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December , 2007                                                                           

Local Leader Presents Workshop at White House Faith-Based

And Community Initiatives National Summit on Prisoner Re-Entry

LOS ANGELES - Patricia E. Taylor, Correctional Program Specialist with the Offender Workforce Division - National Institute of Corrections & Dennis Gilbertson, Program Manager - Hennepin County Adult Correctional Facility- Hennepin County Department of Corrections were co-presenters at the White House Faith-Based and Community Initiatives National Summit on Prisoner Re-Entry that was held on November 27 and 28 in Los Angeles.  Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and Jay Hein, Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives also presented at the Summit.

The Summit's audience included top Federal, state and local corrections officials, academics, media and nonprofit leaders.  The event highlighted some of the country's best models for government partnership with community- and faith-based organizations to reduce crime and break cycles of recidivism.  

"The challenges that face returning prisoners are so great that government can't solve this issue on its own," Director Hein said.  "Dedicated faith-based and community nonprofits provide what government cannot:  personal engagement, real hope and a fresh vision for life.  It's the caring touch of groups like these that often makes the critical difference between returning to crime and a new start."

Each year, more than 650,000 inmates are released from federal and state prisons and return to their communities and families.  According to the Department of Justice, more than two-thirds of returning inmates will be rearrested within three years of their release from prison.  This Summit addressed the tremendous human needs associated with recidivism by bringing together federal, state, and local decision-makers with non-governmental organizations to promote jobs, transitional housing, education, substance abuse treatment, positive mentoring relationships and other transitional services. 

President George W. Bush created the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives and Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in eleven federal agencies to lead a determined attack on need by strengthening and expanding the work of faith-based and community organizations in providing social services.  Efforts to enable returning prisoners to make a new start after prisoner have been an area of focus for the Initiative.  Innovative partnerships between government and community- and faith-based nonprofits, such as Ready4Work and the Prisoner Reentry Initiative, are showing strong results in cutting crime and reducing recidivism.

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