Justice Center Resource
New Federal Benefits Online Tools
The Justice Center has just released two new online tools – Federal Benefits Comparison Chart and Keys to Federal Benefit Access – designed to help policymakers, practitioners, and others ensure that more people who are eligible for benefit programs such as SSI/SSDI and Medicaid are enrolled in these programs upon release from jail or prison.
Spotlight Announcements
U.S. Department of Labor Announces $17.3 Million Available for Young Offender Grants
11/17/2008 – The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, announces the availability of $17.3 million for Young Offender Grants. The goal of the planning grants is to allow selected localities to develop comprehensive blueprints for serving both juvenile and young adult offenders returning from correctional facilities.
10/23/2008 – The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center announced today the release of the toolkit, Planning and Assessing a Law Enforcement Reentry Strategy. With support by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), the kit has been designed as a guide and self-assessment tool for policing personnel and their partners to help reduce repeat crimes and facilitate successful reintegration by the more than 700,000 individuals who return to our communities from prisons each year and the more than 9 million from jails.
Reentry News Clips
Benton County Daily Record (AR): Club Buddies offers something special to kids, community
11/12/2008 – Over the last three years, the Boys and Girls Club of Benton County has gone to great lengths to help children who have an incarcerated parent. As part of its federally funded Club Buddies program, the organization partners adult volunteer mentors with children who have one or both parents behind bars.
New York Times (NY): To Save Money, State to Scale Back Drug Abuse Programs for Ex-Convicts
11/7/2008 – Because of budget cuts, the state will curtail its substance abuse programs for ex-convicts living in New York City and its suburbs by month's end, despite research indicating that such programs help reduce recidivism.
Other Justice Center Projects
Criminal Justice / Mental Health InfoNet
The Justice Center's online database that provides a comprehensive inventory of collaborative criminal justice/mental health activity across the country.
An unprecedented, national effort to help policymakers improve the response to people with mental illnesses in the criminal justice system.
A data-driven strategy for policymakers to reduce spending on corrections and increase public safety.