Prison Re-Entry $$ Falls Through

The state did not win a $750,000 federal grant that would have been targeted to New Haven’s prison re-entry efforts.

The city was looking forward to getting the help through a federal Second Chance Reentry Award that the state Department of Corrections applied for on behalf of New Haven. The U.S. Department of Justice just awarded 15 grants in 13 states.

City officials found out late last week that New Haven was not among the recipients.

The hefty grant would have provided support for people returning to New Haven from prison, including housing, job training, and placement in jobs, according to Christine Fortunato, grants manager for the state Department of Corrections.

Prison re-entry has become a policy focus for Mayor John DeStefano. About 25 people return to New Haven from prison each week. Without help readjusting to life on the outside, they often end up back on the streets, getting into more trouble with the law.

The city’s application came as it increasingly shifts to grants and private fundraising to pay for social services: Click here to read more about that.

The city’s new prison reentry coordinator, Amy Meek (pictured), said the city would continue to pursue the concept.

“The original goal of the application was to have the DOC be really involved in making sure people returning to New Haven’s neighborhoods have a smooth transition from prison to the outside,” she said. ​“That’s still obviously a goal of the community empowerment program and we are working with them [DOC officials] for the re-application. To the extent that we worked with them we built really strong relationships.”

“It’s always nice to have more money, but hopefully we can do what we can with what we’ve got,” she said. ​“The fact that people are still thinking about how to make sure we don’t have this gap in services, I think these are all lessons we’re continuing to keep in mind.”

Meek said the DOC is planning to apply for the grant again when the next request for proposals is issued in December or January.

But Fortunato was much more circumspect about future efforts. ​“Because the announcement just came out yesterday, there’s been no opportunity to talk with staff here at the department about next steps.” She said until a new RFP [Request for Proposals] is issued, she won’t know if the parameters will have changed. ​“We need to take a look at the proposal we submitted and talk to key staff,” before making any decisions, she said.

Meek took over a month ago from Deborah Marcuse, who wrote a successful $350,000 grant application to the federal Department of Justice to fund her position for two years. The grant also includes money to hire a full-time community organizer for one year, which Meek said she hopes to fill soon.

The grant aims ​“to create a community empowerment program for the re-entry population,” according to Meek.

She said the organizer will help community organizations set up programs in four areas: substance abuse, education, families, and peer mentoring. The grant will provide $9,500 in each area, part of which would be devoted to providing technical assistance so groups could apply for other funds. Meek said that most likely one organization working in each area would get the money, but added, ​“We’re still in the process of working out the logistics.”

One group that will help guide where the money goes is the Re-entry Roundtable, which attracts dozens of representatives of city and state government, as well as social service providers and concerned community members to its monthly meetings.

“Part of what the Roundtable is doing is setting up focus groups of ex-offenders or others [like offenders’ family members] who have come in contact with the criminal justice system in some way to see how money and other resources could be best used,” said Meek.