10-8-2009 Canada:
Minister’s office denies decision on funding made
OTTAWA-A national program that supports sex offenders after their release from prison is “in limbo” following conflicting reports about the status of a funding request made to the federal government, a co-ordinator says.
Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA) is set up in 16 sites across the country and currently works with nine sex offenders in Ottawa.
Its co-ordinators had hoped federal funding of $7.5 million over five years would allow them to increase the number of offenders they work with and to conduct an evaluation of the program’s effectiveness.
On Sept. 22, co-ordinators and volunteers were stunned when an official with Public Safety Canada’s National Crime Prevention Centre told them the funding application was “dead,” said Andrew McWhinnie, CoSA’s national co-ordinator.
McWhinnie said National Crime Prevention Centre staff told them three times that the project “was done,” and a staff member also asked for the facility’s postal code in order to send a rejection letter.
McWhinnie believes the decision to deny funding came from Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan’s office, but suggested that media coverage may have caused a review of the decision.
A spokesman for Van Loan said Wednesday that no decision was ever made and that the application remained under review.
“The minister finds it odd and was surprised to hear that the organization has been contacted,” Chris McCluskey said. “The minister hasn’t made any decisions regarding the organization’s request for funding.”
McCluskey could not say when the result would be issued. McWhinnie said he hoped to have a definitive answer by the end of the week.
“Right now, we’re in limbo. We’ve got thousands of hours into this proposal, encouraged at every step of the way to continue, and we’re all sort of sucker punched at this point,” he said.
McWhinnie said CoSA programs worked with about 150 offenders across the country each year and had hoped to increase that to as many as 300.
Each offender, called a “core member,” is paired with four or five volunteers who help with emotional support and day-to-day necessities such as housing and employment.
CoSA co-ordinators speculate that the request may have been initially denied for political reasons.
“We work with high-risk sex offenders,” McWhinnie said. “The government is engaged in a process now of toughening their legislation around sex offenders and around offenders generally. I don’t know whether it’s because this is a program that is on the one hand seen to support offenders … whether that worries them.
“On the other hand, we’re a program that holds offenders accountable and responsible for their actions, which is, we thought, exactly what the government wants to do,” he said, adding that the program starts after the criminal justice system was “essentially finished with these guys.”
McWhinnie said the program drastically reduced recidivism and had been replicated in Britain and the United States.
Susan Love, who co-ordinates the Ottawa CoSA, said about 30 offenders had participated in the program during the past eight years and none had committed further sexual offences.
“When you consider the reduction of victims and the community’s feeling of safety because they know that this safety measure, this program, is in place, you can’t really measure that,” she said.
Love said the Ottawa program operated on a shoestring budget, like others across the country, and received about $15,000 each year from Correctional Service of Canada to cover the co-ordinator’s salary, expenses and travel.
Should the program receive the requested funding, Love hopes to double the number of core members in five years and to hire a research assistant and bookkeeper.
“We’re just hoping that the minister will reconsider and see that this is not only cost-effective, but (also) an effective program that reduces victimization and also engages the community,” she said. ..Source.. by Neco Cockburn, The Ottawa citizen
October 8, 2009
Sex-offender program in limbo
July 31, 2009
MI picks up bill to house sex offenders
7-31-2009 Michigan:
Mich. Prisoner ReEntry Initiative behind issue
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - If it weren't for the Michigan Prisoner ReEntry Initiative, one sex offender said he would be living in one of the state prisons. Instead, he lives at a Grand Rapids motel.
James, who did not want to provide his last name, stays at the Grand Inn, 3221 Plainfield Ave., NE.
He was convicted of indecent exposure, but after spending 9 1/2 years in prison, was released in October. James attends college, and told 24 Hour News 8 about his attempt to make something of his life.
"Well, I'm going to school, so I can have a business of my own," he said. "Now, I'm trying to move on and put my best foot forward."
Without the help of the state, he wouldn't be able to try, James said.
"What they do, they give us housing, like motels (and) we go out, try to find jobs or try to go to school," he said. "Try to better ourselves.
"I didn't have no place to go to. No family or nothing."
Michigan receives a discounted rate to house multiple sex offenders in hotels. It costs about $18 per night per person.
But the other guests of the hotels are notified of the arrangement. The offenders aren't allowed in the lobby, or anywhere else the guests go, including the pool area or online.
The sex offenders stay in a separate wing, monitored by a video surveillance system.
"This is a blind spot, and this is a blind spot," said Jamie Wilder, the hotel manager at the Grand Inn as she pointed to different spots in the hallway. "So, therefore, rooms like this, being that (they're) not on camera, (we) won't rent to any (criminal sexual conduct) case."
James understands the restrictions he faces.
In addition, he wears a tether when venturing outside motel grounds. He views it as a tool to help, and for society to regain its trust in him.
"I have to rebuild that by staying positive, looking for a job," he said. ..Source.. by WOOD TV
March 27, 2009
MI- Rehabilitating sex offenders
3-27-2009 Michigan:
MICHIGAN (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - To get Michigan back on track, the governor is being forced to make some tough decisions.
Governor Granholm plans to cut $100 million from the prison system. That's enough to close two state prisons and force parole boards to think about letting some 4,000 prisoners free. That number would include sex offenders.
The state will have to re-evaluate everyone who is eligible for parole. If a prisoner has been sentenced to a two to ten year sentence, the state would like to parole them around the two-year mark. The hope is that they would get more help by re-joining society, resulting in less repeat offenders.
Chuck Wilson works for a privately funded group that helps ex-cons get used to life outside of prison, a transition that can be extremely difficult for sex offenders.
"When people say sex offenders, they get the idea this person did something really bad and that's not all true," said Wilson.
Wilson says that on sex offender registry websites, chronic child molesters are listed right next to people arrested for urinating in public.
"Our laws are written as such that, that minor offense is the same category as an extreme pedophile," said Wilson.
Wilson has been working with Tim Mullikin since he was released from prison in October.
"I was arrested for molesting a nine-year-old boy," said Mullikin.
After 23 years, Mullikin maxed out, meaning he was never given parole. Newschannel 3 asked Mullikin how many times he was up for parole, and he told us 16 or 17 times.
Mullikin is listed on the sex offender registry, since he's not on parole he receives no help from the state. Stories like Mullikin's will soon be ancient history since cons will now be paroled sooner.
Milton Wells is part of the Michigan Prisoner Re-entry Initiative, he works with 480 parolees in Kalamazoo County, but with cons being paroled sooner, that number will jump by close to a hundred in 2009, about 20 percent of which are sex offenders.
"The question becomes would you rather an individual just be let out on the street or would you rather them come out under supervision," said Wells.
Wells says sex offenders can be among the hardest prisoners to reintegrate into society since they can't live within 1,000 feet of a school.
"It's a challenge for housing," said Wells, "and certainly in a down market for jobs it's going to be a challenge because the employer is going to say why hire an individual with baggage."
Mullikin can testify to the difficulties facing sex offenders who've been released from prison, he was rejected from several jobs and even shelters won't take him, or didn't have room. Like many other ex-cons he has few options.
"The next night I ended up in the park because I had no place to go," said Mullikin.
Mullikin's been luckier than some, he now has an apartment, some income and a decent chance at starting a new life, although he knows he may never be able to shake his past.
"To me, on my own, I'm already past that," said Mullikin, "but to society, maybe not."
Between 40 and 50 percent of people released from prison wind up back behind bars. For sex offenders, that number is actually a little lower.
Milton Wells and the Michigan Prisoner Re-entry Initiative have had success in reducing that figure by five to ten percent. Starting in 2010, all parolees will have to go through the program. ..News Source.. by WWMT.com
September 5, 2008
NY- Society should invest in ‘re-entry’ of parolees
9-5-2008 New York:
A little over a year ago, I walked out of Fishkill Correctional Facility, one of the 17 state prisons where I had been confined for 37z years for my involvement in a robbery in which three people were killed on the East Side of Buffalo.
That crime, in 1973, culminated a criminal career that began when I was 8 years old and ran away from a foster home — one of a series of foster homes, orphanages, detention centers, reform schools and, ultimately, jails and prisons where I spent the prime of my life.
Although I never thought I would see the outside of a prison wall, I took advantage of every educational opportunity afforded — many of which, unfortunately, are no longer available to inmates — to me in prison.
I earned five college degrees, including two master’s degrees, completed several apprenticeship programs and took virtually every counseling and self-help program available.
I came out of prison an entirely different person, with the goal of repaying society for the trust and confidence placed in me by the New York State Board of Parole.
With all the buzz about “re-entry,” or steps taken to transition ex-offenders back into society, I thought this would be an appropriate time to discuss my first year of freedom.
I was initially released to a halfway house operated by Cephas Buffalo, and spent my first 100 days living with other ex-offenders in South Buffalo. That was a godsend because it provided me with a gateway into a culture that, as you might imagine, bore little resemblance to the one I was removed from in 1973.
Unfortunately, my education and training have not yielded the employment prospects I had anticipated.
I recognize the reluctance of some employers to take on someone with my prior — and I stress prior — record, but I hope that in the next year I am able to better utilize the education that the taxpayers so generously provided me with, and the experiences gleaned from my decades behind bars, to help people through motivational speaking and other means.
Meanwhile, I am paying the bills through day-work labor — painting houses, cleaning garages and attics, etc. — and continuing to work on my reentry into civilized society.
Re-entry is, at its most basic level, a public safety measure. I understand the political reality of appearing “soft on crime,” but I would urge our elected representatives to view re-entry as an investment in their community.
Nearly everyone who is now in prison will someday be released. It benefits everyone, not just the “criminal,” if people returning to our communities have the skills, post-release support and employment assistance to become law-abiding, tax-paying members of the public. ..Source.. Opinion by Gerald T. Balone lives in Buffalo.
April 28, 2007
One Year Out: Experiences of Prisoners Returning to Cleveland
Abstract:
This research brief presents findings from the Returning Home study in Cleveland, Ohio. Returning Home is a longitudinal study of prisoner reentry in Maryland, Illinois, Ohio, and Texas based on personal interviews with prisoners before and after their release from prison. Previous reports from the Ohio project examined prisoners’ expectations for life after prison and their experiences in the first few months after release. This final report”One Year Out: Experiences of Prisoners Returning to Cleveland”describes the lives of nearly 300 former prisoners at least 12 months after release, including their ability to find stable housing and reunite with family, and identifies factors associated with getting a job, and avoiding substance use and return to prison (recidivism).
Introduction:With more than 650,000 prisoners released nationwide each year, the reintegration of men and women leaving prison is challenging policymakers and practitioners at the federal, state, and local levels. Often cited as being of greatest concern is the high rate of recidivism among former prisoners—half of whom return to prison within three years—yet, recidivism is only one outcome in the process of leaving prison and returning home. To examine this entire process, in 2001, the Urban Institute launched a four-state, longitudinal study entitled Returning Home: Understanding the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry. The study explores the experiences of released men and women returning to communities in Maryland, Illinois, Ohio, and Texas, and the factors influencing their success and failure.
This research brief presents the final results from the Returning Home study in Ohio, based on the third and final follow-up interviews conducted with nearly 300 former prisoners at least 12 months after release who were living in Cleveland and the surrounding area. We describe the lives of the men during their first year out, including their ability to find stable housing and reunite with family after release, and identify factors associated with getting a job, and avoiding substance use and recidivism. We also discuss the policy implications of our findings and offer specific recommendations for helping released prisoners become healthy and productive members of the communities to which they return.
This research brief is intended to serve as a foundation for policy discussions about how released prisoners can successfully reintegrate into their communities, whether in Cleveland or in similar cities around the country. ..more.. by Christy Visher, Shannon M. E. Courtney
