FY 2006 AWARD ABSTRACTS

This project proposes a partnership between the House of Correction, a local community college, and a one-stop career center to provide academic and employment training opportunities to minimum to medium security inmates in West Boylston, Massachusetts. The intent of the proposal is to develop a sustainable and cost effective program that will allow a minimum of 613 offenders to successfully complete two six-month program sessions geared towards academics and employment.

This project includes a collaboration between the Lackawanna County Prison and the non-profit organization, Employment Opportunity & Training Center (EOTC) to implement a Bridge to Success Life Skills program. The program design includes a variety of self-development and transitional skills courses. The proposal anticipates that 500 offenders will successfully complete the Bridge to Success program during the 18-month grant period.

This project has three main goals: improve reentry success for individuals through the acquisition and application of life skills; provide greater continuity of service for individuals through stronger relationships with external partners; and prepare incarcerated individuals to enter the transition periods with a sense of personal responsibility concerning needs and resources. The project plans to train 700 offenders in self-development and comprehensive life skills competencies at four medium facility institutions, including one for women.

The Genessee Community College proposes a project that will develop self-directed learning modules designed for use in institutional classrooms as well al by individual offenders. The modules will cover various areas, including remedial math; communications skills; career and educational options for ex-offenders; and up to fifteen credit hours of postsecondary college credit courses. The target population will be those offenders with a minimum of ninety days to serve.

This project proposes a comprehensive, cost-effective, and evidence-based life skills education and therapeutically structured reentry program for female prisoners. This project, titled “Change is Possible!,” focuses on higher risk prisoners; targets the specific criminogenic needs of each participant; includes behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, and social-learning based interventions; includes staff training, on-going evaluation, and support; and maintains program integrity through quality assurance mechanisms, comprehensive evaluation efforts and daily attention to program fidelity. Two county and two State correctional facilities are partnering to provide this program. A minimum of 450 female offenders will graduate from this program.

This project proposes a 60-day Life Skills program that targets condition violators with at least 60 days to serve on their sentence. Participants will complete approximately 120 hours of a the Life Skills curriculum including such topics as: obtaining identification; housing; employment; education; transportation; money management; health and life skills; family and friend relationships; victims’ awareness; and living under suspension. The project expects to engage 300 offenders over the project period.

This project proposes a collaboration with community partners to design a program that utilizes proven strategies to address risk factors associated with offender reentry. The objectives include: designing and implementing a comprehensive skill-based program that addresses and reduces offender risk; better understanding the linkages between offender skill deficits and criminal behavior; reducing recidivism for medium and high risk offenders; creating a seamless continuum of service delivery that starts in the jail and carries into transition work in the community; and increasing community based and Sheriff Department program’s capacity to deliver evidence based practices.

This project involves a partnership between the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office and the Cobb County Community Board. The plan is to design and deliver the Learn to Earn Project that will target offenders with histories of mental health, substance abuse, and/or learning disabilities and provided the education and support necessary to develop successful business plans and resources for self-employment tailored to fit their individual interests and strengths. Specific target populations for the project includes offenders who: are 18 year and older; have no less than 120 days before scheduled release; have been charged with a misdemeanor or non-violent felony; are eligible for the Work Release Program and/ or detained in the Prison Unit; and have a mental health, substance abuse, and/or learning disability.

This project, Making Intelligent Decisions And Succeeding (MIDAS), will serve approximately 300 male and female offenders who are medium to high risk parole violators with less than a 12th grade education, who are housed in three different state correctional institution and who are within 6-12 of release. The MIDAS program will include basic education, functional life skills, employability, cognitive behavioral treatment, and community reintegration programming. The programming will be intensive, curriculum-based and highly individualized according to a needs assessment.

This project aims to reduce recidivism by targeting 500 adult offenders form an urban core neighborhood that has the region’s highest crime and recidivism patterns. The proposal seeks to create the first major in-facility project for adults that will connect with an existing network of community providers to reduce recidivism and serve as a template for communities that need to improve re-entry outcomes. Programs will address such needs as housing, education, health, family, community/faith based resources, and individual motivation.

This proposal seeks funding to implement a life skills program for female offenders from the Suffolk County House of Correction who will be released into the community. The Enhanced Life Skills for Women (ELSW) program will offer comprehensive life skills programming as well as intensive mental health and recovery services. Project services will be provided by Project Place, a multi service center that provides reentry and job readiness skills; the South End Community Health Center, a comprehensive care service center: and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, a provider of life skills.