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"Last week, the same day that the Senate Judiciary Committee began considering whether and how to extent the Second Chance Act -- designed to better the odds that the 700,000 prisoners released annually will not wind up back behind bars -- the Justice Department's inspector general released a pointed reminder about the limits of the program's good intentions."
"Virginia spends too much money locking up nonviolent offenders and not enough on programs to help criminals transition into life after prison, Department of Corrections director Gene M. Johnson said yesterday. Speaking at a statewide conference on prisoner re-entry, Johnson said the state should stop doling out lengthy prison sentences to nonviolent criminals and those with drug convictions and instead focus on locking away violent criminals -- and then helping them successfully re-enter society when their prison sentence ends."
"The Wisconsin Department of Corrections is adopting a new data processing system to track inmates from the day they enter prison through the completion of their probation or parole."
"Keeping former prisoners from committing -- or being victims of -- violent crimes is all about putting 'supervision at the forefront of their brains,' says Patrick McGee, Maryland's director of probation and parole. To do that, the state's violence prevention initiative places under a strict supervision program ex-offenders deemed at risk for involvement in violent crimes. The initiative turned three years old this summer and next month will receive an innovation award from the National Criminal Justice Association."
"They may still have three years left in their prison sentences, but inmates at the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth were visited Thursday by probation officers. The U.S. probation officers were visiting USP as part of a partnership with the prison to help inmates prepare for their release."
"A new Weed and Seed initiative for Johnson City should help reduce crime in certain neighborhoods and increase employment among the area’s recently released inmates."
"[E]mployers' reluctance to hire ex-offenders—especially during a recession—isn't the only obstacle. Often, state officials say, a patchwork of restrictions imposed by state laws, regulations and policies keep ex-offenders from being employed in certain public- and private-sector fields or obtaining professional licenses. 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."
"It's difficult for a convicted felon to find a job. But it's possible for the felon to find work and be productive in society if the felon hires himself. That concept is behind a University of Pittsburgh pilot program which trained 10 former inmates to become entrepreneurs so they can start their own businesses."
"STAR is described by staff and administrators as a 'prison diversion program,' where judges from nine southern-Ohio counties can send non-violent offenders to get treatment for addiction. While they are here, the inmates, known as residents and referred to only as Mr. or Mrs. by their supervisors, can earn their General Educational Development (GED) diploma and attend classes to help them change their criminal thinking."
"Obviously, it is sometimes a difficult decision as to how long to incarcerate someone who breaks the law. But it is equally obvious that the cost of incarceration is such that imaginative programs and ideas must be brought to bear on previous incarceration-cost models. Some of the techniques have been shown to work well in New Jersey, and such initiatives need to be expanded -- very carefully and with lots of monitoring -- so that justice is maintained, costs are reduced and, most important, the offender is returned to the community as a productive citizen."
"One hundred miles southeast of Wilmington, in a blip of a town on Old U.S. Route 52 along the Ohio River, Eddie Philabaun is smiling. As director of the STAR Community Justice Center in Franklin Furnace, Philabaun oversees drug offenders, probation violators and non-violent criminals from nine Ohio counties, including Clinton. His minimum security facility is an alternative to prison, where judges send the drug-addled but not the dangerous, the troubled but not the terrible."
Boonville- The Missouri Department of Corrections (MDOC) today announced the award of nearly $3 million to support and enhance reentry services statewide. These 34 contracts awarded to MDOC’s nonprofit partners are part of the Community Reentry Funding Project, now entering its third year. The Community Reentry Funding Project is offender-funded through intervention fees paid by clients on supervision in the community.
"Boston, Chicago and San Francisco set a welcome example earlier in the decade when they abandoned counterproductive policies that often barred former offenders from municipal jobs, no matter how minor their crime nor how distant in the past. Connecticut, New Mexico and Minnesota have recently passed laws protecting the employment rights of former offenders. Other states should quickly follow."
"An Allegheny County Jail program being tested could save considerable money and help ex-inmates stay out of jail, said Allegheny County Warden Ramon Rustin. The 'second chance' federal grant screens nonviolent offenders and helps them find jobs sooner rather than stay behind bars. Unlike before, the former inmates get counseling and supervision for at least a year after being released."
"With 25,263 inmates in the system as of this month, state prisons still hold more people than they were designed for. And 600 additional inmates will be double-bunked this year to save money. But officials say the overall population shrank because crime was cut, drug courts diverted many people from jail, and programs helped inmates prepare for life on the outside."
A new resource is available to coordinate many of the services parolees need as they transition back into society.
Camden Mayor Dana L. Redd and Rutgers–Camden Chancellor Wendell Pritchett joined numerous state officials, stakeholders, and other invited guests for a grand opening and tour of Opportunity Reconnect–Camden on Thursday, June 17.
Opportunity Reconnect is a re-entry center that co-locates key agencies and service providers to help the formerly incarcerated rejoin society.
"The work that will be done here will impact and change people's lives," says Redd. "That's what we're about in the City of Camden. I pledge our full commitment to the services that will be rendered here at Opportunity Reconnect."
"Often, older inmates and/or sex offenders have outlived their families or are estranged from them. Nursing homes and other facilities are reluctant to take them, even if they have Medicaid. And families initially willing to take them sometimes find they are unable to cope."
"In existence for just more than a year, the federal re-entry program in Toledo is designed to help high-risk offenders recently out of prison succeed in their lives away from the lockup. Made up of judges, public defenders, assistant U.S. attorneys, and members of the federal probation department, STAR - Successful Transition Accelerated Re-entry - creates an informal and interactive setting where officials can check on a participant's progress and participants can ask for help."
Mandated by the 80th Texas Legislature, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Baby and Mother Bonding Initiative (BAMBI) gives select state jail inmates the chance to live and bond with their newborns.
"Administrators at the new Shoshone-Bannock Tribal Justice Center are hoping the facility will enable them to help reduce crime on the reservation with increased patrols, a more effective court system and a rehabilitation-focused jail and detention center."