Each month an average of 490 adult offenders are released from Kansas prisons and, like in many other states, they typically return to the communities where their crimes occurred. They come back with no money, few prospects and little support - until now.

In Shawnee County, Kansas, state and local officials are working together to help ex-offenders gain new skills and access community resources as they plan to re-enter society. The program they have created - the Shawnee County Reentry Program (SCRP) was designed as the model program for the state to help reduce recidivism and give ex-offenders a fighting chance at a life without crime.

"It was created be cause the thought is we could do better. We could reduce recidivism and one of the efforts was to build this program and reduce the issues [that offenders have]," said Jonathan Ogletree, Program Director for the SCRP.

Ogletree recently spoke with The Corrections Connection about the program and what the plans are for its future.

Q: How did this re-entry program come together? Was the DOC in charge or someone from Shawnee County? How did it start?

Ogletree: Initially Margie Phelps, the Director of Release Planning for the State of Kansas began looking at some of issues. Shawnee County was chosen [to pilot a program]. There are an excellent number of resources mental health-wise and substance abuse-wise. It has at least 50 partners that work together. [And] if anybody did a mapping survey of any area, you would see that certain organizations are providing services for a similar population. By building these partnerships we are streamlining the process.

Q: Can you talk about he offenders who participate? Are they only state offenders or county offenders as well?

Ogletree: Primarily we are working with state offenders with plans for returning to Shawnee County. What we try to do is identify those who will return to Shawnee County, those who would be considered high risk to recidivate. Currently have 81 offenders and the program received a federal grant in 2002. The first participants were in March 2003.

Q: What does the program look like for offenders?

Ogletree: There are some common elements regardless of who is involved but it is also tailored to each individual, depending on the area of need they have.

This program is unique because we go inside the facility. The case managers go inside and work with the offenders 14 months prior to release. They are getting the bulk of this information [about services] prior to release. They have to participate in classes on life skills, resume writing, how to do job searches, and in re-entry planning we try to identify health issues for men and women, provide cognitive programming and we are building family workshops. In the community we are doing family orientation and are bringing the family into the community programming. They know about it from the start.

Q: What kind of support is provided by community organizations, stakeholders etc.?

Ogletree: We have a memorandum of agreement with an organization that does drug and alcohol assessments for us. They do the assessments prior to offenders release and a housing specialist gives information about how to establish an offender tenant relationship and [they] work on a credit report.

Q: How valuable is re-entry programming?

Ogletree: It is very valuable. Based on the concept that we know we have offenders returning to communities across the country, programs like this give you additional support and monitoring of the offender in the community. With programs like this we are helping prepare the offender to come back into the community. [Here] there is a re-entry team that is with them a year or so prior to release to the community. You build that rapport and we identify the things they need to work on so they are better prepared.

Q: What is the future for the program?

Ogletree: Shawnee County re-entry is the model program for the state. They are currently in process of building programs in two other counties targeting the three largest counties that offenders come from. [Additionally] the University of Kansas is collecting data and provides an evaluation report each year - this is the first year of people coming out.