The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Much of the money and attention being spent on reentry efforts has focused on those offenders being released in the community from prison, but offenders coming from jails are cycling in and out of the gate faster, yet services to help them are less focused.

"It's an important and overlooked population. What we don't know is the extent to which these populations are the same [but] we have reason to believe that similar people are cycling through both systems, so ignoring the jail reentry population is foolhardy and isn't looking at the big picture." said Nancy LaVigne of the Urban Institute.

According to LaVigne, who coordinates the Urban Institute's Reentry Mapping Network, prison inmates may get more attention for a few reasons - because they have been away from the community for longer and because institutions can work with them more intensely to acclimate them to the services they need in the community.

Jail inmates are more complicated to work with. One problem for jails is that officials know at best they will only have inmates for a short period of time and that means whatever interventions they provide - they must be done quickly.

"You don't have a lot of time to work with them within in the jail system to prepare them for release. That's one of the greatest challenges in jail reentry," LaVigne said.

Despite these challenges some counties and cities have created programs and coordinated services specifically for jails inmates, while others are just beginning the process. These community efforts stand as models for other jurisdictions as the issue of jail reentry becomes a greater element in the national discussion.

Allegheny County Moves Offenders Forward

Officials at the Allegheny County, Pa., Jail recognized 10 years ago that jail inmates were going to need services from the community if recidivism was going to be lowered.

With guidance from the warden at the time, the jail began an earnest effort to involve offenders in GED programs and classes that would teach them living skills.

"We will work on life skills, find them housing if they need it, we'll make sure they are set up with everything they need. [Then case managers] track them and coach them for one year. A case manager will meet with them and meet with employers if any problems come along," said Jack Pischke, Inmate Program Administrator for the Allegheny County Jail.

Today, under a new Warden, Ramon Rustin, the program continues stronger than ever, and has even broader support from the community.

In 2000, local officials including public health, mental health and jails officials began a working group to address reentry issues facing jail inmates - called the Jail Collaborative.

"The collaborative grew from a recognition that the human services, health department and jail directors had clients who were all the same people and if we were going to impact recidivism, we absolutely had to work in collaboration with each other. The problems of the offenders are multi-faceted," said Dana Phillips, Chief Operating Officer, Allegheny Correctional Health Services.

Phillips said there are many ways in which the community can work with health officials inside the jail to ensure inmates return to society healthy and are able to care for themselves.

The collaborative set up a 90-day non hospital treatment program for male offenders with substance abuse problems where the men receive intensive treatment six hours a day. From there, the participants can go to a step-down program where they receive treatment one to three hours each day.

In addition, through relationships with community agencies the collaborative has created a 3/4-way house for offenders so they can make a slower, easier transition into the community and to living on their own.

According to Phillips, offenders can go to work, start to save money, continue their treatment programs and "try to get themselves firmly established in the community."

"They have a job, are drug free, have a housing commitment, they are stable and doing well in recovery," she said.

From the inside, correctional health care staff assist offenders with medical assistance applications and appointments with doctors and specialists in the community prior to release. In addition, Phillips said, the state of Pennsylvania is also working toward a mechanism that will allow chronically ill offenders who receive financial assistance prior to incarceration to be able to access it again more easily upon release.

Also on the jail side, officials want to make good use of the inmates' time while behind bars - with the hope that it will help them work toward a new and better life.

To this end, four case managers work with the offenders on the inside and follow-up with them in the community after release.

According to Pischke, inmates who are motivated can sign up for classes teaching life skills, parenting skills as well as resume writing and tips for job hunting and interviews.

Through the Jail Collaborative, more than a dozen programs are conducted by members of community organizations for offenders as well.

"We're trying to get the community to buy into what we are doing here and it all comes down to public safety. If we can give John Doe a job and get him into treatment in a 12-step program, then he won't have to steal for his habit," said Pischke.

Pischke said that jail administrators also have to use similar reasoning to obtain buy-in from members of the jail staff.

"You have to do a lot of staff training and change some of the thinking of correctional officers and staff and strongly urge them that [this] is public safety you are trying to better. Some people ask, Why are you doing something for that junkie? You can turn one around, but there's always one to follow him. Crime is always there," said Pischke.

Pischke said by having the community involved in an offender's reentry programming, the positive outcomes can be seen over an over again.

In the case of Allegheny County jail, ex-offenders who have benefited from reentry programming have been able to come back, not as inmates, but as service providers to help those who are incarcerated turn their lives around.

"They are good role models. We [at the jail] are not ex-offenders while this guy has walked their shoes. He may be a manager of a store somewhere now, but he's been where they have been," said Pischke.

Understanding offenders, where they have come from and their needs is at the heart of creative a positive reentry experience. In Travis County, Texas officials are working hard to make sure this is understood by multiple service providers in the community.

Roundtable Awakens Community to Reentry

A few years ago, after the Urban Institute published a research report on Texas inmates returning to the community and the multiple needs that they had, Travis County officials went into action. The report hit at a time when Texas prisons and jails were at capacity and legislators were wondering what to do about potential overcrowding.

"Because of that, we had the perfect storm and everyone said we need to do something in that environment," said Mike Trimble, Coordinator of Travis County Criminal Justice Planning.

Trimble was a part of what came out of that "perfect storm" and today sees real change on the horizon. The Travis County/ Austin Reentry Roundtable was formed one year ago through the efforts of many in that community including District Attorney Ron Earle.

The roundtable brought together more than 200 members of the community including state officials, local officials, human services, housing officials, juvenile justice, criminal justice, community providers and consumers such as ex-offenders who have reentered the community.

"The Reentry Roundtable is looking at any person coming back to the community, whether it is jail or prison, to the Austin/Travis County area," Trimble said.

After a year, the roundtable has divided itself into many different committees focusing on different aspects of the reentry problems for offenders. One of the most active of those committees is the one that focuses on legislation and policy.

According to Trimble, who until recently chaired that committee, the group is looking closely at the barriers and roadblocks to successful reentry as well as other policies to implement.

"From a general sense, the roundtable is looking at supporting legislation that removes barriers to improve the process to help people reintegrate back into the community and keeping an eye out for bills that would hinder reentry, then talk to legislators about those things," he said.

A transition committee focuses on those supports that offenders need right away to be street or community ready from identification, resumes, a place to sleep and developing a good system for supports for when that person gets out to hit the ground running, Trimble added.

Other committees such as the mental health/substance abuse committee focus on specific services needs of offenders, while a support systems committee concentrates on what families and victims need as the offender prepares to return to the community.

"They are coming back [to the community] and there are certain things that they need to be successful, otherwise we are going to have them come back to the jail or prison]," Trimble said.

While much of what the roundtable has accomplished is in the planning stages, some of the committees have made headway in some direct service elements. The transition committee, Trimble said, has been looking at the creation of a common assessment tool to be used for offenders and shared across service boundaries so that service providers can read the individuals' scores in the same context.

"We're trying to really have a broad net. These strategies can transfer from prison to jail and we're trying to figure out how things can work," he added.

While common ground can be found in reentry from prisons and jails, there are some specific considerations that should be made as jails are brought further into the reentry discussion.

Addressing and Assessing Jail Reentry

In a report issued earlier this year by the Re-Entry Policy Council, a project of The Council of State Governments, recommendations for specific policies and programs were outlined for both prisons and jails.

The report provides recommendations for planning a reentry initiative, a review of the reentry process and the elements of health and social service systems that are important to reentry. The suggestions within the report provide guidance to reentry planners in both jails and prisons. However, there are specific portions of the report that specifically address the differences inherent in jails.

A common element among those recommendations is a recognition of the shorter stays inmates have in jail settings.

The report recommends that intake procedures be developed to reflect an abbreviated intake procedure that connects inmates immediately to core programs and links them directly with community-based organizations that can provide services to these inmates after release from jails.

Jail reentry planners, according to the report, should also consider the high population turnover rates of jails when creating reentry programs and connecting offenders to health care services.

The report further suggests using the APIC (Assess, Plan, Identify, Coordinate) model when coordinating jail health care services so that offenders can start to receive treatment inside the facility and also experience a seamless transition to community services that are targeted towards specific needs.

For example, the assessment phase for someone incarcerated for 72 hours might include only cataloguing his or her psychosocial, medical and behavioral needs and strengths. However, someone who is incarcerated for several months could also receive continued observation and testing.

According to the Urban Institute's LaVigne, organizing services for jail inmates that continue into the community is a good idea considering the overlap of clients that typically occurs.

"We have reason to believe that different agencies, without realizing it, are working with the same population. [The issue is] how can we become more efficient with resources and avoid duplication of effort," she said.

She added that the Urban Institute hopes to secure funding to discuss jail reentry issues and how to intervene and assist this population as part of a national roundtable.

LaVigne and others involved in reentry expect that when the specific needs of jail inmates are identified and highlighted, the national reentry dialogue will expand accordingly.

Resources:

National HIRE Network http://www.hirenetwork.org.

The Reentry Mapping Network - http://www.urban.org/content/PolicyCenters/
Justice/Projects/TheReentryMappingNetwork/overview.htm

Targeted Capacity Expansion Grants for Jail Diversion Programs -
http://www.samhsa.gov/grants/2005/nofa/sm05011_jaildiversion.aspx

Reentry Media Outreach Campaign - http://www.reentrymediaoutreach.org/