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March 20, 2008
OH: Gov. signs bill to bring faith-based groups in to work with prisoners being released
Associated Press, Mar 18, 2008
Faith groups to help inmates being released from state prisons
By JOHN McCARTHY
Associated Press Writer
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Any assistance inmates can get before being released from prison is helpful and a bill now awaiting Gov. Ted Strickland's signature will bring faith-based groups and other volunteers into the mix, the state's prisons chief said Tuesday.
The help is needed more than ever because the Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections must trim $74 million from its budget over the next 15 1/2 months, including $14 million over the next 3 1/2 months, because of an expected shortfall of at least $733 million in the budget year beginning in July.
The Ohio House passed the final bill last week and on Tuesday sent it to Strickland, who is expected to sign it, his spokesman Keith Dailey said. It sets up programs for the prisons department and the Ohio Department of Youth Services, which oversees prisons for juveniles.
The bill grew out of the Ohio Correctional Faith-Based Task Force, which issued recommendations in 2006 on ways to use faith-based and other volunteer groups to help inmates both during and after their incarceration. The goal is to help inmates ease back to life outside prison and reduce return trips to Ohio's overcrowded prisons, DRC Director Terry Collins said. Collins and one of the bill's co-sponsors, Rep. John White of Kettering, chaired the task force.
About 29,000 inmates were released last year.
Returning to life outside prison involves more than finding a place to live and a job, Collins said. Inmates often are abandoned by family and friends even though they've served their time, he said.
"The issue of re-entry and people re-entering society, it's not just a prison problem, it's a state of Ohio problem," Collins said. "All 88 counties will get somebody back in their county. ... We all have a hand in this."
Volunteers already help prisoners re-enter communities, but the program created by the bill gives it organization, Collins said. Along with the faith-based groups, business, professional, civic and educational groups are encouraged to register with either department.
All groups, faith-based or not, will be screened and neither department will be allowed to endorse a religious message. No inmates will be required to take part in a faith-based program.
The task force held community forums to explain the program to the volunteer groups. One role will be to better prepare the public for released inmates and ease the stigma of ex-offenders.
"We're already working on a lot of these things. We've seen an increase in volunteers, we've seen an increase in community involvement," Collins said. "I'm pleased that after we had these leadership forums, the communities are involved.
On the Net:
Correctional Faith-Based Initiatives Task Force: http://www.drc.state.oh.us/web/fb.htm
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OH_PRISONS_RELEASE_HELP_OHOL-?SITE=OH
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Posted by lois at March 20, 2008 06:07 PM