What happens when offenders are released from prison back into the community without an effective transition plan?  Statistics predict that many of them will reoffend.  In Michigan, where correctional facilities are dangerously close to running out of beds, prisoner reentry has become an important issue for the Department of Corrections (DOC), which has teamed up with other state agencies to try and find a way to help ex-inmates succeed on the outside.

The Michigan Prisoner Re-entry Initiative was launched during the fall of 2003 with the goal of reducing the state's recidivism rates.  In Michigan, it is estimated that almost 4,000 of the nearly 10,000 inmates who are released from the state's correctional facilities each year will return to prison within four years.  The reentry project is an attempt to break this cycle.

"[Focusing on reentry] is a trend nationally," said Russ Marlan, Spokesman for the Michigan DOC.  "I think that while better preparing inmates can help save money and lower recidivism rates, it can also help protect the public."

Michigan's mission to improve its prisoner reentry process is fueled by two grants, one from the National Governors Association (NGA) and another from the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) under its "Transition from Prison to Community Initiative" (TPCI).  For the next three to four years, Michigan will work with the NIC, which provides on-site technical assistance, to revamp procedures based on the TPCI model.

"This whole issue of successful transition is so enormous that it literally affects every function in a corrections department," said Dennis Schrantz, the DOC's Policy Liaison to the Governor's Office and soon-to-be Deputy Director of the Policy and Strategic Planning Administration.  "[TPCI] has tremendous strength as a model," he added, because it helps agencies to implement changes in many different areas throughout the system. 

TPCI outlines seven "decision points," or stages during the incarceration process that are critical to effective prisoner reentry.  They include initial prisoner assessment, transition plans, parole release guidelines, community supervision, parolee violations, discharge from supervision and post-discharge aftercare.

"It's been proven successful in several other states so we thought this was a good model to [implement in Michigan]," said Marlan.

Getting TPCI Off the Ground

After Michigan received both grants, the state formed the Reentry State Policy Team with members from four agencies: the Department of Community Health, the Department of Consumer and Industry Services, the Family Independence Agency and the DOC.

"These departments have all come together and there is no doubt that it is critical for them to do so [to share ideas]," said Schrantz.  "This has never been attempted before."

In addition to the Reentry State Policy Team, Michigan formed the Reentry Advisory Council, which includes members from a vast number of state and local organizations that have an interest in prisoner reentry, like the Michigan Sheriff's Association and the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police.  Primarily, the Advisory Council makes recommendations to the State Policy Team on how to improve the prisoner reentry process.

"All of these people [from different agencies] can bring their expertise to the table and help us to develop plans," said Marlan.

Aside from the State Policy Team and the Advisory Council, which tackle broad issues associated with improving the reentry process, smaller work groups exist in Michigan to focus on individual issues.  More specifically, the work groups, which are made up of people from the four state departments, are charged with figuring out how to implement changes according to TPCI.

"Each work group is identifying three month deliverables, six month deliverables and then back burner issues," said Schrantz.  "The work groups define priorities and submit [them] to the Executive Management Team."

The Executive Management Team, which is also comprised of members of the four state departments, then reports to the State Policy Team on the progress the work groups have made in implementing changes to department processes.

"We designed an organizational structure [that] we hope will be strong enough to bear the weight of this huge project," said Schrantz.

Starting Off Small

In order to improve its reentry process and alleviate crowding in its correctional facilities, one of the first issues that Michigan has identified and begun to address concerns parole eligibility for inmates.

Back in August, as it was running out of space for female offenders, the DOC decided to start the first halfway house program in the state.

"The only women who were picked [to participate in the program] were those who were going to be denied parole," Schrantz said, alluding to a problem in Michigan.  According to Schrantz, the state now spends a lot of money on people who are eligible for parole but are denied it.

"They don't have strong enough parole plans to convince the parole board that public safety can be protected [when they are] released," said Schrantz.  "What we're doing here is we are taking the money we would've been spending on the inmates who would be [denied parole] and we're spending it on their successful transition."

In Michigan, it costs $28,000 per year to incarcerate each inmate, explained Schrantz.  Spending that same amount of money to help inmates succeed in the community rather than keep them behind bars is simply a "reinvestement," he added.

"If [ideas like the halfway house program] bear fruit, they'll make more than just fiscal sense," said Schrantz.

Along the same lines of thinking, another change the DOC plans to implement during the early stages of the Prisoner Reentry Initiative concerns the review process for parole-eligible inmates.

"We will accelerate the length of time that we review cases for inmates who have been denied parole," Scrantz said.  "By accelerating their reviews, we expect to see more non-violent offenders paroled and they'll be paroled sooner," he added. 

Another change on the horizon for the DOC involves improving offender transition plans at reception.  According to Schrantz, between February and April, the department will begin working with offenders to determine what they expect upon their release and to gather information about what connections they have already established in the community.

"We will begin documenting when the individual comes in the door what we'll need to know when the person leaves," Schrantz said.  "That is a huge change."

Altering the prisoner intake process is only one change among many that the DOC will make in the next few years as it strives to improve the prisoner reentry process through its Reentry Initiative.  The state has also has its sights set on strengthening parole guidelines, establishing better criteria to predict an offender's access to community resources and finding better ways to assess the risk an offender will pose to society when released.

By following the TPCI model, the Michigan DOC, with the help of other state agencies and organizations, will fully revamp its procedures to ensure that inmates have a successful transition back into the community when they are released.

"It will be an overhaul of the entire process," said Marlan.  "This is going to be really unheard of."

Resources:

To learn more about the Michigan Prisoner Reentry Initiative, contact the Michigan DOC (517) 373-6391