Spotlight Announcement

5/20/2008: Justice Center Seeks Four Law Enforcement Agencies to Serve as Reentry Learning Sites

The Council of State Governments Justice Center, in partnership with the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), has issued a request for applications from law enforcement agencies interested in participating in a Law Enforcement Reentry Learning Sites Initiative. This initiative will focus on the law enforcement response to the large numbers of individuals returning to the community from prison and jail each year, many of whom are re-arrested for a new crime or re-incarcerated for violating their conditions of release.

The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) funded the Justice Center and PERF to create a toolkit titled Planning and Assessing a Law Enforcement Reentry Strategy, a draft of which is now available for applicants' reference. The toolkit outlines 10 core elements for law enforcement reentry strategies and serves as the cornerstone for the COPS-supported learning sites initiative.

The project team will select four law enforcement agencies interested in starting or enhancing a reentry strategy, which have not previously been featured in the literature, to serve as learning sites. Selected sites will participate in a needs assessment and receive targeted technical assistance from reentry experts, in addition to recognition through nationally disseminated materials. The lessons learned from the technical assistance work and other information-gathering efforts will provide valuable information to the field about specific aspects of difficult-to-execute law enforcement reentry activities.

Sites will be chosen based on a number of criteria—including strong interagency partnerships and dedication to data-driven reentry. The complete list of selection criteria is available in the project overview.

The project overview and application are available on the Justice Center's reentry and law enforcement web page. The application requires that individuals reference the draft toolkit, also available on this page, to identify areas in which they can offer guidance to the field and areas in which they could use assistance.

Applications must be submitted to Laura Draper through email (ldraper@csg.org) or fax (212-482-2344) or mailed to the Justice Center (100 Wall Street, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10005), by June 16, 2008.

For more details, contact Laura Draper at 646-383-5722.

Agencies that apply and are not selected may be included in a national database listing law enforcement–based reentry programs.