4, 2013 National Reentry Resource Center newsletter.

The National Reentry Resource Center's November 29, 2012 Newsletter features articles including The U.S. Department of Justice new Second Chance Act awards, the MacArthur Foundation briefs about Youth Mental Health, a Reentry success story, and news briefs about reentry from around the country.

Click here for the November 29, 2012 National Reentry Resource Center newsletter.

The October 15, 2012 National Reentry Resource Center Newsletter features an article and link to a newly released database on collateral consequences; information about the CSG Justice Center report Adults with Behavioral Health Needs under Correctional Supervision: A Shared Framework for Reducing Recidivism and Promoting Recovery; and a new policy brief from CSG demonstrating States' success in reducing recidivism.

Click here for the October 15, 2012 Reentry Resource Center Newsletter.

On September 25th, 2012 the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center’s National Reentry Resource Center (NRRC) released a policy brief highlighting a number of states that are reporting significant reductions in recidivism. The states profiled in the report show significant declines in their three-year recidivism rates based on data tracking individuals released from prison in 2005 and 2007. Texas and Ohio reported reductions of 11 percent, while the Kansas rate fell by 15 percent and Michigan’s rate dropped by 18 percent. Incorporating data through 2010 (and in some cases, through 2011), the report provides some of the most recent data available for statewide three-year recidivism rates.
Click here for the full NRRC Press Release.
Click here for the policy brief.

The National Reentry Resource Center August 28, 2012 Newsletter features a report on the National Summit on Reentry and Employment held by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on July 31, 2012.  Other articles include: States Take Steps to Reduce the Prosecution of Youth in the Adult Criminal Justice System; Frequently Asked Questions about Communities and Families Involved with the Criminal Justice System; and National Reentry Resource Center Adds Local-Level Contact Information to Reentry Service Directories.

Click here for the August 28, 2012 National Reentry Resource Center Newsletter.

The National Reentry Resource Center July 3,2012 Newsletter features an article about the new Clearinghouse Resource What Works in Reentry Clearinghouse that provides a user-friendly, web-based, one-stop shop for practitioners and service providers seeking guidance on evidence-based reentry interventions, as well as an invaluable resource for researchers and others interested in reentry.  Other articles include the Federal Interagency Reentry Council Considers Employment Issues for Recently Released Individuals; Second Chance Act and Safer Communities Conference website coming soon, and Reentry Success Stories. Click here for the NRRC July 3, 2012 Newsletter.

The National Reentry Resource Center April 3, 2012 newsletter features an article on the HUD Secretary letter to clarify whether ex-offenders can live in HUD-subsidized housing, an interview with A Safe Haven co-founder Neli Vasquez-Rowland; and highlighting of reentry success stories and funding opportunities.  Click here for the April 3, 2012 newsletter.

The January National Reentry Resource Center Newsletter features a synopsis of the recent EEOC announcement regarding the settlement with Pepsi Beverages regarding criminal background checks for job seekers.  The newsletter also includes articles highlighting mentoring programs.  Click here for the January National Reentry Resource Center Newsletter.
 

The National Reentry Resource Center March 12, 2012 newsletter features and article from Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Director Gary Mohr describing how the agency has helped drive down Ohio's recidivism rate by realigning its policies to focus on reentry and advance the goals of Ohio's HB 86.  Other articles include information about New York City's "Work for Success" initiative to find jobs for formerly incarcerated individuals; reentry funding opportunities and reentry events and announcements.  Click here for the NRRC March newsletter.

The National Forum on Recidivism was held in Washington D.C. on December 8, 2011.  It included policymakers from all 50 states to focus on improving success rates for people released from prison. The event positioned states to set goals, or to expand on existing goals, for reducing recidivism through cost-effective strategies in their communities.

Photos of the State representatives in attendance at the National Forum on Recidivism.

Washington, DC — Teams of policymakers—which include the heads of the department of corrections, legislative leaders, judges and governors’ staff from all 50 states—are meeting in Washington today for an extraordinary forum on improving success rates for people released from prison.   The purpose of the results-oriented event is to position states to set goals, or in some cases expand on existing goals, for reducing reincarceration rates for individuals committing new offenses or violating the conditions of their release.

Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress, as well as representatives of the U.S. Department of Justice, are joining the state leaders to highlight how the federal government can work in partnership with them to pursue cost-effective strategies that provide a strong return on their investments in public safety.

“Federal, state and local governments are working together to promote public safety and reduce recidivism in our communities.  Helping offenders return to their communities as productive members of society ultimately improves their lives, and saves money for the communities in which they live.  Reducing recidivism, through programs like those funded by the Second Chance Act, keeps us all safer,” said Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT).

Click here to read the full press release.

If you missed the National Reentry Resource Center's webinar, Recidivism Reduction, Substance Use, and Co-Occurring Disorders, it's now available online!

The presenters of this webinar discuss best practices in effective treatment for people whose co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders range in severity. They first focus on the importance of screening and assessment and then cover evidence-based treatment practices that help to reduce recidivism for people with co-occurring disorders.

Click here to watch a recorded version of the webinar.
Click here to download a PDF of the presentation used during the webinar.

 

The August 2011 National Reentry Resource Center newsletter includes information about the September 8 webinar, Recidivism Reduction, Substance Use and Co-Occurring Disorders: What Does Evidence and Practice Tell Us?, information about a New York Foundation funding opportunity for Prisoner Reentry; and an article on "An Integrated, Evidence-Based Approach to Recidivism Reduction in Kennebec County, Maine."  Click here for the August 2011 National Reentry Center newsletter.

The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center announced today the release of a guide for policymakers committed to reducing the likelihood that probationers will reoffend. A Ten-Step Guide to Transforming Probation Departments to Reduce Recidivism provides probation leaders with a roadmap to overhaul the operations of their agencies so they can increase public safety in their communities and improve rates of compliance among people they are supervising.  Click here to download the report.

The first section describes how officials can engage key stakeholders, evaluate agency policies, and develop a strategic plan for implementing reform; the second section provides recommendations for redesigning departmental policies and practices; and the final section includes steps for making the department transformation permanent. The report provides numerous examples of how these steps were used in one probation department in particular (Travis County, Texas). Since transforming its operations between 2005 and 2008, the Travis County probation department has seen felony probation revocations decline by 20 percent and the one-year re-arrest rate for probationers fall by 17 percent (compared with similar probationers before the departmental overhaul).

Geraldine Nagy, Director of Travis County’s adult probation department and one of the authors of the report, said, “Probation leaders across the country share the conviction that probation administrators play a key role in community safety. In Travis County, we’ve made preventing crime and reducing reoffending the focus of our mission statement. Everyone, at all levels of our agency, along with judicial leaders, sees recidivism reduction as our shared and topmost priority. The Ten-Step Guide captures the key lessons we learned in reforming our agency.”

While probation officials in every state are experiencing cuts to their budgets, the number of people they are supervising is increasing. According to a recent study by the Pew Center on the States, more than five million people are currently on probation or parole in the U.S., representing an increase of 59 percent over the past 20 years. Facing high expectations and intense public scrutiny, probation officials should revisit their agency’s goals, processes, and measures for success. The Ten-Step Guide is designed for these community corrections officials and policymakers responsible for funding and overseeing probation.

North Carolina State Representative David Guice (R-Transylvania County), who is a member of the board of the CSG Justice Center and worked as a probation officer for over 30 years, said, "As a member of my state’s General Assembly, I worked diligently with fellow lawmakers to author legislation to overhaul the probation system across North Carolina. I believe it's important to realize how state governments can position probation staff to go beyond 'trailing and nailing' probationers who don't comply with conditions of release, and actually work to change behaviors among this population so they commit fewer crimes. The Ten-Step Guide is a critical tool for any state lawmaker who wants to help accomplish these same goals in their state."

Work on the guide was supported by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, Pew Center on the States Public Safety Performance Project, Texas Department of Criminal Justice-Community Justice Assistance Division, and the Travis County (TX) Community Supervision and Corrections Department.

The July 2011 National Reentry Resource Center Newsletter highlights FAQs on Juvenile Justice and Reentry; a Brief on Enrolling People with Serious Mental Illness in Federal Benefits; and an Urban Institute Report Looking at the Role of Judges in Client Success in Drug Courts.  Click here to download the July 2011 National Reentry Resource Center Newsletter.

The June 2011 National Reentry Resource Center Newsletter features information about the June 21 discussion on workforce development and employment strategies for people with criminal records hosted by the U.S. Department of Labor.  Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, Attorney General Eric Holder and Equal Opportunity Commission Chair Jacqueline Berrien spoke at the Washington D.C. event. 

Also included is information about Reentry in the News, Publications and Resources, Upcoming Events and Announcements, and Reentry related Funding Opportunities. Click here for the June 2011 NRRC Newsletter.

As part of ASCA’s role on the National Reentry Resource Center’s (NRRC) Steering Committee, ASCA staff have collected information from state departments of correction to develop a National Directory of Corrections Reentry Coordinators. The Directory is posted on the ASCA and NRRC websites to encourage discussion and networking between states regarding Reentry efforts. Click here to download the Directory.

The National Reentry Resource Center March 2011 Newsletter features the Making the Most of Second Chances Conference Website release and an update on Federal Second Chance Act funding.  Click here for the March 2011 Newsletter.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Director Shaun Donovan sent a letter last week to executive directors of public housing authorities (PHAs) clarifying HUD’s position regarding people with criminal record’s eligibility for public housing. In the letter, which was co-signed by Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing Sandra B. Henriquez, Secretary Donovan encourages PHA executive directors “to allow ex-offenders to rejoin their families in the Public Housing or Housing Choice Voucher programs, when appropriate.”

To view this important letter, click here.

“Housing is at the top of the list of what people need to succeed when they return from prison,” said Oklahoma Director of Corrections (and CSG Justice Center board member) Justin Jones. “We are very excited by this news in Oklahoma. It will contribute to public safety by helping people released from prison find a safe, affordable place to live.”

PHA executive directors generally have discretion whether or not to admit people with criminal records to public housing. The only circumstances under which a PHA is required by law to ban a person from federally assisted housing is if he or she was convicted of methamphetamine production on the premises or is subject to a lifetime registration as a sex offender.

The letter from Secretary Donovan and Assistant Secretary Henriquez is one of several efforts by the federal government that demonstrates its commitment to prisoner reentry issues. Under the leadership of Attorney General Eric Holder, various federal agencies have come together as the Federal Interagency Reentry Council. To learn more about the Reentry Council, click here.

"As President Obama recently made clear, this is an Administration that believes in the importance of second chances - that people who have paid their debt to society deserve the opportunity to become productive citizens and caring parents, to set the past aside and embrace the future,” Secretary Donovan and Assistant Secretary Heriquez wrote. “Part of that support means helping ex-offenders gain access to one of the most fundamental building blocks of a stable life - a place to live.”

The May National Reentry Resource Center Newsletter features an article on Five Emerging Practices in Juvenile Reentry.  Click here to dowload the NRRC May Newsletter.

The April 2011 edition of the National Reentry Resource Center Newsletter.

On Thursday, April 14, 2011 the House passed the continuing resolution (CR) for the rest of the fiscal year by a 260-167 vote. The Senate followed quickly with a 81-19 vote, avoiding a government shutdown.

All Department of Justice (DOJ) programs were cut by 17 percent. Several programs were exempt from this cut, including the Office of Violence Against Women, National Institute of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Regional Information Sharing Systems, Justice for All, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s programs.

Council of State Government Justice Center priority programs—the Second Chance Act program, the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act (MIOTCRA) program, and the Justice Reinvestment program—fall under state and local law enforcement assistance programs, which were cut by $434 million from the FY10 levels. Click here to see funding levels for other DOJ Programs.

Do you have questions about how to help people returning from prison and jail access housing or jobs? If so, the answers to your questions may well be found here: http://www.nationalreentryresourcecenter.org/faqs.

In collaboration with its partners, the National Reentry Resource Center (NRRC) has developed a series of frequently asked questions (FAQs) on hot topics in reentry. These issues target key areas to help formerly incarcerated individuals successfully re-engage in the community. Answers to questions about housing and employment are now available. Coming soon: Additional FAQs will be released that focus on the intersection of reentry and

• behavioral health;
• victims issues;
• pre-release planning and post-release supervision;
• tribal affairs;
• juvenile justice; and
• local government.

Still have questions? Contact the National Reentry Resource Center: info@nationalreentryresourcecenter.org to get help answering your specific concerns.

Do you have questions about how to help people returning from prison and jail access housing or jobs? If so, the answers to your questions may well be found here: http://www.nationalreentryresourcecenter.org/faqs.

In collaboration with its partners, the National Reentry Resource Center (NRRC) has developed a series of frequently asked questions (FAQs) on hot topics in reentry. These issues target key areas to help formerly incarcerated individuals successfully re-engage in the community. Answers to questions about housing and employment are now available. Coming soon: Additional FAQs will be released that focus on the intersection of reentry and behavioral health; victims issues; pre-release planning and post-release supervision; tribal affairs; juvenile justice; and local government.
 
Still have questions? Contact the National Reentry Resource Center: info@nationalreentryresourcecenter.org to get help answering your specific concerns.

Over the course of the next month, several Second Chance Act solicitations for FY2011 are expected to be released by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance. In response to these releases, the resource center will hold several webinars for potential applicants, during which time BJA staff will explain the solicitations and then answer questions. Webinar dates and registration information will be publicized on the National Reentry Resource Center website, and Spotlight Announcements will be emailed to subscribers of the resource center’s newsletter.

As 2010 winds to a close, the National Reentry Resource Center would like to acknowledge our partner organizations and to reflect on the many accomplishments that they have helped the resource center achieve in our first year of operation.

As members of the resource center’s steering committee, the Urban Institute; the American Probation and Parole Association; the Association of State Correctional Administrators; and the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform, Georgetown University Public Policy Institute have each played significant leadership roles. In addition to developing resources for the field such as the What Works Library, these organizations have strengthened the network of reentry practitioners, led advisory committees, and provided crucial strategic advice on how the center could most effectively guide Second Chance Act (SCA) grantees. Without their support, the resource center would be incomplete.

The resource center’s mission is to advance the reentry field by expanding awareness of effective practice and promoting data-driven strategies. One of the core strategies used to achieve this mission is distance learning. Newsletters, spotlight announcements, webinars, podcasts, resource maps, a document library, and searchable program database were all created this year to facilitate this knowledge transfer and support reentry policymakers and practitioners. The center’s website provides a home for these resources.

None of this would have been possible without the individuals, representing more than a hundred different organizations, who have given generously of their time and energy to serve on the resource center’s advisory committees. Through hours of conference calls and many e-mail exchanges, these committees have developed the expert content that fuels the resource center’s distance learning effort. In 2011, more of the advisory committee’s hard work will be shared with the reentry field through an extensive ”frequently asked questions” series, quick reference guides to key reentry issues, and policy and practice briefs.

To read about more 2010 resource center highlights, click here.

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.

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.

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.

The National Reentry Resource Center has identified helpful Publications and web sites from the Grantee Workshop "Making Connections to Health, Mental Health, and Substance Use Disorder Treatment".

Click this link to access the resources flyer

In fiscal year 2009, $25 million was appropriated for Second Chance Act programs, including $15 million for state and local reentry demonstration projects and $10 million for grants to nonprofit organizations for mentoring and other transitional services.

 In fiscal year 2010, $114 million was appropriated for prisoner reentry programs in the Department of Justice, including $14 million for reentry initiatives in the Federal Bureau of Prisons and $100 million for Second Chance Act grant programs.

Click to link to the Second Chance Act Appropriations Update

The Council of State Governments Justice Center announced the launch of an online Reentry Programs Database, developed with support from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), U.S. Department of Justice. It is designed to catalogue adult and juvenile programs nationwide that work to make individuals' return to communities from prisons, jails, and juvenile corrections facilities safer and more successful.

“Every day, ex-offenders return to communities in need of programs and resources that support the challenges associated with reentry. Now, service providers throughout the country will have access to a database of programs that will help those seeking services achieve their full potential,” said COPS Director Bernard K. Melekian.

“As BJA provides $100 million in funding to state, local, and tribal communities for reentry programs through the Second Chance Act, it is essential that these communities know about the strategies in use in other parts of the nation, to facilitate a peer-to-peer learning network so that we have the ability to learn from each other's best practices. That is exactly why BJA has supported this project,” said BJA Acting Director James H. Burch, II.

The database will feature a variety of programs, ranging from community-based efforts to statewide initiatives. It will highlight self-reported innovative programs that have implemented promising practices and policies to facilitate successful reentry. This tool was developed with three goals: to promote peer-to-peer exchanges, highlight progress in the field, and help people returning home and their families to connect with local programs that can facilitate reentry.

“The unveiling of the Justice Center's Reentry Programs Database marks the first effort to create a national clearinghouse of promising reentry initiatives. This new resource will better inform policymakers and practitioners as they implement policies and programs designed to support stronger families and communities and increase public safety,” says Dr. Frank Straub, Justice Center board member and director of public safety, City of Indianapolis.

Designed to be user-friendly, the database includes these features:

Unlimited profiles. This online tool will allow reentry program staff to create multiple profiles for individual programs and initiatives by completing an online survey that gathers detailed information on target population, services, program activities, and data-collection efforts.
Multiple search capabilities. Users can generate a targeted list of programs, with the option to search by state or by topic area. Available topic areas include employment, housing, law enforcement, and families.
Additional resources. Profiles available in the database may include links to relevant media articles, research, and evaluations.

The Reentry Programs Database can be accessed at http://reentrypolicy.org/reentry-program-examples/reentry-programs-start. Jurisdictions with reentry programs are encouraged to create or update profiles.

The Second Chance Resource Center has a variety of tools and resources for a variety of reentry programs including substance abuse.  Click this link to go to the National Reentry Resource Center's web page of substance abuse resources.

The U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs has two programs targeting support of justice involved veterans returning to the community. 

• Health care for Re-entry Veterans - HCRV provides prison outreach and reentry support.  The program provides:
  • Outreach and pre-release assessment services for veterans in prison
  • Referral and linkages to medical, psychiatric, and social services, including employment services upon release
  • Short term case management assistance upon release

Click here to link to the V.A. HCRV Program web page.

• Veterans Justice Outreach - VJO provides support at the front end of the justice continuum including jail outreach, education of and liason with law enforcement, and linkage and staffing of treatment courts.
  
  Click here to link to the V.A. VJO Program web page.

In addition to these two programs, the U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs has recently made available a video entitled "Suits: Support for Incarcerated Veterans" to be used in correctional facilities as a resource in preparing Veterans returning to the community.

Click here to link to the "Suits" video.

As part of ASCA’s role on the National Reentry Resource Center’s (NRRC) Steering Committee, ASCA staff have collected information from state departments of correction to develop a National Directory of Corrections Reentry Coordinators. The Directory is posted on the ASCA and NRRC websites to encourage discussion and networking between states regarding Reentry efforts. Click here to download the Directory.

The N-DEx Community Outreach strategy, CJIS Systems Officers (CSO) list and FBI N-DEx Liaison map are provided so ASCA Members can review the strategy and let your State's CSO know of your support.  The map and CSO list by region will help you identify your CSO.

Click here for the N-DEx Program Office Efforts to Include the Criminal Justice Community As Users of N-DEx document.
Click here for the CJIS Systems Officer (CSO) Contact List by Region.

Click here for the N-DEx Liaison Map.

Missouri Department of Corrections Director George Lombardi talked about a collaborative project between the Missouri Department of Corrections and the St. Louis City Police Department at the 2010 All Directors Training.  The program teams a Parole Officer and a Police Officer to target parolees in a high crime rate neighborhood.  Click here for more program information.

The publication of this 2004 monograph, Reentry Best Practices: Directors’ Perspectives, reflects the continuing commitment of the Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA) to excellence in all facets of correctional practice. It draws its inspiration from two previous publications entitled Correctional Best Practices: Directors’ Perspectives produced under then ASCA President Joe Lehman in 2000, as well as the ACA publication Best Practices: Excellence in Corrections in 1998. The articles that follow in this volume are unique in focus highlighting outstanding initiatives and programs associated with the growing national movement in corrections targeting offender reentry.

Click on this link to access the Reentry Best Practices document

Pennsylvania Secretary Jeffrey Beard presented Lessons Learned from PA DOC's Recidivism Reduction Efforts for the All Directors Training Program in San Diego, CA November 14, 2008.  The Power Point presentation is provided here.

ASCA polled member agencies in May and June to update the Current Issues Document that was developed during the Special Issues Seminar and All Directors Training held in Charleston, SC in December 2009.  The survey indicated that several issues relevant to reentry and community corrections are included as priorities for correctional agencies including housing sex offenders in the community, sentencing reform, inmates working in the community and interstate parole compact.  Click this link for the full June 2010 Current Issues Report

Acting Assistant Attorney General for OJP Mary Lou Leary issued the following statement about the recently released report Lessons from the States: Reducing Recidivism and Curbing Corrections Costs Through Justice Reinvestment.

We are very pleased to announce the results of an important report from the Department of Justice and the Council of State Governments (CSG), highlighting 17 states that have successfully cut corrections costs while reducing recidivism and improving public safety. As you may know, over the past 20 years, state spending on corrections has shot up from $12 billion in 1988 to more than $52 billion in 2011. Declining state revenues and other fiscal factors are straining many states’ criminal justice systems, often putting concerns about the bottom line in competition with public safety.

This new report, Lessons from the States: Reducing Recidivism and Curbing Corrections Costs Through Justice Reinvestment, summarizes the experiences of states participating in the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) and shows that evidence-based strategies can improve public safety and reduce recidivism, even in an era of reduced resources.

The initiative analyzed statewide crime and corrections data, looking for ways to help officials redirect public funds from expensive prison building projects to more cost-effective programs aimed at ensuring greater public safety.  Based on these analyses, states have put in place legislation and policies which encourage use of risk-based decision making, increase services and support for victims, target grants to law enforcement and establish state-wide standards and training for probation agencies.

In North Carolina and Ohio, for example, JRI analyses led to legislation that focuses resources on high-risk offenders and conserves prison space for the most serious criminals.  Kentucky enacted a law that requires 75 percent of state supervision and treatment expenditures to be evidence-based by 2016.  An analysis in Hawaii found deficiencies in the collection of restitution for crime victims and prompted the state to revise its restitution collection infrastructure.

Through the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, we’re helping state leaders become smarter and tougher on crime and employ data and research to wisely use scarce resources. This approach has shown that states don’t have to choose between safe communities and fiscal solvency.  Both are possible.

Click here for the report and click here to find more information on the Justice Reinvestment Initiative.

Funded through BJA, The Council of State Governments Justice Center produced this guide for developing housing options for Reentry.
Click here for the Reentry Housing Guide document.

D. Lee, D. Giever, M. Tolbert, and L. Rasmussen, 2012
This report summarizes the findings from a pilot of the revised Correctional Education Data Guidebook and a secure online data collection system. It provides an overview of the project's history and pilot activities, presents information about correctional education drawn from the pilot states' data, and describes the pilot states' experiences collecting and submitting data and the lessons learned from the pilot.
Click here for the report.
Click here to visit the Correctional Education Data Network website.

Edward Latessa, Ph.D., director of the University of Cincinnati’s School of Criminal Justice, has seen the best and the worst of programs in the 30 years that he has been studying what makes offenders stop committing crimes. Latessa and his team have assessed more than 550 correctional programs nationwide ranging from yoga and gardening to boot camps and talk therapy. He is convinced that many treatment programs do not reduce recidivism and that successful treatment programs focus on reducing — rather than just managing — the multiple risk factors of high-risk offenders. Such programs, when well-designed and executed, change offenders’ negative behavior and can be 20 to 30 percent more successful in reducing recidivism than other programs.  Click here for the full NIJ Update

The past generation has witnessed a number of significant changes in the American approach to the twin challenges of reducing crime and administering justice. Arguably the two most important changes in the American criminal justice landscape have been the evolving role of the police and the use of incarceration as a response to crime, which brought with it the subsequent release of millions of people from prison. Much has been written about modern American policing and prisoner reentry individually, yet the intersection of the two has received relatively little attention. This paper explores this intersection and makes the case that there is a role for the police in the prisoner reentry movement.  Click here for the paper from NIJ and the Harvard School of Government.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than 700,000 individuals are released from prisons yearly—with an additional 9 million adults cycling through local jails. Research indicates that employment is an important component of successful reentry, but most offender programs do not address the complex behavioral health issues that impact the offender’s ability to obtain and retain gainful employment while remaining crime free. Offender programming should target individuals at high risk for recidivism, address the dynamic influences that predict crime, and provide interventions specific to the needs of offenders. During this national discussion sponsored and broadcast by the National Institute of Corrections broadcast on November 2, 2011, participants will explore evidence-based practices that increase public safety while helping to reduce recidivism.  Click here to view the video of the satellite broadcast.

In June 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance sponsored a focus group of policymakers, court practitioners, parole and probation administrators, and researchers to take stock of reentry courts. The conversation focused on reentry courts’ achievements, challenges, and future prospects. It was facilitated by Judge Jeffrey Tauber, director of Reentry Court Solutions, and Alfred Siegel, deputy director of the Center for Court Innovation. This report summarizes the discussion.

The American Probation & Parole Association announced the availability of a new CD-ROM entitled Guidelines to Gang Reentry.  The development of this resource was funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance and was prepared in cooperation with the Association of State Correctional Administrators and the Institute for Intergovernmental Research. The Guidelines to Gang Reentry CD-ROM provides guidelines and resources specific to working with gang-involved offenders during the three main phases of reentry:  

• The Institutional Phase of Reentry: focuses on what needs to occur with gang-involved offenders’/defendants’ from jail or prison intake to release from secure custody;
• The Structured Reentry Phase: focuses on how to enhance collaboration among institutional and community corrections staff to transition gang-involved offenders and defendants to the community; and
• The Community Reintegration Phase: focuses on how community corrections professionals (i.e., parole/probation staff) can assess, prepare case plans, and supervise gang-involved offenders/defendants more effectively.
  

The cost of the CD is FREE; however, a fee of $5 will be assessed to cover shipping/handling costs.  To order a copy, go to:
http://www.appa-net.org/eweb/Dynamicpage.aspx?webcode=IV_ProjectDetail&wps_key=c32c939b-9ef7-4d1d-bff7-e48976b6ef1c
If you have questions or comments, please contact Kim Cobb via telephone at (859) 244-8015 or via email at kcobb@csg.org.

Video podcasts featuring researchers Johnna Christian and Nicholas Freudenberg, criminal justice experts who recently participated in the Vera Institute of Justice’s Neil A. Weiner Research Speaker Series, are now available.

In “What works to keep young men from returning to jail?” Freudenberg, distinguished professor of urban public health at Hunter College/City University of New York, discusses REAL MEN (Returning Educated African-American and Latino Men to Enriched Neighborhoods), a reentry program that uses education, treatment, and a strength-based approach designed to reduce drug use, risky sexual behavior, and criminal activity among 16- to 18-year-old males leaving New York City jails.

Johnna Christian, assistant professor at Rutgers University in the School of Criminal Justice, talks about her research in “Family relationships during incarceration and reentry.” Christian describes different types of support family members provide to one another—including the often overlooked contributions made by those who are involved with the juvenile or criminal justice system—and the implications for reducing recidivism.

Watch these and other podcasts from the Neil A. Weiner Research Speaker Series and see the schedule of upcoming participants.

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction and the Corporation for Supportive Housing Ohio Office developed a pilot program that provides permanent supportive housing to individuals released from several Ohio prisons. The Pilot intends to reduce recidivism and homelessness/shelter usage and decrease the costs associated with multiple service system use. The Urban Institute is evaluating the Pilot to determine whether it is meeting its intended goals. This Interim Report discusses the results of a re-arrest analysis, comparing the outcomes of individuals who received permanent supportive housing to those who did not. Implications from the analysis are also discussed. Click here to download the report.

Vera’s Family Justice Program has a new video profiling its work with corrections, probation, and parole agencies. The video explains Family Justice’s approach by describing how the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC) is using it at a women’s facility and in its community corrections work.

The Family Justice Program provides training and technical assistance to government organizations to help them encourage supportive contact between incarcerated individuals and their families and to facilitate engaging family members in reentry planning and case management.

In just over five minutes, Oklahoma DOC personnel, individuals involved in the system, and their loved ones describe how Family Justice helps staff and family members work together to motivate behavioral change in participants and increase public safety.

“It just makes my job easier,” explains Susan Quigley, an Oklahoma DOC probation and parole team supervisor, “because I’m more aware about the kind of situation that the person is in [and] the strengths and weaknesses that they have around them.”

It’s “something you know works,” says Justin Jones, the agency’s Director. “It enhances what you’re already doing, and it’s not some concept that you go research and study and go get a Ph.D. in.”

The video was developed and edited with support from the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Public Welfare Foundation.

Click here to watch the video. 
Click here for the video transcript.  

Click here for more about Vera's Family Justice Program

The Washington State Institute for Public Policy provided this report to the Washington State Legislature in 2006 summarizing their latest review of evidence based adult corrections programs, updating their 2001 work on this topic.

The Report summary states: This study provides a comprehensive review of evidence-based programs for adult offenders.  We asked a simple question: What works, if anything, to lower the criminal recidivism rates of adult offenders?  To provide an answer, we systematically reviewed the evidence from 291 rigorous evaluations conducted throughout the United States and other English-speaking countries during the last 35 years.  We find that some types of adult corrections programs have a demonstrated ability to reduce crime, but other types do not.  The implication is clear: Washington's adult corrections system will be more successful in reducing recidivism rates if policy focuses on proven evidence-based approaches.

Click this link for the full report.

The Reentry Mapping Network (RMN) is a collaborative effort by community-based organizations and the Urban Institute, designed to create community change through the mapping and analysis of neighborhood-level data on prisoner reentry. RMN partners collect and analyze local data related to incarceration, reentry, and community well-being, and work with their communities, local organizations, and policymakers to develop strategies for addressing prisoner reentry in their regions. This guidebook provides information on how interested parties can understand and address prisoner reentry at the local level through mapping and data analysis. It outlines the concepts and methods underlying the RMN and the experiences of the RMN partners so that other jurisdictions can learn from these experiences and create more successful reentry strategies in their own communities.

Click this link for the Mapping Prisoner Reentry Guidebook

Missouri was chosen as the first state to implement a model created by the National institute of Corrections in 2002.  This philosophical framework is designed to improve the offender transition process during incarceration in an effort to increase public safety, diminish new victimization, make efficient use of state and local resources, and to ensure we are preparing offenders to be productive, law-abiding citizens.  This 2009 report from the Missouri Reentry Process Steering Team to the Governor identifies 2009 accomplishments, challenges and Goals for 2010.

Click this link for the full report

Identifying entering inmates’ mental health needs when they first enter an institution is critical to providing necessary services and enhancing safety in corrections settings. The purpose of the two projects discussed in this report was to create and validate mental health screening instruments corrections staff can use during intake.

The researchers created short questionnaires that accurately identify inmates who require mental health interventions. One mental health screen was found to be effective for men and is being adapted for women; the other has effective versions for both men and women.

Click here for the full report

The Pennsylvania Department of Corections has developed an Program Evaluation Tool to assess programming delivered to inmates.  Click this link to view the assessment tool.

The purpose of this memorandum is to provide a comprehensive list of data elements that are essential to successful reentry planning, justice planning and/or justice reinvestment. It was developed by Carey Nadeau from the Urban Institute, It is more oriented to research and historical analysis than useful for improving the success of individual reentry into communities, but has value for those developing or expanding reentry programs. Click here for the full report from the Urban Institute.

Handouts, presentations, videos, and other materials are available from Making Second Chances Work: A Conference for Grantees Committed to Successful Reentry, which was held May 26-27, 2010. This conference was convened to help front-line professionals learn from experts and peers about approaches that help support a person's transition from a correctional facility to the community. (BJA)

The Council of State Governments Justice Center (CSG Justice Center) released a new report today, Lessons Learned: Planning and Assessing a Law Enforcement Reentry Strategy. Created with support from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), the report highlights how four law enforcement agencies engaged in local-level reentry partnerships in order to reduce crime and increase public safety in their jurisdictions. These four “learning sites” featured in the report applied strategies outlined in the Planning and Assessing a Law Enforcement Reentry Strategy toolkit released by the CSG Justice Center and the COPS office in 2008, which focuses on ten key elements of creating a local reentry initiative.
 
In addition to today’s release of the Lessons Learned publication, an interactive assessment tool will be launched that is a companion to the original Planning and Assessing a Law Enforcement Reentry Strategy toolkit. This online tool allows local sites to assess and plan improvements to their current reentry practices. Housed on the CSG Justice Center website, this tool will be accessible to law enforcement, corrections staff, community corrections professionals, and faith- and community-based services providers who are interested in assessing their current reentry projects and building on law enforcement and community partnerships focused on reentry strategies.
 
“Law enforcement professionals are uniquely positioned to engage their community policing networks of service providers who can help address the needs of those individuals returning from prison or jail,” said COPS Office Acting Director Joshua Ederheimer. “We are pleased by the commitment of these law enforcement executives in the four jurisdictions represented in this report, as they have served as solid examples for the field how local law enforcement can be important partners in the community reentry strategies focused on reducing recidivism, and improving public safety.”
 
In an effort to expand the knowledge base for law enforcement agencies interested in starting or enhancing a reentry effort, the CSG Justice Center selected four agencies to serve as “learning sites” that would implement recommendations and proposed strategies outlined in the law enforcement reentry toolkit. The four agencies that were selected and whose progress is featured in this report include:

• The Las Vegas (Nevada) Metropolitan Police Department,
• The Metropolitan (Washington, D.C.) Police Department,
• The Muskegon County (Michigan) Sheriff’s Department, and
• The White Plains (New York) Police Department.

Click here for more information about the four jurisdictions' challenges and their progress highlighted in the new report.

The National H.I.R.E. Network’s 5th Annual Policy Conference, titled “Elevating Women” was marked by both policy discussions and poignant stories, the event highlighted a key problem in the criminal justice system: Though women have a different set of needs and experiences during and after incarceration, most discharge and reentry planning focuses on men.  Click here for the full story.

Prisoner Reentry Services: What Worked for SVORI Evaluation Participants? presents the results from a secondary analysis of data collected for a large, multistate evaluation of state and local reentry initiatives, called the Serious and Violent Reentry Initiative (SVORI). SVORI funded 69 agencies in 2003 to develop programs to improve criminal justice, employment, education, health and housing outcomes for released prisoners.

Many of the specific services had no effect on housing, employment, substance use outcomes. However, SVORI program participation did affect arrests following release, with SVORI program participation associated with 14 percent reduction in arrests for adult men, 48 percent reduction in arrests for adult females, and 25 percent reduction for the juvenile males over the fixed follow-up periods.

The report is the result of a National Institute of Justice-funded project but was not published by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Click here for the full report.

The ability of education acquired in prison to increase post-incarceration employment rates and lower recidivism rates is examined. Sections of this article include: abstract; introduction; the impact of correctional education in Missouri; education and employment; education and recidivism; employment and recidivism; the pathway to lower recidivism rates; and conclusion. Results “show that inmates who increase their education in prison are more likely to find a full-time job after prison, and those with a job are less likely to return to prison” (p. 1).

Click here to link to the article in the National Institute of Corrections library.

The impact of the community in which an offender resides on that individual’s potential for recidivism and employment is investigated. Sections following an abstract include: executive summary; introduction; research design and data collection; results according to frequency and timing of recidivism, neighborhoods and recidivism, and neighborhoods and employment; and conclusion. It appears that “neighborhood context predicted both the recidivism and labor market outcomes of former prisoners” (p. 1). The more affluent the neighborhood, the better the chances for lower risk for recidivism and greater employment and wages.

Click here for a link to the report in the National Institute of Corrections library

The National Institute of Justice has released a new InShort that examines research on the effectiveness of electronic monitoring in reducing recidivism in community supervision.

NIJ InShort: Electronic Monitoring Reduces Recidivism (pdf, 4 pages)
A summary of “A Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment of Electronic Monitoring” by William Bales, et al.

The study, which examined data gathered from supervisees in Florida between 2001 and 2007, found that electronic monitoring reduces offenders’ risk of failing to meet the terms of their probation and monitoring by 31 percent.

Read the full research report.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released a new Prisoner Recidivism Analysis Tool that allows users to conduct customized analyses of a large database describing the recidivism rates of prisoners released in 1994 and followed for 3 years after release. In 2012, BJS plans to update the tool with new recidivism data on prisoners released in 2005.

The tool allows users to move beyond the published statistics to explore in more detail the recidivism patterns of released prisoners. Users may examine these patterns based on one or more attributes, such as gender, age at release, race, Hispanic origin, commitment offense, sentence length, prior arrests, and prior commitments.

The tool is part of an ongoing effort to provide customized data to a wide array of users and is available online.

The Council of State Governments Justice Center issued a publication in October on why victims and children of people released from prisons and jails often do not receive the restitution and support they are owed. Repaying Debts is a first-of-its-kind comprehensive guide, supported by the U.S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, that details how policymakers can increase financial accountability among people leaving correctional facilities, improve rates of child support collection and victim restitution, and make individuals’ transition from prisons and jails to the community safe and successful. The report recommends very specific strategies to improve how people released from prisons and jails meet their court-ordered financial obligations. It also provides examples from states that have successfully implemented some aspect of these strategies, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Download the report summary

Download the full report
Click here for the on-line version

Click here to see other reentry resources from the Justice Center.

Pennsylvania Secretary Jeffrey Beard presented Lessons Learned from PA DOC's Recidivism Reduction Efforts for the All Directors Training Program in San Diego, CA November 14, 2008.  The Power Point presentation is provided here.

The Sentencing Project: Research and Advocacy for Reform provides a compilation of recidivism studies.  This database provides references for 99 recidivism studies conducted between 1995-2009 in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The studies have been produced by a variety of agencies, including departments of corrections, sentencing commissions, statistical analysis centers, and universities. The analyses addresses a broad variety of issues, including juvenile/adult status, gender, race, type of offense, type of program intervention, and many others. Because of this diversity, measurements of recidivism rates are not necessarily comparable across jurisdictions, but overall the studies provide insight into the variety of factors that affect recidivism for people sentenced to incarceration or community supervision.

Click the link to access the State Recidivism Study

The Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) presents a report based on an analysis of felons released between 2001 and 2007.  Recidivism is not a subject routinely associated with good news. The best news would be that no felons return once they are released. While that is not the case, what is true is that some rates of return have declined in significant ways. Certainly any return to custody represents both personal and economic costs for victims and their families so no attempt will be made to minimize the impact of recidivism. However, the information contained in this report provides hope and insight in to the trends developing in Tennessee. 

Click here to download the report

In the past 20 years, state spending on corrections has grown at a rate faster than nearly any other state budget item. Despite increasing corrections expenditures, recidivism rates remain high with half of all persons released from prison returning within three years. Further, in every state, there are a handful of “high-stakes” communities to which most people released from prison return; these are also the communities where taxpayer-funded programs are disproportionately focused. Justice reinvestment staff, with the help of expert consultants, work closely with state policymakers to advance fiscally-sound, data driven criminal justice policies to break the cycle of recidivism, avert prison expenditures and make communities safer. To assist state policymakers, justice reinvestment staff is providing technical assistance to a limited number of states that demonstrate a bipartisan interest in the strategy:

    * Step 1: Analyze the prison population and spending in the communities to which people in prison often return.
    * Step 2: Provide policymakers with options to generate savings and increase public safety.
    * Step 3: Quantify savings and reinvest in select high-stakes communities.
    * Step 4: Measure the impact and enhance accountability.

Click here to link to the Justice Reinvestment web site

The Washington State Department of Social and Health Services has developed video training modules, "Working Effectively with Children of the Incarcerated, their Parents and Caregivers," designed to help social workers and other social service providers understand the particular needs of families with an incarcerated parent and learn effective practices in working with children of the incarcerated, their parents and caregivers.

Click here to link to the Washington DSHS web site for the video series.

The Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) announced that North Carolina has been selected to participate in the Pathways from Prison to Postsecondary Education Project (Pathways Project). This five-year initiative, directed by Vera, provides funding and technical assistance to selected states to develop a continuum of postsecondary education services for people within two years prior to release from prison through two years after release to the community. North Carolina will receive $1 million in incentive funding to pilot educational programming and reentry support services to male and female adult offenders in seven facilities as well as in Charlotte, Asheville, and Greenville, communities to which many participants are scheduled to return.  Click here for the full Press Release.

The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, in partnership with the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Council of State Governments, has launched an online Re-entry Programs Database. The database will serve as a national directory of adult and juvenile re-entry programs, and will help community service providers and individuals identify resources that support the reintegration of ex-offenders into communities.

The database will feature a variety of programs, ranging from community-based efforts to statewide initiatives. It will highlight self-reported innovative programs that have implemented promising practices and policies to facilitate successful re-entry. This tool was developed with three goals: to promote peer-to-peer exchanges, highlight progress in the field, and help people returning home and their families to connect with local programs that can facilitate re-entry.

"Every day, ex-offenders are released and return to communities in need of programs and services that support the challenges associated with re-entry. Now, there is a national directory of resources that can be accessed on-line, throughout the country, that will help those seeking services to achieve their full potential," said COPS Director Bernard K. Melekian.

"As BJA provides $100 million in funding to state, local, and tribal communities for re-entry programs through the Second Chance Act, it is essential that these communities know about the strategies in use in other parts of the nation, to facilitate a peer-to-peer learning network so that we have the ability to learn from each other's best practices. That is exactly why BJA has supported this project," said BJA Acting Director James H. Burch, II.

"The unveiling of the Justice Center's Re-entry Programs Database marks the first effort to create a national clearinghouse of promising re-entry initiatives. This new resource will better inform policymakers and practitioners as they implement policies and programs designed to support stronger families and communities and increase public safety," says Dr. Frank Straub, Justice Center board member and Director of Public Safety, City of Indianapolis.

The Re-entry Programs Database can be accessed at http://reentrypolicy.org/reentry-program-examples/reentry-programs-start. Jurisdictions with re-entry programs are encouraged to create or update profiles.

On Wednesday, July 13, 2011, the House Appropriations Committee approved the fiscal year 2012 Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill, which provides $70 million for Second Chance Act Programs. The bill, which contains $50.2 billion in total budget authority, provides $1.04 billion for state and local law enforcement programs, including:

• $9.96 million for Mentally Ill Offender Act (JMCHP)
• $357 million for Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants 

• $6 million for Byrne Competitive Grants
• $40 million for Drug Courts
• $12 million for Prison Rape Prevention and Prosecution 

• $15 million for Residential Substance Abuse Treatment


Committee approval is only the first step in the appropriations process. The appropriations bills must be passed by both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, as well as the full House and Senate.

Click here for the text of the legislation approved by the Appropriations Committee.
Click here for the accompanying bill report.

Gerard Ramker from US DOJ sent the following information about BJS's CHRIS Project & Upcoming National Recidivism Study that will involve 30 states this fall. Click this link for the entire message to ASCA members.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Justice Mapping Center today launched the National Justice Atlas of Sentencing and Corrections, an online, interactive, mapping utility that gives policy makers, the media, researchers and the public a neighborhood-level view of where prison inmates and offenders on probation and parole  are from and where corrections spending is highest.  “After 26 months of extensive work with corrections departments in more than 22 states, we are proud to launch this unique, online, interactive criminal justice mapping resource,” said Eric Cadora, founder of the Justice Mapping Center. “We hope that in addition to revealing cycles of incarceration and reentry experienced by residents of communities across the country, the Justice Atlas will also spur policy responses that will have a positive impact on residents in neighborhoods already grappling with high rates of crime and violence.”

Publication of the Atlas means that for the first time, policy makers, researchers, community organizations, media and even departments of corrections themselves, now have access to data that geographically illustrates:  

• the concentration of incarceration rates in disadvantaged communities all around the country;
• the crucial role that parole and probation revocations play in recycling the same neighborhood residents back to prison each year;
• the millions of dollars per neighborhood being spent to imprison residents of these communities;
• the disparities between the proportion of a city’s population who live in a community and the proportion of the city’s returning prisoners who live in that community.
  

The Atlas reveals the following kinds of data:

• In New York City, neighborhoods that are home to 18% of the city’s adult population account for more than 50% of prison admissions each year.
• In Wichita, Kansas, where probation and parole revocations account for more than two-thirds of the city’s admissions to prison each year, one-quarter of all people on probation or parole live in only 8% of the city’s neighborhoods.
• In Pennsylvania, taxpayers will spend over $40 million to imprison residents of neighborhoods in a single zip code in Philadelphia, where 38% of households have incomes under $25,000.
• In Shreveport, Louisiana, nearly seven percent of all working age men living in the neighborhoods of a single zip code were sent to prison in 2008.
• In Austin, Texas, while neighborhoods in three of the city’s 41 zip codes are home to only 3.5% of the city’s adult population, they grapple with over 17% of people returning from prison each year.
  

“The Justice Atlas provides state and local leaders with a powerful new tool to analyze what is driving their crime and incarceration rates and to devise new strategies that will produce a better return on the billions we spend on corrections,” said Adam Gelb, director of the Pew Center on the States Public Safety Performance Project.

The Justice Mapping Center created and launched the inaugural edition of the National Justice Atlas of Sentencing and Corrections through substantial support from the Ford Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Open Society Institute, the crucial participation of the research staff of departments of corrections and probation/parole in 22 states, and in collaboration with its partners at the JFA Institute and the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation’s Spatial Information Design Lab.  For a list of the 22 states included in the Justice Atlas and for more information, please visit www.justiceatlas.org

CONTACT: Estuardo Rodriguez: (202) 631-2892   

North County Times, (10/12/2010), Teri Figueroa
San Diego County will be the site of a new Re-Entry Court designed to keep nonviolent offenders from returning to prison. The program, funded with $1.5 million from the California Emergency Management Agency, is designed to smooth parolees reentry into the community. San Diego County is one of seven counties in California to receive grants for the reentry program. The program is in addition to San Diego County's four-year-old intervention program that provides substance abuse treatment, job and literacy training and close monitoring. The Reentry Court adds a layer to the intervention program by putting parolees in front of a Superior Court judge, who will hold them more accountable for parole infractions. Officials said among the few hundred participants in the program, the intervention program appears to have reduced recidivism rates to about 20 percent.

Click here for the full article.

Nearly 28,000 people walked out of Ohio prisons in 2008, many without job prospects, support or a place to sleep. More than 10,000 of them ended up back there, or are expected to by the end of next year.

A third of those who leave prison in Ohio typically reoffend within three years.

To try to stop that revolving door, officials in 25 counties have created task forces to develop and carry out plans to reduce the recidivism rate locally. In central Ohio, that includes Delaware, Franklin and Pickaway counties and a joint effort by Marion and Crawford counties.

Click here for the full story.

BJA has sponsored a project is to design, develop and implement a set of information sharing capabilities that can be used by the corrections community to exchange information between public safety, human/social services partners, and other community resources that participate in the offender reentry process. The overall goal of the pilot project(s) is to demonstrate improved efficiencies and effectiveness of the reentry process through the sharing of information. In this podcast Robert May ( Associate Director, Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA) and Mark Perbix (Justice Information Systems Specialist, SEARCH) discuss the following:

* Background on a Reentry Focus for Information Sharing * Pilot Project selection and participants * Pilot project business requirements * Role of the Technical Assistance partnering organizations * Information sharing standards * Project Goals * Project deliverables and implementation

To listen to the podcast, go to: http://www.search.org/programs/info/podcasts/default_test.asp and then scroll down to Podcast #8.

Reentry has a tremendous impact not only on the criminal justice system, but also on public health, housing, the work force, education, families, and communities. Reflecting the federal government’s commitment to addressing reentry challenges in a multidisciplinary manner, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has assembled a Cabinet-level interagency Reentry Council comprised of 18 federal departments and agencies. The Reentry Council will support the federal government's reentry efforts by enhancing communication, coordination, and collaboration across the federal government. Reentry Council partners are working together to increase public safety, assist those returning from prison and jail in becoming productive citizens, and save taxpayer dollars by lowering the direct and collateral costs of incarceration.

The Reentry Council has now launched its official website, which is housed within the larger website of the National Reentry Resource Center (NRRC). There you can access information created by the Reentry Council, learn about the Council’s goals and composition, and identify agency contacts.

The Reentry Council has also released a set of “Reentry MythBusters,” one pagers designed to clarify existing federal policies that affect formerly incarcerated individuals and their families. The MythBusters cover topics critical to reentry, such as public housing, access to federal benefits, parental rights, employer incentives, and more. As the MythBusters show, some federal laws and policies are narrower than is commonly perceived, as is the case with public housing and food assistance benefits. States and localities often have broad discretion in determining how policies are applied and/or have various opt-out provisions for states (TANF and child support are examples). In some cases, statutory barriers do not exist at all or are very limited, as is the case with federal hiring. In fact, some federal policies, such as federal bonding, contain incentives for assisting the formerly convicted population.

These Reentry MythBusters demonstrate how the Reentry Council is working to develop coordinated reentry strategies to reduce crime and enhance individual and community well-being. These efforts build on the considerable resources that the federal government is already investing in states and localities to support successful reentry and reintegration.

Updates about the work of the Reentry Council will be announced via the NRRC newsletter.

All announcements and events for May 2011

Washington, D.C.—Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) was joined by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) today to highlight the challenges facing the nation's corrections and criminal justice system and to unveil a new report from the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center offering proven strategies to increase public safety, reduce recidivism and save taxpayer dollars. 
Click here for the full press release.  
Click here to download the report from the 2010 summit.

CENTER FOR EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES (CEO) WINS INVESTMENT TO HELP YOUNG PEOPLE RETURNING FROM PRISON WITH EMPLOYMENT SERVICES, REMAIN CRIME-FREE

CEO selected in national competition for federal Social Innovation Fund grants, and will expand proven model in upstate New York, California and Oklahoma

The New York City based nonprofit provider, the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), has been awarded a three-year investment of up to $6 million, with a first year award of $2.25 million from a Federal Social Innovation Fund (SIF) grant by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (EMCF). CEO will also be an inaugural member of EMCF’s True North Fund – a new capital aggregation fund that will leverage public and private investment to help an initial group of nine non-profits expand their programs and grow their evidence base.

Click here to read the official press release.

This investment is a groundbreaking model for leveraging public and private support to address some of our country’s most vexing social issues. I am thrilled that the Center for Employment Opportunities has been selected to receive this award from EMCF. Young men and women returning from prison face a steeplechase of barriers. Providing them with effective employment services goes a long way in reducing those barriers and helping them turn their lives around.

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Faced with yawning budget gaps and high unemployment, California, Michigan, New York and several other states are attacking both problems with a surprising strategy: helping ex-convicts find jobs to keep them from ending up back in prison.

The approach is backed by prisoner advocates as well as liberal and conservative government officials, who say it pays off in cold, hard numbers. Michigan, for example, spends $35,000 a year to keep someone in prison — more than the cost of educating a University of Michigan student. Through vigorous job placement programs and prudent use of parole, state officials say they have cut the prison population by 7,500, or about 15 percent, over the last four years, yielding more than $200 million in annual savings. Michigan spends $56 million a year on various re-entry programs, including substance abuse treatment and job training.
Click here for the full article.

 

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Director Shaun Donovan sent a letter last week to executive directors of public housing authorities (PHAs) clarifying HUD’s position regarding people with criminal record’s eligibility for public housing. In the letter, which was co-signed by Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing Sandra B. Henriquez, Secretary Donovan encourages PHA executive directors “to allow ex-offenders to rejoin their families in the Public Housing or Housing Choice Voucher programs, when appropriate.”

To view this important letter, click here.

“Housing is at the top of the list of what people need to succeed when they return from prison,” said Oklahoma Director of Corrections (and CSG Justice Center board member) Justin Jones. “We are very excited by this news in Oklahoma. It will contribute to public safety by helping people released from prison find a safe, affordable place to live.”

PHA executive directors generally have discretion whether or not to admit people with criminal records to public housing. The only circumstances under which a PHA is required by law to ban a person from federally assisted housing is if he or she was convicted of methamphetamine production on the premises or is subject to a lifetime registration as a sex offender.

The letter from Secretary Donovan and Assistant Secretary Henriquez is one of several efforts by the federal government that demonstrates its commitment to prisoner reentry issues. Under the leadership of Attorney General Eric Holder, various federal agencies have come together as the Federal Interagency Reentry Council. To learn more about the Reentry Council, click here.

"As President Obama recently made clear, this is an Administration that believes in the importance of second chances - that people who have paid their debt to society deserve the opportunity to become productive citizens and caring parents, to set the past aside and embrace the future,” Secretary Donovan and Assistant Secretary Heriquez wrote. “Part of that support means helping ex-offenders gain access to one of the most fundamental building blocks of a stable life - a place to live.”

Cheyenne The Wyoming Department of Corrections and the Recovery Health Network, a non-profit organization in California, have partnered to support offenders who need assistance with reentry resources.

The partnership, developed in February of this year and the first one in the nation, provides offenders who are in the process of being released into the community with a prescription card to financially assist them with acquiring essential medications.

 The card can help individuals save a significant amount on their medications. The Recovery Health Network Medication Card is meant to provide offenders with discounted prescription drug benefits, laboratory tests and imaging services to support the continuity of care for inmates being released.

Click here for more information about the partnership program

The March 2011 Office of Justice Programs Justice Resource Update highlights Reentry in the feature article Reentry Issues: Primary Concerns and Second Chances.  Click here for the March 2011 OJP Justice Resource Update.

Since the Colorado Springs SET Family Medical Clinics started Comprehensive Healthcare Re-Entry Program (CHRP) in 2008, about 1,440 people released from the El Paso County jail or Department of Corrections facilities have taken part in the program, and its coordinator, Tina Gonzales, says only 7 percent have re-offended in that time. Three-year recidivism rates for those coming out of the state system have been running at slightly over 50 percent, according to the Office of State Planning and Budgeting.  Click here for the full Colorado Springs The Gazette article on CHRP.

Source: Crime and Justice News, Friday, January 7th, 2011 5:30 am

Law enforcement and corrections officials could benefit by sharing more information about offenders, corrections leaders told a criminal justice conference in Washington, D.C. Carl Wicklund, director of the American Probation and Parole Association, said that probation and parole officers have information important to law enforcement, such as conditions that probationers and parolees must obey and their drug testing histories. Robert May of the Association of State Correctional Administrators said that law enforcement officers attending conferences on the subject are "stunned by how much information corrections agencies have." Some information disclosure is restricted by privacy concerns, the speakers said.

Wicklund and May spoke at the annual winter industry briefing of the Virginia-based IJIS Institute, which promotes information sharing in criminal justice. At another session, Bruce Ferrell of the National Alliance of Gang Investigators' Associations and David Lewis of the U.S. Justice Department discussed ways that law enforcement and other agencies can better exchange information on gang threats. Ferrell said that with mobility so easy among the nation's 1-million-plus gang members, local police departments frequently are unaware of gang backgrounds of criminals who have migrated to their communities. Information can be vital in part because gang homicides tend to be the most difficult to solve, Ferrell said. A 2008 survey found that 58 percent of U.S. law enforcement agencies reported gang activities in their areas.

Missouri DOC collaborates with the Department of Mental Health to aide their clients with rescued and trained dogs.  Director Lombardi says that the wardens, staff and offenders of Missouri prisons have stepped up in yeoman fashion to make this all possible.  January 14th Missouri opened their 13th prison dog program.  In less than one year nearly 200 abused, neglected and stray dogs have been socialized and trained and adopted out to grateful families. See the video at this link for more information.
 

The November 2010 BJA Fact Sheet addresses the Justice Reinvestment Initiative launched in 2006.  Click here for the November 2010 BJA Fact Sheet.

The Second Chance Act has identified correctional education as a high priority area for research.  As part of the Act, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice, recently awarded the RAND Corporation with a two-year grant to examine educational methods for incarcerated adults and juveniles, and to provide and widely disseminate information on promising and innovative practices in correctional education.  The U.S. Department of Education and the National Reentry Resource Center have also committed to working closely with this project.  For this project, RAND will be working with the Correctional Education Association (CEA).  Drs. Lois Davis and Robert Bozick of RAND will present an overview of this landmark study at the January 27, 2011 ASCA meeting and discuss plans to obtain input from state correctional education adult and juvenile directors as a first step in this effort.  For more information about the study, please contact Dr. Lois Davis (LMDavis@rand.org), tel. 310-393-0411.  For information about this project or related efforts, please contact Gary Dennis, Senior Policy Advisor for Corrections, BJA (Gary.Dennis@usdoj.gov), tel. 202-305-9059.

On February 8, 2011, the Council of State Governments Justice Center released the Report of the National Summit on Justice Reinvestment and Public Safety, which highlights the challenges facing the nation's corrections and criminal justice system and the promising practices and the latest thinking on criminal justice policy.

The report summarizes the rich information presented by criminal justice experts from across the country during a summit convened by Congressman Frank Wolf and hosted by the Justice Center; the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice; the Public Safety Performance Project of the Pew Center on the States; and the Public Welfare Foundation in January 2010.

The publication recommends four fundamental strategies for states and counties seeking cost-effective corrections policies that make people coming out of prison and jail less likely to reoffend: 1) Focus resources on individuals most likely to reoffend; 2) Base programs on research and ensure quality; 3) Implement effective community supervision policies and practices; and 4) Apply place-based strategies.

The findings and policy options in this report challenge the notion that public safety can only be achieved by increasing expenditures on prisons. By looking at innovative, data-driven, fiscally responsible policies and practices, state and local policymakers and practitioners can increase public safety while reducing recidivism and corrections spending.

In distilling the experiences of states, counties, and communities that have contributed to the growing body of information about practices that are fiscally responsible and can reduce crime, we hope this report can be an important touchstone for the field and inspire similar efforts across the nation.

You can find an electronic version of the report, information on ordering additional copies of the report, and other related information at:http://justicereinvestment.org/summit/report. We urge you to share this information with your colleagues and members of your professional networks. If you have any questions, please contact Martha Plotkin, director of communications, at mplotkin@csg.org, or Regina Davis, deputy director of communications, at rdavis@csg.org.

 

The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) has launched their latest podcast, Advancing Corrections Through Justice Reinvestment. In this edition, James H. Burch, II, Acting BJA Director, talks with Ashbel T. Wall, Director of the Rhode Island Department of Corrections, about the concepts of reentry and justice reinvestment, and how these two practices are connecting the field of corrections with the law enforcement profession.

Click here to listen to this podcast, available under the Justice Matters subject heading found on the left side of the podcast player.

The PEW Charitable Trust Public Safety Performance Project would like to congratulate Representative Jerry Madden and Senator John Whitmire for being recognized as “Public Officials of the Year” by Governing magazine for their leadership on corrections reform in the state of Texas. As Governing put it, "Now, the state that put the 't' in tough is widely seen as a model of corrections reform."   Read the full article here.

Click here to download the PEW Center on the States Public Safety Reform Project Changing Direction: A Bipartisan Team Paves a New Path for Sentencing and Corrections in Texas.

Click here to download the Council of State Governments, Justice Center, report Justice Reinvestment in Texas: Assessing the Impact of the 2007 Justice Reinvestment Initiative.

Michael Carleton, HHS Chief Information Officer, signed the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for HHS in October to join the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as the third primary sponsor of the NIEM program. The MOA outlines a cooperative effort to commit resources to support development and implementation of NIEM, as well as adds HHS as a member of the Executive Steering Council.

"The addition of Health and Human Services into the NIEM community allows for strategic growth in an area that is crucial to our state and local partners. I look forward to working with the many operating divisions within the HHS umbrella; this is an exciting time for the NIEM program," said Donna Roy, NIEM Executive Director.

NIEM’s growth into Health and Human Services expands the model beyond justice and homeland security to enable a broader community to leverage its mature framework. “Different words, same problem. State, local, and federal systems need to communicate with each other if they’re going to achieve their goals," said Doug Fridsma, Director of the Office of Standards and Interoperability within the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.

HHS is currently building NIEM into the Federal Health Architecture. In addition, HHS Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has previously adopted a NIEM-enabled information exchange, the Child Support and Court/Judicial Message Exchange Data Model, which was a collaborative effort with the National Center for State Courts and the child support enforcement community. ACF looks to further extend NIEM into the human service space.

[About NIEM: NIEM represents a broad national program that is supported by local, state, tribal, and federal partners throughout the country. Since its inception in 2005, NIEM has evolved to address a growing community. NIEM is not a software program, a computer system, or a data repository—it is a common vocabulary and a mature framework surrounding information exchanges among governmental entities as well as with private sector and international partners. Through the use of the NIEM framework, disparate systems can share, exchange, accept, and translate information to achieve greater agility and efficiency in satisfying business needs and implementing repeatable processes. In addition, the information exchanges result in reusable artifacts that reduce future development costs. For more information, please visit www.NIEM.gov.]

Congressman Danny K. Davis, sponsor of the Second Chance Act (P.L. 110-199) designed to improve outcomes for people returning to communities from prisons and jails, will host an Ex-offenders forum at the Washington Convention Center on Saturday, September 18, 2010 in Room 146-B from 10:30 am to 3:30 pm. The three-part forum will assess the efficacy of interagency working relationships between the White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnership, the Departments of Justice, the Department of Labor, and Health and Human Services programs (initiatives) and propose a coordinated interagency approach that provides returning parents with social human services vital to reconnecting them with their families and that assists them in securing sustainable employment.  Click here for the full press release.

A patchwork of restrictions imposed by Indiana laws, regulations, and policies keep ex-offenders from being employed in certain public- and private-sector fields or obtaining professional licenses, says the Indianapolis Star. Sometimes the rules aren't applied consistently. One example: State law allows denial of an elevator mechanic license to those who have been convicted of some crimes and requires it for others. The license application approaches the issue more broadly, asking if the applicant has even been charged with a crime.

Just how many jobs are affected -- and whether some restrictions even make sense or are applied correctly -- are questions that Gov. Mitch Daniels hopes to answer soon. He has asked all state agencies to participate in an inventory of such rules. In Florida, an exhaustive study three years ago estimated that four in 10 jobs in that state's economy were closed to felons or at least subject to state-created criminal background checks. In a letter to agency heads June 7, Daniels noted that breaking down obstacles to employment would address "the number one indicator for preventing recidivism." He wrote, "The inventory will allow us to look at the restrictions and assess whether they are carefully tailored to protect public safety in the manner intended or if they unduly close doors of employment opportunity and work against the goal of successful reintegration."

The Reentry and Community Corrections Committee met in Phoenix, AZ on January 21, 2012.  The Committee reviewed the National Recidivism Forum held on December 8, 2011 in Washington DC and the follow-up work of the states from the Forum.  Click here for the minutes from the January meeting of the Reentry and Community Corrections Committee.

The Washington State Department of Social and Health Services has developed video training modules, "Working Effectively with Children of the Incarcerated, their Parents and Caregivers," designed to help social workers and other social service providers understand the particular needs of families with an incarcerated parent and learn effective practices in working with children of the incarcerated, their parents and caregivers.

Click here to link to the Washington DSHS web site for the video series.

The pretrial release decision is meant to provide due process to those accused of crime, as well as secure defendants for trial and protect victims, witnesses, and the community from threat, danger, or interference. Unfortunately, pretrial practices throughout the country can sometimes result in the unnecessary and expensive detention of low-risk individuals before trial. Informed, reasonable, and constitutional pretrial release decision making among all relevant criminal justice stakeholders is imperative to a just and effective criminal justice system.
 
This month, the Bureau of Justice Assistance's National Training and Technical Assistance Center (BJA's NTTAC) newsletter will provide information on federal, state, and local initiatives, as well as training and technical assistance resources available through BJA's NTTAC, in support of fair and effective pretrial release policies and practices.

Click here for the December 2011 BJA NTTAC Newsletter.

The Reentry and Community Corrections Committee met on August 6, 2011 in Kissimmee, FL.  Committee members discussed the National Forum on Recidivism scheduled for December 8, 2011 in Washington DC.  Members also heard updates on ASCA information sharing projects.  Click here for the minutes from the meeting.

The Reentry and Community Corrections Committee met on August 6, 2011 in Kissimmee, FL.
Click here for photos from the Reentry and Community Corrections Committee meeting.

By Matthew Schwarzfeld, Council of State Governments Justice Center

Earlier this week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued updated enforcement guidance on employers’ use of arrest and conviction records when making employment decisions. In its guidance, the EEOC cited that hiring policies that include blanket exclusions of people with criminal records have a disparate racial impact, and therefore violate Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The new rules call for employers to assess applicants on an individual basis rather than excluding everyone with a criminal record through a blanket policy. The guideline states that employers should not reject a candidate because of an arrest without a conviction, as "arrests are not proof of criminal conduct." The new guidance doesn’t prohibit the use of criminal background checks. Rather, it urges employers to consider the "nature of the crime, the time elapsed, and the nature of the job” both in writing a hiring policy and in making a specific hiring decision.

EEOC’s commissioners decided to issue the updated guidance in a bipartisan 4-1 vote. The new guidance supersedes the EEOC’s previous position on the issue of criminal background checks, released in 1987. While confirming the core principles of the earlier policy, this guidance provides significantly more detail and direction for employers. In nearly 60 pages, the EEOC recommends “best practices” for employers, provides a dozen examples that clarify the standards, and answers frequently asked questions.

“The new guidance clarifies and updates the EEOC’s longstanding policy concerning the use of arrest and conviction records in employment, which will assist job seekers, employees, employers, and many other agency stakeholders,” said EEOC Chair Jacqueline Berrien, in a statement.

In its guidance, the EEOC cites extensive social science research and case law supporting the finding that blanket exclusions of people with criminal records violate Title VII. Specifically, the commission cites data indicating that about one in 17 white men are expected to serve time in prison during their lifetime, compared with one in six Hispanic men, and one in three African-American men.

“The ability of African-Americans and Hispanics to gain employment after prison is one of the paramount civil justice issues of our time,” said Stuart Ishimaru, one of the five members of the commission, when announcing the new standard.

The EEOC is the federal agency that enforces the nation’s laws against employment discrimination. Though it provides guidance, it is not a regulatory agency. Therefore, judges hearing employment discrimination cases have discretion whether or not to defer to EEOC guidance. The judge in a 2007 district court case on whether policies that prohibit hiring individuals with criminal convictions discriminate on the basis of race [El v. SEPTA, 479 F.3d 232 (3d Cir. 2007)] wrote that EEOC’s 1987 ruling didn’t provide sufficient research support, and therefore chose not to defer to it.

“The research is really important to this updated policy. It gives heft to the whole thing. That’s why half the document is footnotes. For courts to take the issue of disparate impact seriously, the argument has to be very well reasoned and thoughtful, which in this case it really is. This is clearly a very significant step by the EEOC,” said Maurice Emsellem, Policy Co-Director with the National Employment Law Project (NELP). (To view NELP’s highlights of the EEOC’s guidance, click here.)

Unlike the old policy, the new guidance also provides specific recommendations for how employer criminal record policies should be designed to comply with Title VII. For example, because criminal background checks have a disparate impact on people of color, the EEOC states that employers must show that the screening process is “job related” and consistent with “business necessity.” Specifically, this means that employers must consider the age of the offense, the seriousness of the offense, and its relation to the job in question.

The new policy also urges employers to give applicants a chance to explain their criminal record before they are rejected outright. An applicant might say the report is inaccurate, the conviction was expunged, that he or she has been fully rehabilitated, or that the conviction is unrelated to the job he/she is applying for.

The policy also makes clear how Title VII interacts with other local and state laws. It specifies that federal laws like Title VII generally preempt state laws (and that the Supreme Court has upheld the fact that Title VII does this), and that legislators cannot enact overly broad state and local laws that restrict employment of people with criminal records—as they would then be in violation of Title VII.

“This guidance is doing something very similar to what the Attorney General has been doing on reentry issues,” Emsellem said, referring to the Attorney General's Federal Interagency Reentry Council and recent guidance from the HUD Director on public housing access for ex-offenders and other issues. “It’s saying, ‘Look at your laws, and make sure they’re consistent with federal law.’”

This ruling comes at an important moment in the discussion around employer’s use of criminal background checks. According to a 2010 survey by the Society for Human Resources Management, 92 percent of employers conduct criminal background checks on some or all job applicants, up from 51 percent in 1996. More than two-thirds of states allow hiring and professional-licensing decisions to be made on the basis of an arrest alone.

EEOC has been considering the issue of the disparate racial impact of criminal background checks for several years. Many observers called for an updated policy, citing the fact that at the time of its last ruling, the Internet—and online background check companies, now part of a multi-billion dollar industry—barely existed. In a public hearing on the issue last July, the commission received approximately 300 public comments from prominent organizations, including the NAACP, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Society for Human Resources Management, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and others.

The EEOC has also recently stepped up its enforcement efforts. It recently publicly settled with Pepsi over the beverage company’s use of a blanket exclusion policy. The commission’s enforcement wing is also currently investigating more than 100 claims of job discrimination based on criminal background checks.

The National Forum on Recidivism was held in Washington D.C. on December 8, 2011.  It included policymakers from all 50 states to focus on improving success rates for people released from prison. The event positioned states to set goals, or to expand on existing goals, for reducing recidivism through cost-effective strategies in their communities.

Photos of the State representatives in attendance at the National Forum on Recidivism.

The Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) today sponsored a forum of policymakers from all 50 states to focus on improving success rates for people released from prison.   The event positioned states to set goals, or to expand on existing goals, for reducing recidivism through cost-effective strategies in their communities.

“In this time of economic challenges, we must continue to use every tool and strategy at our disposal to protect the American people while reducing costs to taxpayers,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “Today’s national forum demonstrates the Justice Department’s firm commitment to working with its partners in the states and non-governmental organizations to improve public safety by supporting efforts to assist formerly incarcerated people as they return to their communities to become productive members of our society.”

In partnership with the Council of State Governments, the Association of State Correctional Administrators, the Public Welfare Foundation and the Pew Center on the States, OJP’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) is working with all 50 states to identify and pursue cost-effective strategies on their investments in public safety.   Following today’s forum, participants will begin setting measurable goals for reducing recidivism; creating plans to achieve these goals by drawing on the latest research and experiences from the field; and identifying benchmarks state and federal policymakers can use to track progress.

Click here for the full Press Release.

Federal Grantees Gather to Promote Safe Communities and Successful Prisoner Reentry

Washington, DC—Senior officials from the Department of Justice, reentry experts, formerly incarcerated individuals, victims, and representatives of programs receiving federal funding through the Second Chance Act (Public Law 110-199) came together today for a three-day conference, convened by the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center, to share strategies that increase success rates for people released from prisons, jails, and juvenile correctional facilities.  Click here for the full press release.

Click here for photos from the Winter 2011 Reentry and Communittee Corrections Committee meeting held on January 29, 2011 in San Antonio, TX.

The Office of Justice Programs Justice Information Sharing News for the week of August 22, 2011 includes Smart Budgets Put Their Money on Information Technology; a Commentary on Getting Smart About Information Technology in a Time of Austerity; and Virtual USA: How Geospatial Technology is Changing Government.  Click here for the August 22 Information Sharing News.

On Wednesday, July 13, 2011, the House Appropriations Committee approved the fiscal year 2012 Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill, which provides $70 million for Second Chance Act Programs. The bill, which contains $50.2 billion in total budget authority, provides $1.04 billion for state and local law enforcement programs, including:

• $9.96 million for Mentally Ill Offender Act (JMCHP)
• $357 million for Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants 

• $6 million for Byrne Competitive Grants
• $40 million for Drug Courts
• $12 million for Prison Rape Prevention and Prosecution 

• $15 million for Residential Substance Abuse Treatment


Committee approval is only the first step in the appropriations process. The appropriations bills must be passed by both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, as well as the full House and Senate.

Click here for the text of the legislation approved by the Appropriations Committee.

Click here for the accompanying bill report.

The Council of State Governments Justice Center is a national nonprofit organization that serves policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels from all branches of government. The Justice Center provides practical, nonpartisan advice and consensus-driven strategies, informed by available evidence, to increase public safety and strengthen communities.

The July 2011 BJA's Justice Today highlights the BJA "GrantStat" to Ensure Grant Program Performance; a highlight of a Featured Program; and the announcement of the new OJP CrimeSolutions.gov web site.  Click here to download the July 2011 BJA's Justice Today Newsletter

The Bureau of Justice Assistance, National Training and Technical Assistance July 2011 Information Sharing Newsletter includes:

• Information Sharing Technical Assistance Provided by BJA;
  
• At A Glance: Information Sharing Training and Technical Assistance; and
• Provider Spotlight: The Regional Information Sharing Systems Program Helps Solve Cases and Safeguard Officers
  

It also highlights Online training opportunities for August.  Click here to link to the July 2011 Information Sharing Newsletter.

The Council of State Governments Justice Center Criminal Justice/Mental Health Collaboration Project July 2011 E-Newsletter features the Justice Center New Brief on Enrolling People with serious mental illnesses (SMI) for federal benefits.  Click here to download the July 2011 E-Newsletter.

Re-entry Court was spearheaded by two Orleans Parish Criminal District Court judges, Arthur Hunter and Laurie White, who were tired of handing down prison sentences to offenders who would emerge no better than when they went in, unable to find a job upon release and likely to commit more crimes.

Since last summer, Hunter and White have ordered about 40 nonviolent offenders with relatively short sentences to serve their time at Angola state penitentiary under the tutelage of inmate mentors. Those without high school degrees earn their GEDs. All get certified in a trade and spend evenings in "life skills" classes while constantly being prodded by the older inmates to pull up their pants, stop cursing and respect others.

Every instructor in the program, from the auto shop supervisor to the man in charge of the substance abuse class, is a long-term inmate who will live the rest of his life at Angola, barring a reprieve from the usually stingy parole or pardon boards. The trump card in their teaching arsenal: "Don't end up like me."

It is too soon to say whether most participants will stay out of trouble once back in New Orleans. But both mentors and mentees say the program has been life-changing. Mentors have a rare chance to exert a positive influence on the outside world.
Click here for the full news article from The Times-Picayne.

The National Institute of Justice has updated and expanded the Reentry Into Society web pages on NIJ.gov.  Included are:

• Reentry Into Society home page;
• Evaluation of the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative;
• Evaluation of Second Chance Act Demonstration Projects;
  
• Research on Reentry and Employment
  

 Click here to view NIJ Topics A-Z.

The Office of Justice Programs, July 18, 2011 Justice Information Sharing News features articles about FEMA and FCC Commit to More Training Before Implementing Emergency Mobile Alerts, How the Public Perceives Community Information Systems, and The Future of Cloud Computing.  Click here for the July 18, 2011 Justice Information Sharing News.

On Wednesday, July 13, 2011, the House Appropriations Committee approved the fiscal year 2012 Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill, which provides $70 million for Second Chance Act Programs. The bill, which contains $50.2 billion in total budget authority, provides $1.04 billion for state and local law enforcement programs, including:

• $9.96 million for Mentally Ill Offender Act (JMCHP)
• $357 million for Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants 

• $6 million for Byrne Competitive Grants
• $40 million for Drug Courts
• $12 million for Prison Rape Prevention and Prosecution 

• $15 million for Residential Substance Abuse Treatment


Committee approval is only the first step in the appropriations process. The appropriations bills must be passed by both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, as well as the full House and Senate.

Click here for the text of the legislation approved by the Appropriations Committee.
Click here for the accompanying bill report.

Cheyenne The Wyoming Department of Corrections and the Recovery Health Network, a non-profit organization in California, have partnered to support offenders who need assistance with reentry resources.

The partnership, developed in February of this year and the first one in the nation, provides offenders who are in the process of being released into the community with a prescription card to financially assist them with acquiring essential medications.

 The card can help individuals save a significant amount on their medications. The Recovery Health Network Medication Card is meant to provide offenders with discounted prescription drug benefits, laboratory tests and imaging services to support the continuity of care for inmates being released.

Click here for more information about the partnership program

This week Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Rob Portman (R-OH) introduced the bipartisan Second Chance Reauthorization Act of 2011. First passed in 2007, the Second Chance Act provides resources to states, local governments and nonprofit organization to improve outcomes for people returning to communities from prisons and jails.

The reauthorization bill:

• Continues targeted funding for reentry programs at the state and local level to reduce recidivism;
• Helps ensure that reentry projects use methods proven through testing and review to lead to meaningful reductions in recidivism rates;
• Provides funding for the implementation of best practices in prison and jail education;
• Enables nonprofit organizations to apply for grants for programs promoting family-based substance abuse treatment and technology career training; and
• Requires periodic audits of grantees to ensure that federal dollars are responsibly spent.

Click here to view the Second Chance Reauthorization Act.  Click here to view a summary of the bill.
Click here to view materials about the bill and a press release from Senator Leahy's Office.
Click here to view a press release from Senator Portman's Office.
Click here to view the National Letter of Support for the bill.

The National Institute of Correction's e-newsletter, Corrections from the Field, will be used to keep subscribers abreast of milestones, opportunities, and developments in the corrections field.  The inaugural edition focuses on reentry and transition to the commmunity.  It includes updates on NIC's Transition from Jail to the Community (TJC) and Transition from Prison to the Community (TPC) programs and a link to BJA publication, "Elected Officials Toolkit for Jail Reentry."

The Reentry and Community Corrections Committee met on January 29, 2011 in San Antonio, TX.  The Committee heard staff updates of the Committees' Reentry Information Sharing Projects; received a report from Harley Lappin and Morris Thigpen on the Attorney General Cabinet Level meeting on Reentry; and a presentation from Michael Thompson from the Council of State Governments (CSG) about the Second Chance Act and the CSG National Reentry Resource Center.  FBI NDEx's Belinda Cumpston addressed members on the status of corrections in the data sharing project and requested member support of the plan to move the corrections component development forward.  Gary Dennis from the Bureau of Justice Assistance provided a BJA project update.  Click here for minutes from the meeting.

Handouts, presentations, videos, and other materials are available from Making Second Chances Work: A Conference for Grantees Committed to Successful Reentry, which was held May 26-27, 2010. This conference was convened to help front-line professionals learn from experts and peers about approaches that help support a person's transition from a correctional facility to the community. (BJA)

The ASCA Intelligence/Reentry Committee met on January 23, 2010 in Tampa, Florida.  The topics of discussion included the Intelligence sharing project that is scheduled to end in March 2010; the FBI N-DEx Project that is currently moving from a focus on law enforcement data collection to collect data from correctional agencies; and a demonstration of the Maryland Dashboard data collection system.  Bob May discussed the Second Chance Reentry Resource Center, where ASCA is teamed with CSG and Gary Dennis from BJA, and provided an update on upcoming funding opportunities from the Second Chance Act.  Click this link to see the meeting minutes

Attorney General Eric Holder convened the second meeting of the federal interagency Reentry Council on September 27, 2011 to address ways to ensure those returning from prison become productive, law-abiding citizens.

The federal Reentry Council meeting was attended by Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council Melody Barnes. In addition to those agencies, the Federal Reentry Council, which meets semi-annually, also includes representatives from the Department of Interior, Department of Agriculture, Department of Education, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Office of National Drug Control Policy and several other federal agencies. Its mission is to reduce recidivism and victimization; assist those returning from prison, jail or juvenile facilities to become productive citizens; and save taxpayer dollars by lowering the direct and collateral costs of incarceration.

Click here for the full press release about the Reentry Council meeting.

Washington, D.C., July 13th —Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) met with state corrections heads from around the country in the nation’s capitol today to discuss prisoners returning to communities and recidivism reduction. The corrections leaders lauded Leahy and Portman for the introduction of Second Chance Reauthorization Act, S. 1231.

Click here for a video clip from the press conference. Click here for another video clip from the press conference.

“When Congress passed the Second Chance Act four years ago, we gave needed resources to the states to help improve reentry programs that have proven, positive results,” said Leahy. “I am grateful for the support of those officials on the front lines in the states, developing these important reentry programs, working to promote public safety while helping offenders return to their communities as productive members of society. I know that later this year, these officers and others from around the country will come together to discuss ways that states can help reduce recidivism to improve public safety. This should be a priority on the federal level as well.”

The Second Chance Act provides critical funding for reentry efforts to learn how to effectively integrate the science of risk reduction into reentry efforts and fill gaps in services, which are critical to success. A recent report by the Pew Center on the States showed that 43% of people coming out of prison nationally return within 3 years making recidivism a significant pressure on criminal justice systems.

“By improving prisoner reentry, we can prevent crime, strengthen communities and save taxpayers’ dollars,” said Portman. “The Second Chance Act is making an important contribution to public safety and reducing costs to taxpayers and it should continue. I hope the Committee will move this important legislation to the floor, and I look forward to working with Senator Leahy and others to pass it in the Senate.”

Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Director, Gary Mohr, has seen first hand the strains that overcrowded prisons place on the state budgets and communities. “Ohio, like many states, has seen prison spending grow by 21% in less than a decade. That’s faster than most other areas in the state budget and puts enormous pressure on taxpayers to foot the bill.” He added: “The Second Chance Act is one of our best hopes for addressing one significant element of prison growth—the cycle of offenders who recidivate and return to prison.”

A.T. Wall, Director of the Rhode Island Department of Corrections, pointed to the elements of the Second Chance Act that states are learning from: “This funding helps to focus our efforts on programs that are proven to work. It is not good enough to have a gut feeling that something will change behavior. Second Chance Act programs are based on evidence-based practice to reduce recidivism, which helps us to know where to make public safety investments that will be the most effective.”

Andrew Pallito, Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Corrections, was thankful for the introduction of the Second Chance Reauthorization Act: “In Vermont and around the country, we are relying on key leaders here in D.C. to promote and fund programs that help state corrections address the overwhelming challenge of improving prisoner reentry and reducing recidivism. We are grateful for the leadership of Senators Leahy and Portman in advancing this important legislation.”

The Office of Justice Programs May/June 2011 issue of the Justice Resource Update highlights the Reentry Council: Fighting Myths and Creating Opportunities.  The Reentry Council brings together numerous federal agencies to make communities safer; assist those returning from prison and jail in becoming productive, tax-paying citizens; and save taxpayer dollars by lowering the direct and collateral costs of incarceration.  The issue also highlights the BJA HOPE solicitation. Click here for the OJP May/June Justice Resource Update.

The Reentry and Community Corrections Committee met on Saturday, July 31st, at 3:15 PM during ASCA’s Summer Meetings. Due to the end of ASCA¹s Intelligence Sharing project, that Committee has been combined with the Reentry and Community Corrections Committee. The Committee reviewed and adopted a revised mission statement that has been updated and modified to include information sharing as an additional area of responsibility. As a result, ASCA's two Reentry Information Sharing projects with BJA will now fall under this Committee. Members saw a demonstration of the new Reentry Committee Webpage, were briefed about the status of ASCA's Reentry Information Sharing Pilot sites, the Second Chance Resource Center project, the new N-DEx Corrections Workgroup, and pending grant applications. Gary Dennis from BJA updated members about BJA funding opportunities and initiatives.

Click here to view photos from the Reentry and Community Corrections Committee Meeting.

Click Here for minutes from the Reentry and Community Corrections Committee Meeting.

The kickoff meeting for the Hampden County pilot project was held on July 7th in Springfield,  MA. Forty-one people attended the session including numerous county and state agencies that provide services and resources to reentering offenders. 

John Kenney, Assistant Superintendent for Special Operations for the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department, officially welcomed everyone and provided details concerning his background and the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department. Mr. Kenney discussed some of the informal information that has been exchanged by the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department in the past to help improve public safety and the importance of developing formal processes to enhance the ability of law enforcement to gather information on offenders. Mr. Kenney indicated that the Sheriff’s Department has critical offender information that should be shared with other partners when needed to help assist with the justice process. Click here to download the meeting description.

A kick-off meeting was held on June 3rd, 2010, with over 26 in attendance from the following agencies as well as representatives from five national agencies: Reentry and Integrated Programs, Office of Treatment Services, Maryland Dept. of Public Safety and Correctional Services; IGSR – University of Maryland; and the Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration. Secretary Gary Maynard kicked off the meeting and outlined his vision to share reentry information with relevant agencies just as he has led efforts to develop the Maryland law enforcement dashboard to quickly share information with law enforcement agencies.  Click here to download the full meeting description.

A kick-off meeting was held on May 17, 2010, with over 30 in attendance from these agencies as well as representatives from five national agencies. The project is funded by BJA and is a grant project of ASCA. BJA has pooled the grant resources of several other organizations to provide assistance on this project. In addition to ASCA, the other organizations working collaboratively are: SEARCH (the National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics), the Integrated Justice Information Systems (IJIS) Institute, and the American Probation and Parole Association (APPA).  Click here for the full meeting description

The Office of Justice Programs Justice Information Sharing News for the week of August 22, 2011 includes Smart Budgets Put Their Money on Information Technology; a Commentary on Getting Smart About Information Technology in a Time of Austerity; and Virtual USA: How Geospatial Technology is Changing Government.  Click here for the August 22 Information Sharing News.

The Bureau of Justice Assistance, National Training and Technical Assistance July 2011 Information Sharing Newsletter includes:

• Information Sharing Technical Assistance Provided by BJA;
  
• At A Glance: Information Sharing Training and Technical Assistance; and
• Provider Spotlight: The Regional Information Sharing Systems Program Helps Solve Cases and Safeguard Officers
  

It also highlights Online training opportunities for August.  Click here to link to the July 2011 Information Sharing Newsletter.

• February 2010 Issue
  
• Summer 2009 Issue
  
• Spring 2009 Issue
  
• October 2008 Issue