The Department of Justice last week announced awards totaling almost $100 million to reduce recidivism and support adults and youths in successfully returning to their communities after a period of confinement.
Office of Justice Programs’ (OJP) Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Director Karhlton F. Moore made the announcement during an event in Brooklyn, New York. The event was hosted by the Osborne Association, a recipient of a grant awarded as part of BJA’s Second Chance Act Community-Based Reentry program. He was joined by U.S. Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York and U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York.
“As we work to build safer and stronger communities, these grants will prepare and support people coming out of America’s prisons, jails and juvenile facilities, creating a path to opportunity and supplying the tools needed to build productive, successful lives,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. “The investments we are making today will help us ensure that individuals returning home are in the best position to succeed.”
OJP’s BJA and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) are awarding grants to jurisdictions, nonprofit organizations, research institutions and other agencies to advance the Department’s goals to address the needs of people in correctional facilities and to empower those who have been incarcerated to return home as productive and thriving members of their communities.
The grants announced last week will support a wide range of services for people who come into contact with the criminal and juvenile justice systems and for those leaving prisons, jails and youth confinement facilities. Funding will extend the Department’s significant investments in Second Chance Act adult and juvenile reentry programs, promote education and employment activities, support incarcerated parents of minor children, advance evidence-based community supervision services and protect incarcerated individuals from sexual assault.
Almost 550,000 people were released from state and federal prisons in 2020. Yearly releases from local jails are estimated in the millions, based on the number of jail admissions recorded each year and an average turnover rate of less than a month for each person admitted. And based on a one-day count, more than 36,000 youth are in residential placement, poised to return home.
The president’s executive order on Effective, Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices called for the creation of an interagency Alternatives and Reentry Committee that is developing an evidence-informed strategic plan for reforms on the federal, state and local levels. The Justice Department is an active member of the committee. The Department is also partnering with the Department of Education to ensure that the field is ready for full Pell implementation for incarcerated individuals under the Second Chance Pell Initiative.
“The safety of our communities greatly depends on the educational, employment, treatment and other opportunities we afford to all who come into contact with the justice system,” said Moore. “We are pleased to make these resources available to our state, local and Tribal partners so that they can continue the vital work of welcoming recently incarcerated individuals back into society and providing them the tools they need to succeed.”
“The road to a more humane and effective juvenile justice system begins with a collective commitment to keeping young people out of the system and helping those who are already there find a path to a productive and successful future,” said OJJDP Administrator Liz Ryan. “These investments will open the door for youth to rejoin their communities, reconnect with their families and neighborhoods, and fulfill their true potential.”
Below is a summary of some of the awards tailored to support currently and formerly incarcerated individuals:
• BJA is awarding $16.5 million through its Second Chance Act Community-Based Reentry Program, which provides funding to community-based nonprofit service providers to implement or expand reentry programs that demonstrate strong partnerships with corrections, parole, probation and other reentry service providers.
• BJA is awarding $23.3 million under its Improving Reentry Education and Employment Outcomes program, which is designed to improve correctional educational and employment programs that serve individuals during incarceration and throughout their period of reentry into the community.
• BJA is awarding $5 million through its Second Chance Act Pay for Success Initiative, which provides funding for state, local and Tribal governments to enhance or implement performance-based and outcomes-based contracts with reentry, permanent supportive housing or recovery housing providers to reduce recidivism and address substance use disorder among participants.
• BJA is awarding $3.9 million through its Swift, Certain, and Fair Supervision Program: Applying the Principles Behind Project HOPE program, which provides funding to state, local and Tribal community supervision agencies to develop and test new or enhanced applications of the swift, certain and fair principles of intervention to reduce recidivism and improve outcomes for people under community supervision.
• BJA is awarding $6.4 million under the Smart Reentry and Supervision: Grants, Tools, and Technical Assistance to Facilitate Change initiative, which supports states and units of local government in planning, implementing or expanding effective reentry and supervision practices and service delivery systems that address individuals’ needs and reduce recidivism. The initiative provides technical assistance in addition to site-based funding.
• BJA is awarding $8.5 million under its Improving Adult and Juvenile Crisis Stabilization and Community Reentry Program, which provides funding to state, local and Tribal governments, as well as community-based nonprofit organizations, to enhance or implement clinical services and other evidence-based responses to improve reentry, reduce recidivism and address the treatment and recovery needs of people with mental health, substance use or co-occurring disorders who are currently or were formerly involved in the criminal justice system.
• BJA is awarding $2 million to establish a Community Supervision Resource Center to support the translation of best practices and innovations in community supervision among state, local and Tribal entities responsible for adult probation, parole and pretrial supervision. This new center will complement the work of the BJA-supported National Reentry Resource Center.
• BJA is awarding $1 million under the Tribal Corrections Capacity Building Training and Technical Assistance Program, which will support Tribal communities in implementing and/or enhancing alternatives to incarceration; enhancing tribal justice system capacity to identify and meet the rehabilitation needs of probationers and those incarcerated; and embracing victim-centered community supervision and reentry approaches to better serve victims of crime.
• BJA is awarding $2.1 million under the Implementing the PREA Standards, Protecting People Who Are Incarcerated, and Safeguarding Communities, which will support projects designed to prevent, detect and respond to sexual abuse and sexual harassment in confinement facilities, and to achieve and maintain compliance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act standards.
• OJJDP is awarding $12.2 million under the Second Chance Act Youth Reentry Program, which is designed to reduce recidivism among youth returning to their communities following confinement and under community supervision, while promoting the fair administration of justice and advancing public safety.
• OJJDP is awarding $5.9 million under its Second Chance Act Addressing the Needs of Incarcerated Parents and Their Minor Children program, which enables states and units of local government to develop programs within detention or correctional facilities to respond to the needs of incarcerated parents who have children younger than the age of 18.
The awards announced above are being made as part of the regular end-of-fiscal year cycle. More information about these and other OJP awards can be found on the OJP Grant Awards page at www.ojp.gov/funding/fy22-ojp-grant-awards.
The Office of Justice Programs provides federal leadership, grants, training, technical assistance and other resources to improve the nation’s capacity to prevent and reduce crime, advance racial equity in the administration of justice, assist victims and enhance the rule of law. More information about OJP and its components can be found at www.ojp.gov.
