A program designed to help ex-convicts reintegrate into the community may be on it’s way to Macon. The Macon Reentry Coalition started in 2008, to look at how to reach offenders before they go back to a life of crime. Story reported by 13WMAZ.

In 2009, the Georgia prison system released 404 inmates who call Bibb County home.

Now, more than fifteen organizations are on board to get a reentry program started in Macon, including the city, the county, and the Department of Corrections. Derrell Dean loves a good game of dominos at the Macon Rescue Mission. It’s a big change from the activities that used to occupy his life.

Dean says, “I’ve been dealing with drugs for a long time, and drugs kinda had me super messed up, and I couldn’t seem to shake it, I didn’t have any tools to work with, I had no knowledge about addiction or any of that.”

He adds, “that’s what I lived to do and what I did to live, was get high. But today I don’t have to do that anymore.”

Dean wanted a fresh start. He says, “I was tired of prisons, tired of jails, tired of living like an animal.” So he came to the River Edge Behavioral Health Care Center and enrolled in substance abuse counseling.

“I think that’s a wonderful thing because, had I not gotten involved with this place here, and the Rescue Mission and other places that help people like me, I would have been either on my way back to prison or dead.”

It’s just one part of a Community Impact Program to help people like Dean when they get out of prison. Macon’s Chief Probation Officer Stacy Rivera says her office, the police department and agencies like River Edge all see many of the same clients.

Rivera says, “we’re all kind of off doing our own thing, doing what we do best, but we need to communicate more, we need to bring it all under one roof, all to one table so we are addressing the crime problem the way it needs to be addressed. The solution is not always to just lock someone up.”

That’s why she says the Macon Reentry Coalition wants to show high risk offenders where to go to get help.

Rivera says, “if you’re releasing them and you’re not servicing them, what are they going to do? They are going to create more victims, so we just think we are being smarter about it, with reentry.”

Demetra Butler runs the Savannah Impact Program, a model for other cities like Macon. They offer services for high risk offenders on probation and parole, and others who maxed out their sentence, much like Macon hopes to do.

Butler says, “why set the person up to fail? Why set them up to go back to doing what they are accustomed to doing–selling drugs, prostitution, breaking into homes, whatever it is, that drives up our crime.”

Butler says since 2005, 409 offenders came to the program for help voluntarily. Of those 409, she says only 10 have gone back to prison on new felony convictions.

She says, “these people need to be positively reintegrated into the community, and to give them that, not hand-out but hand-up to say we have these resources that are going to be available for you.”

Butler says the people in the program are proof that it works, like Randy Brown, who joined the Savannah Impact Program three years ago after spending 17 years in and out of prison. Now Brown works at the site as a maintenance supervisor.

He says, “I told them I had a past history with drugs, and just put all my cards on the table and said I need help, will you help me? And I got all the help I needed right here at Savannah Impact, and it’s a miracle because this is the longest I’ve ever had a job or anything.”

Brown says he never wants to go back to life on the streets. Now, he drives his own car and pays his own bills. He says just years ago, he was living in an abandoned home.

He says, “this is the longest I’ve ever been out without getting into trouble, none at all, so this is an accomplishment for me.” Brown says now he lives for his children, and nothing could take him away from them.

Demetra Butler says officers with the program go and talk to offenders before they get out of prison, to tell them about the program and the resources that are available.

She says, “often times before that person gets home, we have that plan in place as to where they are going to stay, whether it’s with a family member, we have appointments and schedules set up for them, we even have the necessary social services set up, IDs, so when this person comes home, we’ve got a plan set so the anxiety is not so overwhelming.”

She says, “for those who really want the assistance, they appreciate the assistance, they appreciate the help that they have been given.”

Most people are in the program for about six to twelve months, but she says some stay for much longer, and continue to call and check in with program officials.

The program offers clients a varitey of classes on site, some of those include moral recognition therapy, anger management, and courses to help them get a GED so they can find employment, and reintegrate into everyday life.

The program also provides a savings to taxpayers. It costs $55 a day to house an inmate in the Bibb County Jail. But the cost for intensive probation supervision is only about $3.86.

Stacy Rivera says, “we’re being smarter about crime, and number one we want to keep the community safe, that’s the whole goal of this.”

Derrell Dean says he’s proud of where he is today, and hopes a program like reentry can offer assistance to others like him who need it most.

He says, “a lot of addicts, they don’t know that help is available, because I didn’t know, as many times as I’ve been in and out of jail I never really got an education about drugs, and I didn’t know why I kept doing what I was doing.”

But he says he knows now that a game of dominos is the best way to spend his time. Dean says, “I cry alot because I have real sincere feelings about where I am today.”

The Macon Reentry Coalition still has a few obstacles, the major one is funding. Stacy Rivera says the Department of Corrections fully supports Macon’s plans to establish a Community Impact Program, but have not committed funding yet.

They are also still working on which agency will lead the effort. In Savannah, it’s an extension of the police department, with funding coming from the city.

The Macon Police Department says as of now, they plan to devote a captain, sergeant and two officers to reentry.

Coalition members also continue looking into a location for the program here in Macon. They hope to have something up and running by the end of the year.

janchavarie GA Bibb County, Georgia, Inmate Programs, Re-Entry

Marvin Marshall’s rap sheet is colorful and long, stretching nearly 30 years — time marked by heavy cocaine use, robberies and thefts and stints in penitentiaries across the state.Story reported by USA Today.

But just 10 months out of prison following his last arrest in December 2007, things have changed. Now he’s clean, works full-time and, as his wife has breast cancer, pays all the bills. He even keeps in touch with his probation officer. “This is the best I’ve done in 25 years,” Marshall, 49, said.

He hasn’t missed any of his monthly meetings at the county’s re-entry court, a specialized program for recently released felons.

The change was evident when he got picked up for petty theft in December. A clerk at Gabriel Brothers in Ontario accused him of switching labels on an item, trying to save $5.

“Five years ago I would’ve knocked him down, cleaned out the cash drawer and took off running,” Marshall said recently in Richland County Common Pleas Court. “But not today.”

For Judge James Henson, court officers and courtroom spectators — most of the latter convicted felons — bemused laughter broke out. If Marshall was going to commit a crime, he’d be the first to tell you, it would be for more than $5. Yet because he was on probation, that $5 could end up costing him a lot more.

In a different courtroom, in a different age, it could’ve cost him his freedom. But this was re-entry court. So instead, Henson told him to get it cleared up and report back in a month. Marshall was doing well after 10 months in the program — working, testing clean and toeing the line with his probation meetings. This incident wasn’t enough to draw the hammer.

One of the first of its kind in the country, Richland County Re-entry Court has worked this way for 10 years, processing 1,000 or so felons like Marshall, who’ve served at least six months in state prison.

In the movies, they’re outfitted with a freshly-pressed suit, $100 in cash and a pack of cigarettes. In real life, they barely get bus fare and emerge clad in a penitentiary jumpsuit.

“I call them the vast unready,” Judge James DeWeese said of re-entry court participants. “They’re uneducated, unskilled, unemployed, unhoused and unused to self-government. It’s surrogate parenting.”

The program can lend help in many forms. One man had to get his teeth fixed for work, which federal grant money paid for. Others need glasses, food or bus fare. All of them need jobs.

“These people are broken,” program coordinator Toya Bowman said. “We want to up the standards, but not so high that you can’t reach.”

Since re-entry court’s inception in 1999, Bowman has worked with prison officials to select participants based on their proclivity to respond to treatment and the court system. She also oversees their progress.

Re-entry court’s convicts come in many stripes, from murderers to mid-level drug lieutenants, but the toughest cases, like those needing extensive mental health treatment, need not apply.

“I essentially changed the (Ohio Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation),” Bowman said of the program’s early days. “I had to get the wardens on board. There was a lot of politics then, but we changed the whole dynamic. The word ‘re-entry’ had never existed.”

Even critics of the program acknowledge its success. The felony re-arrest rate for graduates of the year-long court — about two-thirds of those who enter — is 4 percent within one year of release. That’s microscopic in a prison system nationwide that averages 44 percent, the U.S. Department of Justice reports.

“We show these numbers to criminal justice experts and professors and they just fall over,” said Dave Leitenberger, the county’s chief probation officer. “It took us 10 years to finally see real funding coming in. For the little bit of money that it costs, it’s a bargain.”

Jeffrey B. Spelman, chairman of the criminal justice and sociology department at Ashland University, is one of those experts. He said the average probation officer may check in with an offender just a couple times a month, but Richland County probation officers, according to his data, are checking in six times more often.

“The contacts are astronomical,” Spelman said. “Having this kind of relationship with an offender allows you to spot problem areas before they even exist.”

The re-entry court employs an idea many experts on deterrence call the wave of the future. The idea is constant attention coupled with swift and consistent consequences. In theory, this is much more effective than old-school probation — which involved limited visits and less consistent but far stricter punishment.

According to one study, by both removing imprisonment as an option for technical probation violations and cutting the length of parole, prison populations nationwide could shrink about 50 percent.

“The first time they mess up, you don’t use the nuclear option,” DeWeese said of his approach, referring to lengthy sentences for technical violations. “That’s why the re-entry court works the way it does, because they believe that you really care about making a difference in their life.”

Having offenders meet as a group helps as well. Each session before Henson or DeWeese lasts a couple of hours, and all of the two dozen-or-so participants must watch every proceeding. In essence, each monitors the progress of his peers. More importantly, they discover their road is not as lonely as they thought.

For observers, it can be like a reality show without the cameras. At Henson’s session Friday, Jerome Bond, 26, convicted of crack possession in 2006, said he’d mailed $40 to cover court costs two days previously. By Friday, there was still no sign of it, probably, Bond said, because he mailed in cash.

Bowman cocked an eyebrow. “Never paid a bill before, huh?” She said Bond comes from a good family, but was having trouble getting his act together since he got out from a three-year stint in Lorain.

Randy Schlupp, 40, of Mansfield, was having back problems Friday. He ambled up before Henson with a heavy stoop, and said he was trying to find work, but couldn’t do much manual labor anymore. “Don’t say, ‘try,”‘ Henson scolded.

Schlupp, who was convicted of aggravated robbery in 2006 and released last year, said he’d taken courses to become a chef while in the pen. “Now that’s what I mean,” Henson said. “You’re doing it.”

Jan. 29 was the re-entry court debut for Donna Kirkpatrick, 26, of Mansfield. An ex-crack addict, she served nearly three years in Marysville on five forgery convictions before getting out this month. Henson told her what he tells all of the rookies.

“There’s been a lot of water under a lot of bridges in a lot of days,” Henson said. “Some people get swept away with it. Don’t let that be you.”

The lonely road The biggest deterrent to getting swept away, officials and the studies say, is simple: employment. Many of the convicts say the easiest way for them to stay out of trouble is 14-hour workdays. Not only is it steady income, it’s also a sense of routine and focus. Jerome Bond, the 26-year-old, refused to get a job after his initial release, Bowman said. Sure enough, not long after that, a drug test came back positive. “He gives up on himself very easily,” Bowman said.

For Marshall, the man arrested at Gabriel Brothers last month, staying clean and maintaining a manufacturing job for several months has been one of his proudest moments.

“It feels so good to have a piece of paper with my name on it,” he said. “For a lot of those years I was cashing a lot of checks with other people’s names on them.”

He’s clean now, not only to care for his cancer-stricken wife but at the careful prodding of his 24-year-old son, Marvin Marshall Jr., his probation officer and Judge Henson. He still has to pee in a cup regularly and complete several more months of re-entry court, but said that at the moment he is keeping busy.

“Maybe,” he said, hesitating, “I don’t know if it’ll happen, but maybe they will say that this time Marvin broke the cycle.”

Officials report the effectiveness of the Richland County re-entry court is in stark contrast to recidivism rates for prisoners released without such a program.

In a 2006 study, Ashland University professor Jeffrey Spelman found 124 of nearly 600 re-entry court participants, just 4 percent, were arrested for a felony within one year of successful completion of the program. The average recidivism rate nationally for those who did not participate in a re-entry court program was 44 percent in the first year.

janchavarie Ohio, Re-Entry

It’s no secret Michigan has some serious issues with money and crime. That’s why the Wolverine State has launched a program that aims to address both of those problems in a way that might surprise. Reported by WNDU.

The Michigan Prisoner Re-entry Initiative (MPRI) is a program designed to put prisoners back in the workforce. For years, Michigan’s jails were filled to the brim.

“We went through that whole period of being tough on crime and we locked people up so Michigan ended up with one of the largest prison populations in the nation,” said Marvin Austin, Regional Director of the Heartland Alliance at the Opportunity Center in Benton Harbor.

That large prison population was often a burden budget-wise. Michigan’s cost of housing a prisoner is well above the national average of about $23,000, closer to $29,000 a year per prisoner.

“But the reality is most of the people that go to prison are going to come home sometime. So if you’re just locking people up you just wait until their sentence is done, you send them home, what you find is the cycle back into prison,” Austin said.

That’s why the state created the MPRI, which helps place ex- convicts who have served their time. MPRI is administered through local sites like the Opportunity Center.

The Michigan Department of Corrections says that when MPRI started on a limited basis in 2005, 5 out of 10 prisoners returned to jail for new crimes within 3 years of being released. Since then, that’s decreased to less than 4 out of 10.

So, the one-time cost of less than $2,000 Michigan spends on the re-entry program per prisoner at places like the Opportunity Center can help offset nearly $29,000 dollars annually; if it’s the difference between making a successful life outside of jail and recidivism.

“So literally everyone wins,” Austin said.

Those with the most to gain are the prisoners trying to re-invent their lives, which is no small task.

“The effort for them is probably double what it would be for someone else. But those that put the time in they do find that they can be successful,” said Rose Hunt, Director of the Opportunity Center.

Once they get out of jail, participants go through an intense program that helps them focus on the steps they need to take to again become a functioning member of society.

“They come in with the odds against them. They know they’ve made mistakes and I think in a lot of cases they’re really sorry that they’ve created such a negative situation for themselves,” Hunt said.

For many, it is tough to stay away from the behaviors that landed them in jail in the first place.

“If they make an error we don’t judge them right way and throw them out of the program. We say these are the 3 options you have to pick which one you think is best for you. Or we have them take the problem to a group of their peers and help them decide what option is best,” Hunt said.

But it’s also tough to move back into a regular life. Just finding a job creates some blatant obstacles.

“They have to check that box that says they do have a felony, and so we try to help them draft (cover) letters that kind of put a human element a face to who they are,” said Syrina Butler, the senior employment counselor for MPRI in Benton Harbor.

“I think it’s hypocritical and contradictory for society to say you’ve done your time and now they want you to get out and make a success and they not embrace you and help you make that success. If they don’t, then what do they expect you to do?” said Virgil Hatcher, a peer counselor at the Opportunity Center.

The Michigan DOC says there’s been some major progress since 2005, thanks in part to MPRI.

Corrections spending has been cut by $400 million dollars, and other efficiency measures have also contributed to the state closing 12 prison facilities in 7 years.

The state is working on expanding this program, which the Opportunity Center is rooting for.

“We’re going to help people get back on their feet and be successful. They’re the parents of the next generation and once they’re being productive you’re really going to see the change in the communities,” Austin said.

janchavarie Michigan, Re-Entry

While re-entry and skill-building programs offered by the New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJDOC) at its 11 prisons are heavily used and generally viewed favorably by inmates, many anticipate a difficult return to society due to their underlying health conditions and concerns about finances and support systems. Story reported in the R&D Magazine.

To improve their chances for success in the community, a Rutgers researcher recommends that NJDOC adopt a policy of universal re-entry preparedness during each inmate’s mandatory minimum term and a reallocation of funding to increase skill-building capacity on-site rather than in ultimately more costly halfway house programs.

Rutgers Professor Nancy Wolff, director of the Center for Behavioral Health Services and Criminal Justice Research, reaches those conclusions in a new study, Re-entry Readiness of Men and Women Leaving New Jersey Prisons. “Approximately 10,000 men and women leave New Jersey prisons each year. Many of them return to jail and prison for parole violations or new convictions within days, months or years post-release,” Wolff observed. She added that the criminal justice system’s current emphasis to “stop the revolving prison door” is on re-entry preparedness, with special funding under the federal Second Chance Act set aside to improve re-entry services around the country.

“While re-entry-related funding is flowing into states, its target efficiency and ultimate effectiveness in terms of public safety depend on whether it goes to the right people in the right places and in the right ways,” Wolff explained. “For this, it is critical to know the population – its needs, strengths and resources.”

Wolff conducted a Re-entry Readiness Survey from June through August 2009 of 4,000 men and women in the state’s prisons due for release within 24 months. Among the findings:

• “A sizable minority” of soon-to-be-released respondents had chronic health and/or mental health problems or chronic pain that would require follow-up treatment.
• A majority would be released with drug-related convictions that will constrain their ability to receive cash assistance, food stamps and public housing.
• More than one-third had no one helping them find housing or a job.
• More than one-quarter reported their ability to manage money, work for a living, be a responsible adult and control drug or alcohol problems as fair or poor.

Despite these impediments to success upon release, many respondents viewed favorably and utilized NJDOC re-entry and skill-building programs:

• Nearly 70 percent reported receiving needed behavioral health services.
• Nearly 70 percent knew about the STARS (Successful Transition and Re-entry Series) program; 80 percent of STARS enrollees or graduates rated the experience good or higher and would encourage a peer to enroll.
• More than 80 percent admitted to social functioning skill programs rated instruction and materials good or higher.
• More than 87 percent of participants in educational and vocational programs rated instruction and materials good or higher.

To meet the twin goals of effectively preparing soon-to-be-released prisoners to “make good” and to protect the public, the department must re-examine how it spends limited funds dedicated to re-entry-related services, Wolff said. The report recommends that the skill-preparedness of inmates be maximized during their mandatory minimum terms.

Currently, NJDOC provides less than half the functioning, educational and vocational skill-building services needed by the soon-to-be-released population. To reduce recidivism and chances of compromising public safety, Wolff recommends creating a Re-entry Preparedness Checklist at all prisons that would measure key skills and resources expected upon release and monitor the progress of individual inmates toward these goals. Results would be posted on the department’s website.

She also advocates for increased funding and skill-building capacity within NJDOC to the scale of need of prisoners during their mandatory minimum sentence, and to establish re-entry preparedness standards to determine if an inmate is eligible for parole consideration upon completion of his or her mandatory minimum term.

The research also finds that by keeping more re-entry-related services on site, rather than outsourced to halfway houses that provide community-based residential treatment for a minority of released inmates, NJDOC can accrue considerable savings. The FY 2009 budget allocated about $61 million for residential services that support an average daily halfway house population of more than 2,600 people.

“While it is often argued that a community-based halfway house bed is cheaper than a prison bed, this is true only if the services provided by the halfway house could not be provided by the Corrections Department while the inmate was serving the mandatory minimum term,” Wolff said. “Adding off-site re-entry preparedness costs to the back end of a mandatory minimum sentence term adds $23,000 per year per inmate.”

Wolff added that reduced reliance on residential service providers will free up additional funds for on-site re-entry preparedness programming and pay for a Re-entry Preparedness Performance Monitoring System. She also called for a Community Service Vouchering program that will enable parolees to buy residential, vocational and treatment services as needed in the communities to which they are returning.

“Contracting for residential rehabilitation services has resulted in a concentration of services in such urban areas as Camden, Newark and Trenton,” Wolff said. “A vouchering system is consistent with community reinvestment strategies and goals to distribute service capacity more evenly across the state.”

janchavarie Inmate Programs, New Jersey, Re-Entry

The Re-entry Program is crucial to stop the revolving door for prison, but state budget cuts are forcing the Kansas Department of Corrections to cut those programs. “The Re-entry Program and Parole Services are what make our communities safe,” Sharidi Blackwood, Re-entry Program Director, said. News from KTKA.

Blackwood said they’ve had to cut staff and leave positions open, which gives Parole Officers like Donnie Hibler more work and fewer resources to work with. “When we don’t have the resources or the funds the staff to meet all those needs it becomes pretty scary, and it becomes a real safety issue and that is our number one concern,” Blackwood said.

Missy Woodward is a Program Consultant who works with mentally ill prisoners. “A lot of the mental health cases came to us with the shut down of the Topeka State Hospital,” Woodward said.

“The prisons are the new state hospitals now,” Parole Officer Hibler said.

If Missy can’t find the resources, like medication and housing for these mentally ill prisoners, crimes will continue to occur. “It’s going to impact the safety of the community, I hate to say when people get desperate they get desperate,” Woodward said.

Kelli Martinez’s job is to help people coming out of prison find work, but with a failing economy that has made her part of the re-entry program tough, “We see a lot of the jobs that used to be the given, that they could just walk into those aren’t so available now either,” Martinez said.

So with a troubled economy, and cuts to the Kansas Department of Corrections, it leaves many who work with offenders scared what will happen next. “Our biggest concern is safety for the community,” Blackwood said.

The Kansas Department of Corrections staff said they will continue to rely on other community programs for help. They said they have to get creative to get prisoners the help they need.

janchavarie Budgets, Kansas, Re-Entry

Public perception of a revolving-door justice system is countered by not-so-alarming statistics: A vast majority of offenders processed through the Washington County Community Corrections Center do not re-offend, returning to society clean and sober with a renewed sense of optimism about their future. Story published on OregonLive.

“I’m tired of running,” said one resident during a tour conducted for county officials Tuesday.

“Before, I thought ‘the first chance I get, I’m running,’” the young man continued. “I don’t have that desire anymore.”

With structure and accountability achieved through a group dynamic, the treatment and transition programs at the center make him feel like positive change is possible. Many offenders like him elect to extend their required sentences to complete one of the center’s transitional programs.

“I will always have the desire to use (drugs and alcohol), but now I have the tools to turn that off,” he said. “I thank you guys for giving me that chance.”

Of 2,026 offenders housed in the center between January and December 2008, 89 percent completed required programs, said Director John Hartner.

Many offenders eventually find themselves in the center’s transitional drug and alcohol treatment programs. Since 2001, the county contracts with several agencies to staff the Recovery Mentor Program, which helps take residents through the steps of rejoining the community — finding jobs and housing, maintaining healthy relationships and fulfilling ongoing commitments. Many of the mentors are people who have had drug and alcohol problems themselves, and have been in the criminal justice system as a result. To be hired, they must have two years of sobriety, and receive ongoing professional and ethical training.

It is generally accepted that to succeed in recovery, addicts need a clean and sober place to live, and an individual with like experiences to show them the ropes, Hartner said.

“They’re really a very effective bridge in this transition process,” Hartner said. Mentors also benefit from the experience.

“It’s really helpful for people in recovery to continue to help other people in recovery,” he said.

Of 283 offenders in the Recovery Mentor Program in 2008, about 90 percent are now in stable housing, employed, financially self-supporting and attending continuing support groups and required treatment.

Community Corrections, supported by an annual budget of $15 million and staffed by 106 full-time-equivalent positions, is responsible for providing probation, parole, post-prison supervision and residential services to the adult offender population.

All community corrections residents are assigned to a counselor and a case plan is developed to fit residents’ needs while addressing their terms of probation. Residents are offered support with their transition and there is always structure and accountability.

Evidence-based treatment practices include family participation, role playing, therapeutic movement and anger management.

“Anger management is a way to address their impulsivity,” says center Manager Karleigh Mollahan. “Impulsivity is a big factor in recidivism.”

Other in-house programs include mental health services, wellness and nutrition and life skills training for employment, parenting, computer literacy and fellowship. Treating the whole person leads to changes in behavior, said another resident.

“We become a community inside,” he said. “That translates to being a part of the community on the outside.”

Rules are strictly enforced for 277 residents who later move into any of 38 transitional clean and sober housing facilities throughout the county. Subsidies help with initial expenses, but then residents are expected to pay their own way.

Some of the transitional houses use paid employees to monitor residents, while others elect their own officers, but there’s continuing accountability, Hartner said.

janchavarie Community Corrections, Oregon, Re-Entry

California’s recidivism rate is second to none (60 percent for adult inmates). At the forefront of preventing recently released inmates from becoming just another statistic is San Francisco-based PHATT Chance Reentry Program, a place where last February, Thomas Christian underwent a process that he assures turned his life around. Story from New America Media.

Christian, 45, had been incarcerated for drug-related crimes on more than one occasion. But in October 2008, after having been released from a Nevada State prison, he made his way back to his hometown of San Francisco in hopes of a fresh start.

He soon found that the transition from captivity to free-living encompassed numerous ups and downs.

“At first, you appreciate your liberties a lot more, but one of the main downsides to this transition is adjusting to not having a built-in structure instilled upon you in prison. I was being told what to do all the time,” recounted Christian.

According to a 2008 Report from the California Department of Corrections, throughout a three-year span, 60 percent of adult inmates in California re-engaged in criminal activity and were returned to prison. That same year, more than half of its inmate population arrived after violating their parole. Two years ago, Christian was among those re-incarcerated.

Once in San Francisco, a parole officer recommended Christian to the Northern California Service League – a non-profit organization that works inside and outside jails and prisons – which then referred him to PHATT Chance Reentry Program.

“It’s been a constant blessing ever since,” affirmed Christian who has been a client of the rehabilitation and housing center for more than a year.

Providing a way out
In 2004 Armando Martinez, 56, and George Turner joined forces to create PHATT Chance Reentry Program, a secondary treatment program for individuals struggling to reintegrate themselves into society. “We reach out and try to cover all the bases so the person has the best chance to turn their life around,” explained Martinez, deputy program director of the agency.

PHATT Chance works in collaboration with several organizations to provide housing, food, drug rehabilitation, anger management classes, recovery meetings, job training and education for those undergoing personal struggles. Christian underwent a 90-day drug rehabilitation program as an outpatient while living at a PHATT Chance house.

Clients are housed across three transition homes-two in San Francisco and one in Oakland-operated by a staff of eight. There are approximately 40 people currently living in the transition homes.

Most clients are referred to PHATT Chance by other similar organizations, or find their way to the agency through the penal system, county jails and word-of-mouth recommendations.

“We get letters from guys in prison who want to join us,” said Martinez. “And if they’re serious, we bring them in.”

Approximately 90 percent of PHATT Chance’s clients were recently released from a correctional facility. The rest are students seeking assistance.

Among those students is Mike (whose last name was witheld for confidentiality), a 28-year-old Native American male who spent four years at one of the San Francisco houses after being referred by Friendship House, a non-profit that provides housing and substance-abuse treatment to Native Americans.

He turned to PHATT Chance for guidance and was offered a place to live as long as he attended school and maintained his grades. The organization is a fierce advocate of education.

A 2005 report released by the Institute for Higher Education Policy found a direct correlation between educational attainment and recidivism rates. Results suggest that after being released from prison, the higher the inmate’s education, the less likely they will be to relapse into criminal behavior.

The young man who once arrived with a rather bleak future was transformed into the reflection of the program’s vision. In the spring of 2010, Mike will begin his first semester at UC Berkeley.

“We were going to get him into Stanford, but he changed his mind. He already moved out of the house and is on his way to becoming a lawyer for his native tribe,” said Marti-nez with a jubilant tone.

“When he came to realize his vision, he never waivered. He stuck to it, persevered and stayed the course. A lot of guys crumble when they are put under pressure. He didn’t do that,” he added.

Birds of a feather
Martinez’ background is similar to the individuals he helps. At the age of 13, he was homeless on the streets of San Francisco; an episode that led him to severe drug use and impending self-destruction.

Years later, he was brought to the now defunct Narcotics Education League, a center that once helped former Latino ex-convicts re-enter society.

“When I was a kid growing up, I had no guidance: there was no one there for me,” Martinez said. “I don’t want people to make the same mistakes I made. That is why I got into this business. Because when I was in my addiction I didn’t know a way out. But someone saw something in me that I couldn’t see in myself.” Like Christian, Martinez was incarcerated for the sale of narcotics.

Christian was first incarcerated in 2005 for possession and sale of drugs. He was then released and re-incarcerated in 2007, serving 14 months in the California state prison system under the same charge. “Being hooked on drugs is a self-imposed prison,” Martinez explained. “It takes work to stay out of jail.”

In 2008 the CDCR reported that, 18.2 percent of incarcerated adults in California are there due to drug-related offenses. Drug related crimes also made up 32 percent of offenses by felons first released to parole “We get a lot of people right out of jail who have nowhere to go. But they have five months to show effort and commitment to change,” said Martinez.

For those who qualify, the Northern California Service League funds a five month probationary period at PHATT Chance Reentry Program, where clients are encouraged to create a life plan for themselves and stick to it. If they manage to remain clean, sober, and productive, they are permitted to stay beyond the initial period.

“If they’re making something of themselves and doing good things, they can stay,” Martinez added. “If they are serious about their recovery and moving forward with their life, our doors are open for them. We’ll help them go forward. (But) If they’re just not doing anything, then they have to go and make a spot for somebody who is serious about changing their life.”

As soon a client arrives, they undergo an intense evaluation to determine what their needs are: mentoring, job training, education, etc. Unlike other similar transitional programs, at PHATT Chance, people leave when they are ready.

He believes programs within incarceration facilities-as well as those that commence once released-monitor individuals to the point where they are simply unable to make life decisions for themselves.

“You really don’t have to think or take responsibility for yourself. So when you get back out into society, you’re lost all over again,” he said.

But at PHATT Chance, individuals are taught responsibility while being given significant room for individual growth. Christian added, “Back then, I was doing it more for them. Now, I’m doing this for me.”

Christian explained, “This program gives you the time and space to do you. Other programs try to do so many things to you, but this one helps bring out the best of what is in you.”

Because this is a fairly new organization, their success rate still remains to be accurately determined, but in the big picture-according to Martinez-more than 50 percent of individuals leave the program prepared to reintegrate themselves back into society.

“When they leave here, they’re either in school or working,” he added.

A population underserved
Of the 171,161 inmates in California’s correctional facilities, approximately 17,000 or 10 percent are in counties surrounding the Bay Area. The combined total inmate population for San Francisco and Alameda counties-the area in which PHATT Chance operates-is 6,133 or 3.5 percent of California’s total inmate population.

According to the CDCR, in 2006 there were about 2,200 individuals on parole in San Francisco alone. Of that total, nearly 20 percent entered treatment centers, leaving the remaining 80 percent with limited support while transitioning to free living.

A chance to give back

By September of 2009, Christian was asked to join the organization’s staff. Like Martinez, he also wants to devote his life to helping others move forward.

“(In) some of these guys, I see a part of myself at the time of my recovery. It helps me look at things from a whole different window. It helps me deal with the same population I’ve dealt with all of my life, just from a different perspective: giving instead of taking. And it really feels good to be a part of that,” said Christian.

Christian acknowledges that helping run PHATT Chance may often present a challenge. This is where the collision between the forces of inner-conflict, institutionalization, and a new set of principles occurs. PHATT Chance is the nexus of that transition. They are the first to deal with individuals’ emotional hurdles and the habits accumulated while locked up in prison.

Christian hopes to continue growing along with PHATT Chance. He describes his new lifestyle with renewed enthusiasm: “I go out there and walk the streets. I see the police and I’m not trippin,’ I see all the street guys and they don’t know me! You know what I mean? It feels good!”

janchavarie CA San Francisco, Inmate Programs, Re-Entry

Anticipation for Mt. Vernon’s first re-entry program is building as the date of the event inches closer. “I’m excited,” said Paul Carlson, District 5 parole superintendent for the Illinois Department of Corrections. “This is going to be a really good thing for the offenders and the city of Mt. Vernon.” Reoirted in the Register-News.

The Mt. Vernon Southern Illinois Re-Entry Summit is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 9 at the Rolland W. Lewis Community Building at Veteran’s Memorial Park.

The event, the first of its kind in the King City area, is restricted to current state or federal detainees and certain citizens on parole or probation, Carlson said.

“This is a community expo of the necessary services to guide and assist the people of your community who never want to return to prison,” information states.

The event will be patrolled by parole officers and other officials in the building and parking lot to keep it secure, Carlson said.

Participants will be walked through a series of tables with volunteers from Southern Illinois University, he said. The detainees, parolees and others will have the opportunity to have an HIV test taken, speak with counselors about the issues they are facing or will be facing once they leave jail or prison.

“They’ll sit at a table with an SIU student and fill out a questionnaire about what they want, what they need,” Carlson said.

The participants will also get the opportunity to practice interview and resume skills, Carlson said.

Terri DeNeal, representative of UCAN of Southern Illinois, said the participants will also have an opportunity to get a state ID from the Secretary of State’s Office’s mobile unit. She said UCAN is funding the opportunity.

“The most important thing at this point is you can’t have any gaps,” DeNeal told participants at a planning meeting earlier this week. “I’m so tired of seeing people slip through the cracks. You know about something in this community that I don’t know about. All the puzzle pieces are in this community, and it just hasn’t been put together.”

DeNeal said the reason Mt. Vernon had been picked for the upcoming summit was because business owners and prominent members of the community had contacted her, and it was where she felt it needed to happen.

“I can’t say how important this is,” she said. “This is about public safety. Everyone who is in prison, this is probably not their first offense. That means there are multiple victims. We have to stop that. It’s about getting them on the right track.”

Carlson cited the example of a young person he met through his job who he saw later after the person had gotten out of prison.

“He was studying at SIU,” Carlson said. “When he saw me, he said, ‘The things you say are true. I got a job. I’m participating in school. I have never, ever felt this way about myself.’”

Summit organizers are still looking for businesses and services to participate in the event, especially community churches. To help, call Terri DeNeal at the UCAN office at 618-942-4710 or e-mail sirgmtvernon@aol.com.

janchavarie IL Jefferson County, Inmate Programs, Re-Entry

The Ryan and Mound correctional facilities, on Detroit’s east side, once housed thousands of prisoners bound for lonely, unassisted returns to the city’s streets. Full story and photos in The Detroit Free Press.

But now they’re being used as temporary re-entry sites for nearly 2,000 prisoners. This is one of the cornerstones of the efforts by Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Corrections Director Patricia Caruso to reduce the size of Michigan’s prison system.

Inmates get help re-establishing productive lives. They get structure that they often won’t find on their own. Often through video conferencing, prisoners near release meet with parole agents and community housing, employment and other agencies to help line up jobs and places to stay.

They also get classes that work on boosting their coping skills. At a “Thinking for Change” class at Ryan in early December, two MDOC facilitators — Ronald Irby and Jeffrey Allison — challenged 20 prisoners to take responsibility and govern thoughts and feelings that could lead them back to crime.

“Prison has your body — it’s up to you not to give it your mind,” Irby told one inmate who said prison had turned him into an animal. “If you’re looking for a reason to resist change, it’s easy to find one.”

Inmate Terry Stanfield, 25, of Detroit, told a Free Press editorial writer that attitude determines success, even more than employment. Some inmates, he said, would still rather sell drugs than accept menial work.

“It’s about ethics and morality,” said Stanfield, who finished a two-year sentence for home invasion and was paroled on Dec. 22. “I used to rationalize what I did.”

A small share of parolees will get temporary jobs through Michigan Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative contracts with nonprofits such as Motor City Blight Busters, which employs more than 60 parolees for 90 days. Working with electricians, plumbers and carpenters, parolees demolish and rebuild vacant and blighted properties, mostly in northwest Detroit. They learn job skills, secure employment references, and earn $8 to $12 an hour. About 25% of them later get permanent jobs with Blight Buster contractors, said President John George.

Longer prison stays and higher costs
The state will need more of this kind of effort as prison reductions continue.

The state’s 36 prisons now hold roughly 46,400 inmates — the fewest since 2001 — after peaking at 51,554 in March 2007. Caruso expects the population to fall below 45,000 by year’s end.

In the past, longer prison stays had pushed corrections costs higher. Michigan inmates have been serving, on average, 127% of their court-ordered minimum sentences — well beyond other states that offer parole, reports the Council of State Governments Justice Center. Six years ago, Michigan prisons held an outlandish 17,000 inmates — more than a third of the population — who were parole-eligible. Still, a recent study by the Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending found no correlation between time served and the likelihood of reoffending.

“Keeping thousands of people locked up longer than was needed for public safety has been a big cause of Michigan’s prison growth,” said CAPPS Executive Director Barbara Levine.

Steps to save state money
Granholm and Caruso have gotten the ball rolling, with positive results. Now the Legislature has got to help continue this process, with several steps:

• Restore good-time credits. A House bill would reduce a typical sentence by roughly 15%, lowering Michigan’s prison population by 6,000 and saving the department $107 million a year. It would provide incentives for good behavior and bring Michigan’s system in line with the rest of the country. Michigan is one of only a handful of states that haven’t adopted federal standards for truth-in-sentencing, making inmates eligible for parole after serving 85% of their sentence.
• Approve new sentencing guidelines to divert hundreds of offenders from prison to lower-cost community corrections programs such as drug courts, electronic tethers, community service and jails. Such programs would save tens of millions of dollars a year, even after reimbursing counties for community-based alternatives.
• Repeal Michigan’s notorious juvenile lifer law, which has rightly drawn fire from human rights groups worldwide. The law has forced judges to give kids as young as 14 the maximum adult penalty of life without parole. More than 300 Michigan inmates are serving such sentences. Giving them a shot at parole would likely save millions of dollars.
• Release chronically ill and dying inmates, saving the state millions of dollars a year in health care costs. The commutation and parole process for terminally ill inmates is far too cumbersome. About a dozen terminally ill inmates, recommended for commutations by the governor’s Executive Clemency Advisory Council, have died before release. In cases in which inmates have a year or less to live, the state ought to waive requirements for a public hearing.
• Create a temporary and separate parole board to review a backlog of hundreds of parolable lifer cases. In the class-action Kenneth Foster-Bey case, U.S. District Judge Marianne Battani, in 2007, declared that the constitutional rights of more than 1,000 inmates serving life sentences with the possibility of parole have been violated since state parole policies toughened in 1992.
• Ensure that releases and paroles are not delayed because prisoners could not take programs stipulated by the Parole Board, such as the assaultive offenders program. Providing adequate programs is far cheaper than delaying the release of offenders, at a cost to the state of $35,000 a year each.
• Establish an innocence commission to recommend ways to reduce miscarriages of justice and examine cases of probable wrongful conviction. Wrongful convictions are an especially big problem in Michigan because of the state’s abysmal public defender system. Dozens, maybe hundreds, of Michigan inmates have compelling evidence of innocence, without an effective remedy, including Frederick Freeman, Darrell A. Siggers and Darryl Jamual Woods.

There’s no one right way to determine the ideal size of the state prison system. In the early 1980s, when crime rates and population were similar to today’s, Michigan prisons held fewer than 15,000 people — less than a third of the current count. Bringing Michigan’s incarceration rate down to those of surrounding states would lower the prison population to 35,000.

Either way, creating a cost-effective, safe and humane corrections system that protects the public, sends less-dangerous offenders to community alternatives, treats people with substance abuse and mental health problems, and returns offenders to society with adequate employment and coping skills will take substantial legal and policy changes.

For legislators and a term-limited governor, reforming Michigan’s criminal justice system ought to become the centerpiece of restructuring state government this year.

janchavarie Illinois, Re-Entry

N.J. prisons are teaching inmates job skills to avoid return to life of crime. Story reported by the NJ News.

Leaning back in a chair with his arms crossed, Javier Herrera watched his classmates practice fade haircuts with electric clippers as he described his big plans for a men’s salon in Newark. He’ll offer manicures and stylish haircuts but also provide masculine touches, maybe even a cigar lounge. “A lot of guys are going metro now,” he said. “It’s big.”

For Herrera, 28, opening the salon is not just a business plan, it’s also a lifestyle change. The last time he paid the bills, he did so by selling cocaine — which landed him at Garden State Youth Correctional Facility in Yardville for drug, weapons and resisting arrest offenses.

With more than three years to go until he’s eligible for parole, Herrera is working in the prison barbershop to earn his cosmetology license. “Hair’s always going to grow,” he said. “It’s something you can always make money off of.”

Prison workshops are more than a diversion from the monotony of life behind bars. They can give inmates a head start on one of their biggest and most important challenges: finding jobs after their release.

“That’s what’s going to decide whether you’re going to stay out there or come back in here,” Herrera said.

With 65 percent of New Jersey’s inmates back in jail within five years of their release, state officials are emphasizing job training because employment is a crucial indicator of whether former prisoners will return to a life of crime. The Department of Corrections is spending $26 million on prison education this year, and some legislators are pushing for more funding.
About one-fifth of the state’s inmates, 5,237 men and women, are enrolled in vocational classes, according to department statistics. Another 2,068 are on waiting lists.

But finding work is more difficult than ever, and the state has shed 101,400 private-sector jobs in the last year as it slogs through the recession. In November, just over half of the 13,257 ex-offenders who were under parole supervision and considered viable for employment had jobs.

And always, lurking in the background, is the lure of easy money from selling drugs, a job that doesn’t require a resume or a background check.

That’s what enticed Marquise Allen, 23, when he was released from prison in August of last year. Within a month, he was arrested on drug charges. “There weren’t any jobs calling me back,” he said. “At the end of the day, you gotta do what you gotta do.”

Extra-Curricular Activities
The section of Garden State prison for classrooms is reminiscent of a high school hallway, and colorful signs advertise classes like graphic arts, computers and electronics. Popular ones like Herrera’s cosmetology course can take a year to get into, inmates said.

On a recent weekday, David Fontanez, 29, was one of several students trimming classmates’ hair. “You learn everything. You learn how to curl, perm,” he said. “It’s important to learn something in here and take it out there.”

Fontanez has been locked up three years — his second stint in state prison, this time for burglary and drug possession — and has less than a year left before he can be paroled. “I’m trying not to be 40 and coming back in here,” he said.

Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Mercer) is leading efforts to pump millions of dollars into prison education through legislation intended to reduce recidivism. She says the state will save money in the long run by putting former inmates to work.

Although her bills would cost less than 1 percent of the department’s approximately $1 billion budget, Corrections says that’s cash the department doesn’t have right now. “We recognize that there is always room for improvement,” legislative liaison Michelle Hammel told an Assembly committee on Dec. 3. “We just simply do not have the money to do that.”

Inmates who worked or received training in prison are more likely to find a job when released, according to a 2008 study from the Urban Institute, a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C.

Also, ex-offenders earning at least $10 an hour were half as likely to be re-incarcerated as those making less than $7 an hour, according to the same study, which was conducted in Illinois, Ohio and Texas.

Hunting For Work
There are about 25,500 state inmates in New Jersey, and 14,400 are released each year. Once they hit the streets, it can be a race against time to find them jobs.

“Most inmates come out wanting to do the right thing. When they obtain employment, they fulfill that hope,” said Parole Board Lt. Paul McIntyre, who oversees the agency’s employment efforts. “If after a few months they don’t find employment, that optimism they came out with starts to disappear.”

Without legal work, it becomes more likely an ex-offender will return to crime. “They don’t have any money,” said Vernon Long, who works with former inmates to find jobs. “And the first person that’s going to give them any money is someone they used to do crime with.”

Long runs Opportunities for All in Hamilton, one of 11 day-reporting centers for New Jersey’s parolees. His organization’s database lists 333 companies with job openings, mostly for entry-level positions at car washes, retail stores and factories unhurt by the recession. Long said big retailers like Target and Wal-Mart have programs for hiring ex-offenders, which can earn companies tax credits.

Still, the struggling economy has taken its toll. Some ex-offenders were trained to weatherize homes and then joined a union. But there wasn’t enough work to go around, and they remain unemployed.

Playing Catch-Up
State officials have claimed some success. About 1,500 inmates were enrolled in the Another Chance program, a partnership between several state agencies that provides ex-offenders with job coaches and other services. Officials said participants are 20 percent less likely to be re-arrested within six months of release.

“We’re working with people who don’t have the basic skills to have an interview,” said Wanda Moore, who oversees efforts at the state Attorney General’s Office to re-integrate ex-offenders. “We run up against some of the same problems that contributed to them being incarcerated in the first place.”

Drug sales remain lucrative, too. Anthony Versace, 23, sold LSD despite holding part-time jobs as a cook and ski-lift operator. “I could make what I could in a month in two hours,” said Versace, now an inmate at Garden State prison.

Lenny Ward, director of community programs for the state parole board, said low-level dealers usually can be convinced to give up drugs.

“That’s not exactly a glamorous job, worrying about whether you’re going to be shot or arrested,” he said. “If we can give them a taste of legitimate employment, then we can hook them.”

janchavarie Inmate Programs, New Jersey, Re-Entry

Cedric Woodcock stood at attention next to his bunk Tuesday morning at the Coastal Transitional Center, gainfully employed and optimistic about his future. Reported by the Savannah Morning News.

The 33-year-old said he entered the state Department of Corrections system in April 2007 after being convicted of robbery by intimidation, and now he’s eager to complete his sentence on parole and continue life as a free man with his children in Jesup.

“All these people want you to do is succeed,” Woodcock said. “I feel like with what I learned here, I can.”

During his seven months at the center, Woodcock said, he secured a job installing garage doors for a company in Pooler. He also has learned to stay away from the drugs that fueled the decisions that led to his arrest in May 2006.

But according to transitional center officials, Woodcock is one of the lucky residents of the facility, where the economic downturn crippled the employment ratio. As of Tuesday morning, only about 60 percent of Coastal Transitional inmates have found jobs.

“When the economy was rocking, we were up at around 90 percent,” said Richard James, outgoing superintendent of the facility near Louisville Road and Stiles Avenue. “Then the economy dropped, and none of them could find anything.”

James, who will leave his post in Savannah for a job with the Department of Homeland Security in Brunswick, said the job drought has forced center officials to suspend job searches outside the facility until Jan. 4. And when searches return, they’ll be limited to two days a week, he said.

The facility – designed to introduce inmates to productive, lawful lives outside prison walls – suffered a black eye last month after two of its participants were arrested on armed robbery charges.

The facility’s image took a hit again earlier this month, when a former inmate was convicted in the 2005 rape of a Savannah College of Art and Design student.

During a recent community meeting at the Carver Heights Community Center by state Rep. Bob Bryant to address the two November armed robberies, James told the audience of a dozen residents and elected officials the same crimes could have occurred if the two suspects were released on parole or with a completed sentence.

Tuesday, James said that of the 500 or so people transferred to the center every year, only a handful committed crimes while on release.

The majority of residents who ended up in county jail were arrested on lesser charges such as public urination or drinking in public.

“What are six to eight incidents out of 500?” he said. “It’s amazing to see how a lot of these guys change from when they roll in here off the bus.”

James said about 80 percent of his inmates were referred to the transitional setting by parole officers. The remaining 20 percent are inmates whose history meets the standards of the facility but have nowhere to go if they’re released.

Along with passing a screening process at their originating facility, inmates must pass the transitional center screening process before they’re released to the community.

Although there are a few residents convicted of murder and robbery, most were sentenced on drug and property offenses, he said.

Tuesday morning, the program’s career center – an arrangement of plastic tables and chairs in front of a row of a dozen desktop computers – sat silent. The machines aren’t equipped with Internet access, so they can’t perform online job searches. They once were used to prepare resumes.

“Like Mr. James said, if there’s one thing we need, it’s more staff,” said Carlotta Rice, who will replace James as interim superintendent of the facility. “We need someone who can do things like help an inmate build a resume or do role-playing to learn how to act out during an interview.

“A lot of these guys have never even been on an interview before,” she said.

But Woodcock, who said he is eligible for parole next month, feels prepared.

“I feel like I’m ready,” Woodcock said, adding he plans to travel from Jesup to his job in Pooler when he’s released.

janchavarie Community Corrections, GA Chatham County, Re-Entry

Jobs are scarce out there, no matter how impressive the resume. If that resume listed time in a state penitentiary, imagine just how much more scarce. Story reported in The Kansas City Star.

Nearly 700,000 people are released from federal and state prisons to their communities each year, about 25,000 between Missouri and Kansas. Where do they go? Some end up with a job and pick up a rag at the bright orange and blue All Seasons Car Wash.

Here at 1510 Truman Road is found one of the grittier tales of good will toward men — as practiced by Gene Krahenbuhl, owner of that car wash.

Take Nick (no last name, he asked, no need to embarrass family). He’s no saint. Arrests have plucked him off the streets seven times for driving while intoxicated. He thinks himself lucky his actions haven’t killed anyone.

Right now he’s trying to kick the booze and become a productive citizen by earning a living, paying taxes, staying out of trouble. He knows job rejection well. Would-be employers have drawn back in their chair, frowned and stopped listening when they saw his check mark in the “yes” box next to: Have you ever been convicted of a felony?

Krahenbuhl is the only one who would hire him.

For 10 years Krahenbuhl has been hiring felons as young as 18 and as old as 60 and convicted of things including writing bad checks, robbery, sex offenses and assault. No murderers though, that he knows of. But Krahenbuhl doesn’t ask for details. He does know that not all his employees have served time in prison, and a few are just down-on-their-luck homeless.

“I don’t really care. I’m not judging. It has become very evident to me that these people just need a chance,” said the 47-year-old Raymore man.

Most employers don’t want to hire ex-cons, even with government incentives such as tax breaks.

“There is a general feeling of risk among most businesses about hiring someone who has been convicted of a felony crime,” said Bill Miskell at the Kansas Probation and Parole Office. Then, too, a lot of jobs are off-limits to anyone with a criminal record. For example, someone convicted of embezzling can’t work as a bookkeeper or in a bank.

On the other hand, said Julie Kempker, re-entry manager for the Missouri Department of Corrections, “There are people in prison who have talent like you wouldn’t believe.”

Two-thirds of released prisoners are arrested again within three years, and about half return to prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

“Much of the time those who end up back in prison had been unemployed,” Miskell said.

The prison revolving door is expensive for taxpayers, Kempker said.

“We have solid data that says that those who leave prison and maintain employment are less likely to return to prison,” she said. “And the data says that when they are out and working they are not committing crime.”

Eighty percent of inmates are nonviolent, she noted. “People watch too much television. Most of the people in the prison system are not Hannibal Lecter.”

Krahenbuhl believes in second chances, but he has been known to give third — even fourth — chances to the 20 or so felons he employs.

He doesn’t accept government incentives for his hires, and he acknowledges his employees’ paychecks are small (just minimum wage). But he’s not getting rich, either, he said.

“Owning a business is not just about making money. It is also about giving back to the community.”

Washing cars isn’t easy work, Krahenbuhl said, especially in winter, the best season for the business. When temperatures drop below freezing, “people don’t want to get out in the cold to wash their car. They bring it to us.”

Former convicts come and go fairly regularly at the car wash, but a few guys have been with Krahenbuhl consistently for a couple of years and others have worked there off and on for as long as he has owned the place.

All Seasons Car Wash is a starting point: money for rent, food and confidence in one’s ability to go straight.

“I encourage them that if they can get a better job, they should go after it,” Krahenbuhl said.

Workers are taught basic job ethic — show up on time, be courteous to customers and don’t goof off on the clock. A mutual trust is central to employment at the car wash, he said.

No, he doesn’t expect his employees won’t try to get away with some stuff, even steal from him. It has happened — double swiping credit cards and pinching from the cash drawer or pocketing tips that are supposed to be divided among the crew.

Stealing is not necessarily grounds for dismissal. But when caught, “and we always catch them,” Krahenbuhl expects the offender to fess up.

Stealing and then lying about it, now that’s cause for firing, he said.

Those who don’t make it, he noted, “are usually the ones who can’t kick their addiction to drugs or alcohol.

“Nick is a good guy. If he can quit the drinking, he could be a manager here,” Krahenbuhl said.

At 44, Nick is living with his parents in Kansas City for now. But he remembers sleeping nights, before the car wash, out in the cold. He is saving his money to rent his own place.

“If it wouldn’t have been for these guys here at the car wash, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” Nick said. “Working here has kept me off the street.”

janchavarie Kansas, Re-Entry

Prisoners are the best people for getting the disengaged engaged, a roundtable discussion on cutting crime and re-offending held in parliament last week was told. Story reported by epolitix.com.

Discussing one scheme where prisoners teach each other to read David Ahern chief executive of the Shannon trust, said: “They were failed by the educational system, this is the first time that many of them will be giving something back to society.”

The debate, held in association with Perspective and The House Magazine, looked at the how training and skills can dramatically lower the re-offending rate of prisoners.

Perspective chairman Jim Davis explained some of the problems that stop skills training from working effectively:

“Whilst training is available in institutions people often get moved and don’t get to finish the course.”

George Hosking, chief executive of the WAVE Trust, agreed.

“Prisons are judged by the number of people starting programmes; we don’t consider the amount of people who complete them,” he said.

Perspective worked with Project Equal Engage, a regional project focused on providing pre and post-release support for individuals within the prison system intended to reduce prisoner re-offend rates.

Over the six month live period of the trial, 277 beneficiaries of the scheme were released from prison.

According to National Offender Management Service figures, the expected re-offending rate, for this period, was 35 per cent.

This was cut to 6.5 per cent – 18 re-offended instead of the expected 96.

Davis explained how relatively small moves, such as making sure that a prisoner has a bank account upon release, make a big difference and help lower re-offending.

“If you don’t have bank account or a national insurance number then you want get any work and you’ll start to re-offend,” he said.

Lord Ramsbotham, former chief inspector of prisons, said:

“If there was a director of young offenders then these strategies would become common practice.

“The prison service doesn’t have people responsible for each type of prisoner.

“We need someone who will take responsibility and turn good practice into common practice.”

Ahern said some prisons officers can be very reluctant to get involved in education.

“There are times in prisons that are not being used efficiently,” he added.

Alun Michael MP, a member of the justice select committee, spoke about how vital training is.

“Prevention of re-offending should not just be an add on; it needs to be the very core of the prison system,” he said.

The panel discussed ways in which the media and public opinion affect the level of skills training that can take place.

“Labour and the Conservatives don’t campaign for restorative programmes, they just promise to build more prisons,” claimed Liberal Democrat spokesman for justice Lord Thomas of Gresford.

“You’ve got to keep people with you,” said Andrew Turner MP, a member of the public accounts select committee. “People in the street need to feel that they’re being looked after.”

“All parties seem to have been driven by the Daily Mail,” responded Labour’s Julie Morgan MP, a member of the justice select committee.

“Those in power need to take a robust stand,” added Ahern.

“We need to push boundaries; we’ve become a victim of the press.”

There was a general consensus that training and mentoring in professional and life skills was the most effective way of lower re-offending rates in the country.

Nick Perry, unit manager at Feltham Young Offenders institute, spoke of how a training and skills scheme caused a massive drop in violent incidents in the institute.

“We’ve had only two violent incidents since April,” he said.

“That is totally unheard of.”

Concluding the discussion, Christian Guy from the Centre for Social Justice, summed up the debate by stressing the importance of focusing on training in prisons, and the urgent need to have a system in place that allows prisoners progress to be properly tracked.

janchavarie England & Wales, Inmate Education, Inmate Programs, Re-Entry

The Missouri Department of Corrections today announced the award of $3 million in community reentry contracts to 36 nonprofit organizations to support initiatives that reduce recidivism, reduce victimization, and promote the department’s vision of a safer Missouri. These contracts are self-sustaining and funded through fees paid by clients currently supervised by the Division of Probation and Parole. Press release from the Missouri DOC.

The contracts awarded will be used to implement new projects, programs and services or to enhance existing efforts which assist offenders in making a successful transition back into the community and the workforce. These initiatives address gaps in essential services, including offender housing, employment, education, and substance abuse and mental health treatment.

Ninety-seven percent of incarcerated offenders return to Missouri communities. Collaboration with our community partners during the transition process is necessary to promote offender success. The recipients of the community reentry funds represent employers, law enforcement, social service agencies, educational providers, neighborhood alliances, and the faith-based community. Each of these organizations has a direct impact on reducing the risk of offenders to return to prison. Employing programs built on evidence-based practices with a multi-disciplinary approach ensures offenders have the tools necessary to reach their full potential as productive, law-abiding citizens. The offender-funded community reentry contracts will strengthen resources, resulting in safer and healthier Missouri communities.

janchavarie Community Corrections, Missouri, Re-Entry

Inmates at a prison in Greater Manchester are being given a bank account in an effort to steer them away from crime when they are released. Reported by The BBC.

In the past year re-offending rates for those with access to a bank at Forest Bank prison in Salford have been cut by a third, research showed.

Paul Jones, of Liverpool John Moores University, who conducted the study said it helped them back into society. “If it’s difficult to settle, there’s more chance they will offend,” he said.

“When a prisoner is released, the vital things for re-settlement like a job, securing a place on an education course, finding a house are all blocked by not having a bank account.

“It might seem like a small detail but it has had a massive impact on the chances of those re-offending.”

A former prisoner, who wants to be known only as James, had a drug problem which resulted in him being in and out of prison.

“It was a disaster really, once I lost the job and the house, it was a quick spiral into misery; you end up taking drugs and I was homeless for a good couple of years.”

By the time he went to Forest Bank prison for the last time he was living in a squat with his girlfriend, dependent on benefits cheques sent to ‘care-of’ addresses.

“This time though, when I got the bank account it was a good thing really, it got me somewhere to live and a job.” James has not re-offended since his release last year.

The scheme, set up by Co-operative Bank, is now being rolled out to other prisons in England. A Prison Service spokesman said: “It is important for the resettlement of prisoners that they can access such facilities as many jobs require a bank account for the payment of salaries, and employment is a key driver in reducing re-offending.

“The importance of employment in reducing re-offending is well recognised, and improving opportunities for offenders is a key priority.”

janchavarie England & Wales, Inmate Programs, Re-Entry

The Draper prison in Utah was expected to run out of space for women by 2007. Instead, the booming growth rates suddenly leveled off and 50 beds sit empty. Corrections officials are uncertain what exactly has brought the relief, but they’re focusing on fending off future booms by making sure when women get out of prison, they stay out for good.  Story from the Salt Lake Tribune.

Spokeswoman Angie Welling said 65 to 75 percent of released prisoners return to prison at some point. But when they go through some form of programming, the figure plummets to about 30 percent.    “We owe it to these women to make sure they have access to the resources necessary to reconstruct their lives,” said Craig Burr, director of the Corrections department’s Division of Programming. With little help from state funding for the preventative and rehabilitative programs, the department is now leaning on community organizations to bolster life-skills and usher them into crime-free lives …

Deputy Warden for Prison Programming Lee Liston said it’s “heartening” to see the extent of help from the community, especially during an economic downturn. Big Brothers Big Sisters is one organization sending volunteers to help thanks to a federal grant. Liston noted that if there are 180 women in prison, that translates to about 400 children without a mom. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah spokeswoman Michele Beckstrand said there is a lot of shame and anger in families when women are incarcerated. “Sometimes the impact in having another caring adult to step in is beyond words,” Beckstrand said. “A mentor is that friend, that shoulder to lean on” …

Other efforts to reform female prisoners include substance-abuse programs, therapeutic communities and “Bridges out of Poverty” — an effort run by Utah homelessness czar Lloyd Pendleton to create plans to get women into housing, land a job and be productive. “We’re seeing changes — significant changes,” Pendleton said. Utah advocate for the poor Pamela Atkinson adds that YPREP’s targeted programs are “literally changing people’s lives.”

Despite the aid, realistic Corrections officials say it’s only a matter of time until figures rebound and the state runs out of space at the Draper Timpanogos female housing area. “We are likely going to need another women’s facility,” said Corrections Deputy Director Mike Haddon … But it’s unclear how soon Corrections could build any relief. Officials already have plans to expand the Gunnison prison and open a halfway house for parolees to stop the male inmate population from spilling over. And all those goals come amid budget blows that recently forced hefty department cutbacks. “We realize we can’t build our way out of this,” Haddon said. “We just try to provide as much programming or education, so when it comes time to go back into the community they’re better citizens and more likely to succeed.”

jakking Female Inmates, Inmate Programs, Re-Entry, Recidivism, Utah

The Oregon Department of Corrections has created a new “one- stop” Web site aimed at providing information to help newly released offenders make successful transitions from prison to community life.  Reported by the Statesman Journal.

The Web site, dubbed the “Oregon Reentry Wiki,” is modeled after the Wikipedia Web site, which allows contributors to voluntarily add, modify and monitor the accuracy of content posted on thousands of topics.For the prisoner re-entry Web site, state corrections officials are teaming up with local community corrections agencies to develop the site. State and local officials, not the general public, will contribute to the content. Officials said the re-entry wiki will provide offenders and their families with information about services and programs provided by the state. The Web site also will specify local employment, housing and treatment options available to released offenders.

“Our intention is that the re-entry wiki will become a valuable tool for offenders and their families, ensuring that they have access to state and local resources needed to successfully transition back into the community after serving time in Oregon prisons,” Corrections Director Max Williams said. “The most important part of the wiki is that everything will be provided in one easy-to-use Web site.”

The website can be found here.

jakking Oregon, Re-Entry

A new publication from the Rand Corporation looks at how behavioral and physical health care affects a former prisoner’s successful reintegration into society, and what role public health services can play in this transfer. According to the report, the prison population is “disproportionately sicker on average than the U.S. population in general, with substantially higher rates of infectious diseases (such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and hepatitis B and C), serious mental illness, and substance abuse disorders.”

The full report can be found here.

jakking Inmate Health Care, Mental Health Issues, Re-Entry

The Washington, DC-based Justice Policy Institute cited New Jersey’s unique Regional Assessment Center (RAC) initiative as an example of a smart reentry policy designed to prevent parolees from unnecessary re-incarceration. RAC programs are operated by New Jersey-based Community Education Centers, Inc. (CEC) in collaboration with the New Jersey State Parole Board (NJSPB).

“The RAC program is the proverbial ‘win-win’ for New Jersey. The State avoids the costs of incarceration and technical parole violators receive the reentry services they need to lead productive lives. This report confirms what university-based research has told us for years–reentry programs work,” said Dr. Robert Mackey. The report states that community-based reentry programs are cost effective and improve public safety and cites New Jersey as one of “six states (that) are increasing the likelihood that people on probation or parole stay out of prison.”

“New Jersey has long focused on community corrections through the utilization of an assessment/treatment model as an effective alternative to incarceration. RAC is an important program to address the reentry needs of technical parole violators,” added Dr. Mackey.

The citation appears in “Pruning Prisons: How Cutting Corrections Can Save Money and Protect Public Safety,” an independent report released May 20, 2009 by the Justice Policy Institute. The report is available at the institute’s website, http://www.justicepolicy.org/index.htm.

The Regional Assessment Centers were developed as an investment in public safety, and a method to save taxpayer dollars by reducing the rate at which technical parole violators are returned to prison. Technical parole violators are parolees who have committed a technical violation of the conditions of their supervision, but have not been charged with a new crime or significantly threatened public safety. Most technical violations are consistent with a relapse in addiction and indicate intensified supervision and treatment as an appropriate response for public safety. The RACs hold technical parole violators to a 15- to 30-day lockdown period, while subjecting them to a clinical risk-needs assessment. The assessment helps the New Jersey State Parole Board make better-informed decisions as to whether the technical violator should continue on parole with intensified supervision and programming, or whether the individual should return to prison.

Source:  CEC press release.

jakking CEC, Community Corrections, New Jersey, Private Prisons, Re-Entry, Recidivism

Scores of prisoners and their guards set off Thursday on a unique Tour de France cycling race for convicts, aimed at preparing them for life on the outside.  From Agence France Presse.

The prisoner cyclists have to stay in a pack and no “breakaways” are allowed during the 15 stages of the inaugural race that covers 2,300 kilometres (1,400 miles) from Villeneuve d’Ascq in northern France to Paris on June 18.

Twenty-three inmates and 57 staff went under the starter’s gun, of whom 18 — including just six prisoners — will complete the full course. A total of 196 inmates and 300 staff will take part throughout the event’s various stages.

As in the real Tour de France, which starts next month, the cyclists will be escorted by a “caravan” of technical support vehicles, medical teams, and gendarmes on motorbikes and in cars. “The aim is to show that sport is a teaching tool,” said Jean-Paul Chapu, the director of a jail in the northern town of Loos who initiated the project.

jakking Europe, France, INTERNATIONAL, Re-Entry