Kathy Lambert learned a lesson about prisoner reentry the day she visited a Missouri halfway house.  The facility's director looked her straight in the eye and delivered the depressing news: most of the women there ask to go back to prison.  For them, the challenge of reintegrating into society seems too great.  Hearing this, Lambert was called to action.

As Co-Director and Co-Founder of Connections to Success (CtS), a Kansas City-based non-profit, Lambert had been asked by the Missouri Department of Corrections to work with them to find an innovative approach to female offender reentry.  Her experience at the halfway house showed her just how desperately an effort like this was needed.

"We have to do something," Lambert thought.  "We have to get the communities involved, especially the faith communities." 

In 2003, when the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), run by the U.S. Department of Justice, and the federal Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (FBCI) began their Value-Based Reentry Initiative program, Lambert capitalized on an opportunity for CtS to become more deeply involved with prisoner reentry. 

Along with four other organizations, CtS received a grant from COPS and FBCI to begin a VBRI program in Kansas City.  VBRI pilot programs were also started in Detroit, Mich., Oakland, Calif., Washington, D.C. and Boston, Mass.  Their collective goal was to match members of faith-based communities with ex-offenders to help them transition back into the community. 

Aiding Ex-Offenders

COPS had already been funding Value-Based Initiative (VBI) programs around the country geared towards other populations, like children, when the organization expanded VBI to include programs focused specifically on offenders who are re-entering the community.

"It was kind of a natural shift," said Katherine McQuay, a senior project manager with COPS.  "[Reentry] is just a huge issue both in terms of numbers and potential costs."

VBRI programs confront this issue by garnering support from faith-based organizations, which, according to McQuay, willingly provide it because helping people is part of what they do.

"These folks have [already] done a lot to keep their communities safe," she said.  "[Their participation in VBRI] is a natural extension of that."

In VBRI programs, members of faith-based communities typically serve as mentors to offenders who need guidance, support and resources when they are released from incarceration.

"We want the mentors to serve as a liaison for the many services offenders will need [when they transition back into the community]," McQuay said.  Healthcare, housing, substance abuse treatment, clothing and education can be difficult for individuals to obtain when they are released from incarceration, she added.

Building Bridges in Boston

Helping ex-offenders to obtain these services by partnering with religious organizations is something that was happening in Boston, even before the Boston Police Department received a VBRI grant last year.  Since 2000, the department has been matching mentors from the faith-based community with inmates who are about to be released from jail.

"We have been working with the clergy for the past 12 years [on other projects]," said Blake Norton, Operations Director for Public Affairs and Community Programs at the Boston Police Department.  "[The Boston Reentry Initiative] is just an extension of existing successful programs," she added.  "We're applying them to a different population and reworking them to accommodate their needs."

In Boston, the Reentry Initiative has a seven-member staff, which includes paid mentors and caseworkers.

"Each faith-based organization identifies people that they would like to be working with [offenders] based on their experience," said Norton.  "A lot of the mentors are ex-offenders who have changed their lives," she added.  "They're role models."

Each month, the mentors work with between 10 and 20 offenders, who are chosen for the program based on their criminal histories.

"[We select] people that we believe are most likely to reoffend once they are released," said Norton.  "Our goal is to provide them with services to see if we can slow down their criminal activity, reduce it, so they don't return to the behavior that got them incarcerated [in the first place]."

Between 30 and 90 days prior to an inmate's release, he or she meets with a mentor to build the foundation for their relationship, which lasts for a year after the offender is released into the community.  Together, the inmate and the mentor identify any issues that exist for the offender, like a lack of housing or employment or problems with anger management, and they develop plans to resolve those issues.

"When they're released, [their mentor] will meet them at the door and continue to work with them [on the outside]," said Norton.  "Our reentry people will [then] see them between one and two times a month."

The secret to the success of the program, and others like it, according to Norton is the involvement of the faith-based community.

"The faith community has a lot of credibility with this population," said Norton.  "[They have] the ability to work in a direct social service capacity and people aren't intimidated, afraid or feel like the faith community has an agenda," she added.  "They send a message that law enforcement can't send."

Together, faith-based organizations, like the Boston TenPoint Coalition and the Nation of Islam, and the Boston Police Department have created a program that both reaches out to offenders and helps keep communities safe.

"I think that for those people who want to change their lives who are interested in making amends with their families or moving forward, we have provided through the Reentry Initiative an opportunity for people to do that," said Norton.  "[The program] is a top priority for the Police Department.  It's one of our four key components in our crime reduction strategy."

For COPS, Boston's program, which has been successful in helping offenders to change their lives, stands as a shining example of the capabilities of the VBRI Initiative, according to McQuay.

"They're kind of held up as a national example of a terrific [reentry program]," said McQuay.  Even though the other pilot sites are just beginning to strengthen their focuses on reentry under the VBRI Initiative, which got underway in late 2003, McQuay hopes that they, too, will build model reentry programs.

"Any kind of program like this, that can put some type of structure in place and show other folks that it can be done, are extremely important," McQuay said.  "It's programs like these that will ultimately make a difference."

Resources:

To learn more about VBRI, go to http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/default.asp?Item=188

To learn more about Connections to Success, call (636) 940-8027

To learn more about the Boston Police Department's Reentry Initiative, call (617) 343-4520