Prison Re-Entry Program Coming

Two State Department of Corrections officials came to town Tuesday morning to address the cost of recidivisim in New Haven, in blood and treasure.

Week after week, 25 people are released from prisons around Connecticut into New Haven. In 2008 they made up almost 80 percent of homicide suspects in the city and 75 percent of homicide victims. The cost of incarcerating residents of just one neighborhood — the Hill — for one year is $20 million. As a result, the city government and local activists have been working on an ambitious ​“prison reentry” strategy to help ex-cons reintegrate into community life.(Click here for background.)

Now a new federal law called the Second Chance Act may provide a chance for New Haven to develop that comprehensive plan. The Re-entry Roundtable attracted 40 representatives of city and state government, as well as social service providers and concerned community members, to Tuesday’s meeting with the state DOT officials at Church on the Rock to learn about the federal law, and the state’s plans for bringing its bounty here. Former State Rep. Bill Dyson and Deborah Marcuse, the city’s prison re-entry coordinator (pictured above), co-chair the Roundtable group.

Christine Fortunato, grants and contracts manager for the state Department of Correction’s office of research and strategic planning, and Randy Braren, DOC​’s director of parole and community services (pictured), explained that DOC has applied for $750,000 in federal funding under the Second Chance Act. That money must be matched by cash and in-kind contributions by the state, the city, and private foundations.

Fortunato said she should hear by September whether the grant has been awarded. If it is, the DOC will send out an RFP (request for proposals) to get the program going by this fall.

The grant application highlighted some of the statistics noted above to indicate New Haven’s great need for the funding. (The city would raise $15,000 toward the total.) The program would serve at least 125 New Haveners — both male and female — returning to the Hill or Fair Haven; these two neighborhoods account for 40 percent of the total number of ex-felons returning to the city. Priority would be given to those considered at moderate/high risk based on a number of factors, including their level of education, employment status, their response to addiction treatment and mental health diagnosis.

Someone asked about the reliability of state and federal funding in these precarious economic times. Breren said the federal dollars under the Second Chance Act are secure. State funding through the DOC ​“to fund community programs and services continues to be in the state budget, and we don’t anticipate losing it at this point.”

People around the table made various suggestions. One noted that some, though not all, of the prisons have re-entry counselors, ​“but they operate in a vacuum,” she said. She suggested the program work together with community re-rentry counselors. Braren agreed.

Alan MacKenzie (pictured) runs a program in Bridgeport called Street Smart Ventures. It hires workers facing barriers to employment, including having a criminal record. He suggested creating ​“a positive alumni group” of ex-offenders to provide mentoring and a good example to those newly released.

After the meeting, Dyson said he was pleased with the turnout and the commitment to the goal. ​“We’re really trying to find some way to reduce the recidivism — people having to go back to prison — because they don’t have services out there, or don’t have people who understand what their needs are, don’t have those opportunities that somehow they might be able to take advantage of.”