An article in the Herald - Tribune written by Barbara Richards, Director of Project 180, describes an exciting proposal for a new reentry program that would serve residents of Florida’s Manatee, Sarasota and DeSoto Counties. Richards offers grim statistics on why programs such as Project 180 are needed. Although funding for the program has not yet been obtained, Richards is optimistic that Project 180 will come to fruition. Reentry Central, with permission from Richards, is re-printing the full article below.
At a time when state officials are focused upon reducing the criminal justice budget, perhaps we should turn our attention to reducing the number of repeat offenders in the system. Although the formula for successful prisoner re-entry has been known for years — steady employment, a nondeviant social network and long-term, clean and sober housing — prisoners continue to recidivate or violate probation and end up back in the system at taxpayers' expense.
Since repeat offenders and probation violators represent a large percentage of the total prison population, it seems particularly prudent at this time to identify and support programs that offer re-entering prisoners access to employment, housing and substance-abuse treatment.
Florida currently incarcerates more than 100,000 individuals, 45,000 of whom have been in the state prison system before. About 14,000 have been in prison three times or more.
These numbers reflect the uphill battle that former prisoners face when attempting to re-establish themselves in the community. If they fail in their attempt and return to criminal behavior, individuals, families and the community pay the cost.
Returning prisoners are expensive. The average cost of incarceration per prisoner is $19,000 per year. With an average sentence length of five years, returning prisoners represent a staggering percentage of the Department of Corrections budget, which was $2.3 billion in fiscal year 2009-2010.
Some might believe that individuals who return to prison multiple times are hopeless cases; however, when considering the uphill battles they face when re-entering the community after incarceration, it's surprising that more don't return to prison.
About 40,000 of our 100,000 prisoners test at or below the fifth-grade level; 65,000 are deemed in need of substance-abuse treatment. Thousands more suffer from mental illness.
When inmates return to our communities, they experience higher rates of unemployment and homelessness than the general population. In spite of Work Opportunity Tax Credits to encourage businesses to hire felons and a federal bonding program which protects against employee dishonesty, employers are reluctant to employ former offenders. A lack of recent work history, limited job skills and liability concerns remain major deterrents to hiring. Unemployment may then lead to homelessness, especially for a felon who has greater difficulty than the average citizen in finding housing.
And so a cycle begins. An individual who is homeless is more likely to be incarcerated; a person who is incarcerated is more likely to become homeless.
A local response to the social problems generated by re-entry is a small start-up 501(c)(3)nonprofit called Project 180. Designed to meet the needs of repeat offenders returning to the 12th Judicial Circuit, which includes Manatee, Sarasota and DeSoto counties, Project 180 will open in 2012 — if we can obtain private-sector funding of $400,000 for start-up costs and its first year of operations.
Upon opening, Project 180 would provide a highly structured, self-help program which offers two years of clean and sober residency, academic education and marketable job-skill training.
Modeled after a highly successful program in San Francisco, Project 180 plans to open business training schools where residents can learn job skills and small business management. The schools would operate as business enterprises to help fund the entire program.
Project 180's first business-training school would be a small farm where residents can learn organic farming and management, construction, well maintenance and repair, irrigation and drainage. A presence at local farmers markets and a community-supported agriculture program would offer residents the opportunity to plan, budget and gain skills in sales, marketing, inventory control and other aspects of small business management.
The program would be offered at no cost to residents and is currently seeking a donation of land in Sarasota or Manatee counties to fulfill its mission: Project 180 seeks to reintegrate former offenders into community life.
When one of every 32 U.S. adult residents is under some form of correctional control and the state criminal justice budget is unsustainable, we must explore options for reducing crime and its ever-attendant partner, state spending.
Innovative programming is effective in reducing recidivism, victimization, detention populations and the budget while restoring former prisoners' dignity and their relationship to society.
Posted with the author’s permission.
Barbara Richards, a Manatee County resident, is director of Project 180.
Email: Barbara@project180reentry.org
Source: Herald Tribune May 19, 2011
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