RPC Newsletter - 9/26/2006

State Legislatures Tackle Prisoner Reentry in 2005-2006

In response to growing concern over public spending, community safety, and high recidivism rates, Republican and Democrat state legislators across the U.S. are tackling a wide range of issues relating to the successful reentry of individuals released from prison and jail. CSG has identified several different legislative approaches to addressing reentry issues that have been signed into law this past year.

The following statutes do not necessarily reflect the views of CSG members, and CSG does not promote any of these statutes as a model. CSG has not conducted an empirical investigation of the effects of the statutes described below or a comprehensive review of all related state legislation in this area. There may be states not identified in this article that passed legislation in 2006 related to the issues discussed below. To suggest other legislation relevant to prisoner reentry that passed this year, please email editors@reentrypolicy.org.

Though states passed legislation on a variety of reentry issues this year, the following examples focus on Job Training and Employment , Incarcerated Women and Family Services , Medical Records and Continuity of Healthcare , Reentry Studies and Task Forces , and Sex Offenders .

Job Training and Employment

According to a 2001 study published in the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, recidivism rates of individuals who participate in prison education, vocation, and work programs are 20 to 60 percent lower than those who did not participate in such programs. But even those who do participate often struggle to apply the work experience they gained during incarceration and to find stable employment after release. Legislatures this year sought ways to connect releasees as smoothly as possible to the job market.

Virginia House Bill 691 , signed into law on March 23, 2006, requires the Department of Corrections to provide each prisoner upon release with verification of the individual's work history during incarceration and in-prison educational and treatment programs completed.

Other legislation relating to reentry job training and employment that passed this year:
Illinois Senate Bill 1279
Connecticut House Bill 5846
Tennessee Senate Bill 2557

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Incarcerated Women and Family Services

While women are still a relatively small minority of the national inmate population, the rate of incarceration for women is rapidly increasing. Many women face particular gender-related challenges while incarcerated, including those involving childcare.

In response to the increasing number of women incarcerated in Hawaii, which tripled between 1985 and 1995, Hawaii Senate Bill 467 was signed into law on April 29, 2006. The law appropriates funds to support gender-responsive community-based programs that address substance abuse, family relationships, vocational education, work, prior victimization, and domestic violence.

Other legislation relating to incarcerated women and family services that passed this year:
Alabama House Joint Resolution 15
New Hampshire Senate Bill 262
Illinois House Joint Resolution 75

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Medical Records and Continuity of Healthcare

Millions of people with serious mental health, physical health, and substance abuse issues are admitted to U.S. jails and prisons each year. Corrections agencies spend enormous amounts of money to provide healthcare for these individuals, but that investment may be wasted, and public safety jeopardized, if information about their medical conditions and treatment doesn't follow them through the criminal justice system and into the community when they are released.

In order to address some of these issues, Washington State passed House Bill 2573 on March 17, 2006 to improve health care outcomes and contain the costs of providing health care. The bill directs the Department of Corrections to coordinate a strategy that will integrate electronic health records in two jails and one prison to facilitate the transfer of inmate health information between state and local correctional facilities.

Other legislation relating to medical records and continuity of healthcare that passed this year:
Virginia House Bill 1093
Idaho House Bill 430

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Reentry Studies and Task Forces

Acquiring a clear understanding of the challenges facing, and posed by, men and women returning to a particular jurisdiction upon release from prison or jail is crucial to designing an effective reentry strategy. Policymakers should develop a knowledge base of existing reentry efforts, and explore data about the people that return from prison and the communities to which they return. Such efforts can help policymakers determine which initiatives will make the best use of limited state funds, and facilitate collaboration across state agencies that are involved in prisoner reentry.

On May 16, 2006, Illinois House Joint Resolution 80 was passed to fund a long-term study to determine whether life without parole and sentences over 30 years contribute to public safety and are an acceptable use of state funds. The bill establishes the Long-Term Prisoners Study Committee, which will hold a public hearing to present a report of its findings and recommendations before June 1, 2007.

Other legislation relating to reentry studies and task forces that passed this year:
Washington Senate Bill 6308
Virginia Senate Joint Resolution 126
Kansas House Bill 2555
Connecticut House Bill 5781

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Sex Offenders

No category of offenders has received more recent media attention than sex offenders. Such highly publicized crimes as the rape and murder of Jessica Lunsford in Florida have led legislatures across the country to revisit penalties and sex offender registration laws, and to restrict where sex offenders can live in an attempt to address increasing concerns about public safety.

In Louisiana, Act No. 663 was signed into law on June 29, 2006. This law requires a restriction code to appear on the driver's license of any convicted sex offender. It also requires every sex offender to notify the local police department and neighborhood residents of his or her name, address, crime for which he or she was convicted, and his or her place of employment (among other things) within 21 days of establishing residency in Louisiana, or within 21 days after release from prison. In addition, the law provides, through the Sex Offender Registry Technology Fund, for the development of an electronic alert system that will notify local law enforcement officials when a sex offender is released from prison or jail.

Other legislation relating to sex offenders that passed this year:
Arizona Senate Bill 1328
Indiana House Bill 1155
New Mexico Senate Bill 669
Georgia House Bill 1059

For more on reentry legislation, click here.


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Hill Update: Senate Judiciary Commitee Holds Hearing on Federal Assistance for Prisoner Reentry in States

On September 21, the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Rehabilitation and Corrections held a hearing "Oversight of Federal Assistance for Prisoner Rehabilitation and Reentry in Our States" to discuss how federal agencies are contributing to and evaluating state reentry initiatives. Witnesses included Roger Werholtz, Secretary of the Kansas Department of Corrections; and Diane Williams, President and CEO of the Safer Foundation .

Additional witnesses included representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), Chairman of the Committee, ran the hearing along with ranking member Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL). Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL) were also in attendance. To view the full witness list and submitted testimony, click here.

Senator Coburn questioned witnesses from the federal agencies on ways that various agencies coordinate their efforts to measure outcomes of multi-agency reentry initiatives such as the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) and the President's Reentry Initiative (PRI).

"What's the metric we use to measure whether programs are effective? We need to track re-incarceration, not just re-arrests to measure this effectiveness and states should anticipate that they have to provide this data," said Senator Coburn. Regina Scofeld, Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, indicated that all federal grants now have evaluative components built in and that an independent agency is conducting multi-year evaluations of select SVORI grantee sites.

In his remarks, Senator Durbin commended the Safer Foundation's work in Illinois in providing a range of education, employment and support services to individuals with a criminal record. He also spoke of the need for educational resources, such as G.E.D.and college credit courses, for individuals in prisons and jails to ensure that they have marketable skills once released.

Witnesses all emphasized the importance of continued federal support of reentry initiatives. Secretary Werholtz commented on how federal grant money that constituted less than 1% of the entire fiscal year corrections budget, in combination with state, local and private funds, had enabled the Kansas Department of Corrections to develop additional services for crime victims and assist in the successful reintegration of offenders with their families, among other efforts.

"Federal agencies provide funding to organizations such as mine that allow us to pursue innovations or put in place resources that would otherwise be beyond our reach." said Secretary Werholtz. He also noted that over a two year period, the state had reduced parole and probation revocations by 26 percent in part because of such federal support. Senator Brownback closed the hearing by emphasizing the importance of bipartisan initiatives like the Second Chance Act, which is a piece of federal legislation that would provide demonstration grants to states to develop a wide variety of initiatives to ensure successful reentry. For more information on the Second Chance Act click here.

For more information on the hearing or on outreach to members of Congress around the Second Chance Act, contact Hope Glassberg (hglassberg@csg.org) / 646-383-5737.

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Announcements

Upcoming Events:

National Summit on Prisoner Reentry (Center for Social and Health Policy, The Performance Institute)
October 8-9, 2006 (Arlington, VA)
http://www.performanceweb.org/CENTERS/SP/Events/S238/S238.htm

National Transitional Jobs Network Conference: "Strengthening Communities. Building the Workforce of the Future. Transitional Jobs Work."
October 12-13, 2006 (Atlanta, GA)
http://www.transitionaljobs.net/Events/Events.htm

Prisoner Reentry Institute at John Jay College of Criminal Justice Series on Reentry Research: California's Prison Reform
Speaker: Joan Petersilia (Professor of Criminology, Law and Society, University of California at Irvine)
October 18, 2006 (New York, NY)
http://www.jjay.cuny.edu/centersinstitutes/pri/Fall2006Series.pdf

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Recent Coverage of Reentry Issues

• 9/22/06 - Suit Challenges Sex Offender Law (Lexington Herald-Leader (KY))
  
  A new Kentucky law that tightens restrictions on where sex offenders can live has prompted a federal lawsuit that contends the law is so rigid it will require offenders to move from nursing homes, court-ordered treatment centers, jails and prisons. The statute, which was enacted last winter, applies to offenders even if they are no longer on probation, parole or any type of judicial supervision.
  
  
• 9/20/06 - A Drug Program Only Reached Through Prison (Washington Post)
  
  The District's newest residential drug treatment facility offers substance abusers a unique approach to recovery. A patient starts off by taking a battery of tests to assess literacy, intelligence and even self-concept. A customized 28-day treatment plan is drawn up, and the patient receives regular medical care, counseling and job and life-skills training along with a variety of special treatments such as acupuncture and humor therapy.
  
  
• 9/7/06 - Inmates Report Mental Illness at High Levels (New York Times)
  
  More than half the inmates in the country's prisons and jails reported mental health problems within the last year, according to a Justice Department survey released yesterday. The findings, based on a sample of about 25,000 inmates, were drawn from personal interviews and prisoners' own reports of symptoms, psychiatric treatments or medications.
  
  

Click here to see more collected reentry news from the Reentry Policy Council.

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Recent Published Resources on Reentry Issues

• Mental Health Problems of Prison and Jail Inmates (Bureau of Justice Statistics)
  
  
• Going Home to Stay: A Guide for Successful Reentry for Men and Women (Cleveland Reentry Strategy and United Way of Greater Cleveland)
  
  
• Prisoner Reentry: Addressing the Challenges in Weed and Seed Communities (Urban Institute)

To suggest additional resources for inclusion in the RPC newsletter, please email editors@reentrypolicy.org.

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