Tom Breen File Photo
City reentry coordinator Carlos Sosa-Lombardo.
Services for people emerging from jail are fragmented, confusing and frustrating to those who need them.
The state Department of Corrections (DOC) does not even have a single,agreed-upon place where people are dropped off in the city after leaving prison.
Carlos Sosa-Lombardo, the coordinator of the city’s Project Fresh Start (under the Community Services Administration), said the time is therefore more than right to launch a one-stop “Reentry Welcome Center” in New Haven.
He described an ongoing pilot for the project, recently launched with Grand Avenue-based Project M.O.R.E., at the Fair Haven Community Management Team’s most recent monthly meeting, held this past Thursday night over zoom.
Sosa-Lombardo’s pitch elicited an interested and supportive response.
Sosa-Lombardo had with him Dennis Daniels and Morris Moreland, leaders of the 45-year old Project M.O.R.E. The pair endorsed the concept of a one-stop shop that begins with drop-off uniformity.
“We’re looking to have a drop-off center,” said Moreland, “that’s warm and welcoming. We’ve been seeing clients on Grand Avenue for years. We want to offer bus passes, some case management, and integration to their families.”
Moreland said his group is engaged in planning conversations with DOC. It has been coordinating drop-off on a smaller scale than normal, due to the Covid pandemic. “We’re hoping it can be scaled up.”
Sosa-Lombardo said a center currently operating in Hartford can be a model for New Haven.
He said such an investment is not only humane; it also helps reduce recidivism.
“Project M.O.R.E. has done a great job. It would be great to have the drop-off at this place,” said Fair Havener Mary Ann Moran.
After the gathering the Independent asked Sosa-Lombardo to clarify the status of the pilot. His responses follow:
Independent: Will Project M.O.R. E. become the center you wish to create? Or just be the drop-off point? Don’t they already do a lot of the stuff of the proposed welcome center?
Sosa-Lombardo: Project M.O.R.E. has taken the lead to create the Reentry Center. Up until this point I have been providing technical support for the implementation. Under the first phase, the center will be a drop-off point for the Department of Corrections, where returned residents can be connected to services, treatment and public benefits on the day of their release. The first phase would also establish a resource hub where people can receive more services, regardless of when or how they were released from incarceration. They are implementing the project as a COVID response but my hope is that they will be able to secure funding to continue beyond COVID and eventually become a one-stop-shop.
They do a lot of reentry related activities but through contracts with DOC and others to provide specific services to returned residents that need housing and are under community supervision. The Center would serve people who are released pre-trial, time served, end of sentence and community supervision. Services at the center will be an addition/expansion of services provided by them, targeting a broader set of constituents. The vision is that any justice-involved resident can access the services without barriers. An asset of having an organization like Project MORE taking on this project is their reentry experience, accessible location, and capacity to host DOC drop-offs after business hours. More importantly, their leadership have the commitment and passion to make this happen.
Independent: What’s the status of the pilot? Got any funding? What’s your timeline?
Sosa-Lombardo: Project M.O.R.E. is in the second phase of the pilot. The implementation of the first phase as a COVID response was between June and September thanks small gift from the Graustein Foundation and the Institute of Municipal and Regional Policy. In September, Project M.O.R.E. received a planning grant from the Tow Foundation, which will allow Project M.O.R.E to run the second phase of the pilot until the end of the year to keep testing the drop-off system, referrals and coordination with the Department of Corrections. Thanks to that planning grant, Project M.O.R.E also established a pipeline to receive referrals for those who are released pre-trial and under time served. The idea is to phase it into the implementation of the center to ensure that there is not disruption of services.
The planning grant from the Tow Foundation also allowed Project M.O.R.E. to contract a consultant, who is currently running focus groups with formerly incarcerated men and women. The goal is to gather input that can help design the services and implementation of the center. A key achievement during the second phase of the pilot is that they expanded services to support constituents who are released at their end of sentence, under probation, pre-trial and time served. Once the center is launched, the vision is to also serve those who are released under parole. The planning phase should be completed in the first half of January. Our hope is that Project MORE can launch the center in the second half of January 2021. The implementation of the first phase will be through an award of the CDBG Cares Act grant. They are working towards applying for federal funds and philanthropic funds to continue to sustain the center beyond COVID.
Having a one stop drop off center that can triage the services needed for people released from incarceration will help reduce crime and recidivism. If you got out of prison and were dropped off at a center that had social workers who found you drug treatment services, mental health services, found you a supportive place to live in and directed you to jobs and encouraged you to get further education and made clear that you would be supported in turning your life around, and not just dumped off on some random street in the city with nowhere to go, and no idea how you were going to survive, then you would be more likely to succeed in changing your ways.