RPC Newsletter - 8/31/2007
States Establish Reentry Councils to Oversee Initiatives, Promote Interagency Collaboration
Several states recently established councils that will study, promote, and help carry out effective reentry policies. Drawing their membership from various government entities, as well as community-based organizations, these councils evaluate reentry practices, make recommendations for improvements to policies, and guide the implementation of responses to people released from prisons and jails. The goal of these councils is to address the factors that contribute to high rates of recidivism, thereby increasing public safety and reducing corrections spending.
In May 2007, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski issued an executive order establishing the Governor’s Reentry Council, a 19-member group composed of leaders from corrections, law enforcement, and social services agencies, as well as community-based organizations. The council is charged with reviewing Oregon’s existing reentry policies, making specific recommendations for improvements to these policies, and coordinating new initiatives across the state. According to a recent press release from the governor’s office, one-third of the people released from prison in Oregon are convicted of a new felony within three years of their release. The new Reentry Council is committed to lowering this rate and increasing public safety through collaborative, statewide efforts to promote individuals’ safe and successful transitions from prisons or jails to the community.
Several other states passed legislation to the same effect during their most recent session:
- Oklahoma passed House Bill 2101 to establish an 11-member Reentry Policy Council to oversee the Department of Corrections’ policies and programs relating to prisoners’ return to their communities. The bill also calls for the creation of an interagency task force to propose new strategies to lower the state’s recidivism rate, identify promising practices in reentry, and develop programs to provide vocational, educational, and family services.
- Hawaii adopted Senate Bill 932 to create a statewide reentry plan to provide employment, family support, and other services for people who are in prison or have been released. The bill also establishes a committee, whose members represent a diverse range of disciplines and perspectives, that will identify and facilitate collaboration among reentry service providers.
- In Colorado, House Bill 07-1358 has created a Criminal and Juvenile Justice Commission that has 26 members representing multiple agencies. The commission will analyze sentencing policies and practices and investigate effective alternatives to incarceration, with the overarching goal of reducing recidivism in the state.
These new councils and advisory groups follow examples set by other states, such as Kansas. Last year, as part of its Offender Risk Reduction and Reentry plan, Kansas established a Reentry Policy Council that includes key cabinet secretaries and legislative officials. The council promotes collaboration among state agencies to provide wide-ranging services including employment training, housing assistance, and substance abuse treatment; advocates for effective reentry policy; and develops neighborhood-based strategies to reduce recidivism. Recently, the council created a steering committee of deputy managers which holds biweekly meetings to discuss various reentry issues in depth, identify key issues to address, and establish specific task forces when needed. To read more about Kansas’s reentry initiatives and recent legislation, see the May 24, 2007 and July 27, 2007 issues of this newsletter.
For more information about developing effective reentry policies and promoting interagency
collaboration to address the needs of people who are released from prisons and jails, see Part I
of the Report of the Re-Entry Policy Council.
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Upcoming Events
Internet/Satellite Broadcast on Interagency Collaborations in Reentry
“A Model for Social Justice: Collaboration Between Faith-Based and Community
Organizations and Corrections”
National Institute of Corrections
September 12, 2007
Click here
for more information.
National Training on Graduated Sanctions in Juvenile Justice
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
September 17-20, 2007
New Orleans, LA
Click here
for more information.
8th Annual Conference on Preventing Crime
“Helping Build Safer Communities”
National Crime Prevention Council
October 3-5, 2007
Atlanta, GA
Click here
for more information.
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Funding Opportunities
Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment StudiesThe National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is soliciting applications for participation as a Research Center in the second phase of the national Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies. The goal of this research program is to develop and test service models that integrate public health and public safety approaches for adults and adolescents with drug abuse and addictive disorders who are involved in the criminal justice system.
Grantees will conduct research on implementing and sustaining improved treatment services for adolescents and adults with substance use disorders who are returning to the community after detention or incarceration. Research will be carried out in prisons, jails, reentry drug courts, and community-based treatment settings in collaboration with other awardees and with NIDA.
Application Deadline: September 26, 2007 (Letter of Intent); October 26, 2007 (Proposal)
For more information on this funding opportunity and its eligibility requirements,
click here.
Small Grant Program for Counties to Develop Jail Diversion Programs for People with Mental Illnesses
The National Association of Counties will provide a maximum of five seed grants of up to $5,000 to assist counties with developing and implementing plans to divert people with mental illnesses from jails into community-based treatment programs. Grants will support a variety of activities including assessing the counties’ needs for mental health treatment programs, reviewing evidence-based approaches and promising practices in jail diversion, and the formation of strategic planning groups comprising local criminal justice and mental health systems officials.
This year, preference will be given to plans proposing services to facilitate access to federal benefits, such as SSI/SSDI and Medicare/Medicaid, in order to help individuals with mental illnesses obtain medication, health care, housing, food, and employment.
Application Deadline: September 28, 2007
For more information about this funding opportunity and its eligibility requirements,
click here.
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Recent Media Coverage of Reentry Issues
Service providers who assist people returning from prisons and jails to the community say they are concerned about the lack of reentry resources in Michigan and claim that a plan to cut costs by freeing more people from prisons will strain caseloads and spur more crime.
Florida Corrections Secretary James McDonough is proposing a plan that would cut the state's corrections budget by ten percent by moving people from prisons to work release, substance abuse, and education programs.
Community release programs, proponents say, give people who are incarcerated the best chance at being successful when they are released. But the slayings of a mother and two daughters in Cheshire last month--which police say were committed by two parolees who met when they lived in a halfway house--have ignited a debate about the effectiveness of such programs.
The difference in the recidivism rates between people who participated in a faith-based program after their release from prison and those did not appears to be statistically insignificant, a member of the Oklahoma Sentencing Commission said Thursday after reviewing a preliminary report.
Click here
to see more reentry news collected by the Reentry Policy Council.
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Recent Publications on Reentry Issues
- Parole, Desistance from Crime, and Community Integration (National Research Council of the National Academies)
- Finding Work on the Outside: Results from the Returning Home Project in Chicago (Urban Institute)
- Venturing Beyond the Gates: Facilitating Successful Reentry with Entrepreneurship (John Jay College of Criminal Justice)
- 2007 Policy Guide on Homelessness (National Alliance to End Homelessness)
- Kids Count 2007 Data Book (Annie E. Casey Foundation)
To suggest additional resources for inclusion in the RPC newsletter, please e-mail editors@reentrypolicy.org.
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In this Issue
Our Publications
How and Why Medicaid Matters for People with Serious Mental Illness Released from Jail
Hundreds of thousands of people with mental illness are released from jail each year. Without continuity of care, they are likely to be reincarcerated. Enrollment in Medicaid increases access to treatment for people with mental illness released from jail, who typically lack other means to pay for those services.