Creating a Workforce Development Culture To Reduce Reincarceration

Scott — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:24:00 GMT

In the mid-1990s, offender reentry gained visibility as an important public policy issue. At that time, organizations such as the U.S. Department of Education (ED), the National Institute of Corrections (NIC), and the National Institute of Justice began exploring offender workforce development strategies as an avenue for promoting the successful reintegration of offenders into communities. These strategies stem from the idea that offender employment builds communities, increases the economic self-sufficiency of families, strengthens fragile families, and provides structure and support for those seeking to remain crime free.

In 2003, ED's Life Skills for State and Local Prisoners Program awarded a 3-year, $1 million research/ demonstration grant to support Vermont's Workforce Development Program. Correctional administrators in Vermont aimed to reduce recidivism by 25 percent for offenders with poor work histories and moderate to high risk of reoffending by using a strengths-based approach to teach fundamental life skills throughout education, work, and living units.

This strengths-based program approach is built on participants' understanding and use of the "Habits of Mind," which are 16 aspects of behavioral intelligence, or life skills, that foster effective problem solving. In addition to reducing recidivism by 25 percent and reinforcing participants' acquisition of the Habits of Mind, the Workforce Development Program targeted a 90percent employment rate within 1 month of release and sought to make changes in the organizational culture at each of three program sites.

Read the rest of NIC's Transition and Offender Workforce Development Bulletin on NIC's website.

Gorczyk, Lucenti developed programs to help prisoners integrate into society

Scott — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:10:00 GMT

From the Rutland Herald:

"Nearly a year ago, on Leap Day, Feb. 29, two men whose innovations in the field of corrections turned Vermont into a national model quietly retired.

John Gorczyk, the state's longest-serving commissioner of corrections, and Bob Lucenti, the founder and superintendent of the Community High School of Vermont, brought Vermont national recognition with programs that translated the department's mission statement into reality.

As chief of the state's prisons, Gorczyk's No. 1 objective was to prepare offenders to play positive roles when they returned to the community.

"I wanted to have the best treatment programs in the country," he said, "and I wanted to ... (link) corrections more closely to the community."

He also improved health care and mental health services for offenders and oversaw the founding of the nation's first statewide high school system within a correctional system. Gorczyk also pioneered treatment programs that became national models and he created restorative justice programs.

The National Institute of Corrections is promoting his most recent innovation - a workforce development program that improved prisoners' employability and significantly reduced rates of recidivism, or reoffending - for replication on a national scale.

"John is considered a real innovator in the field of corrections," said John Moore, a division chief at the National Institute of Corrections who worked with Gorczyk for 25 years. "Because the Vermont correctional system is small," he added, "we've actually used it as a laboratory state."

Read the full article here.

Offender Employment : Vermont

Creating a Workforce Development Culture To Reduce Reincarceration

Gorczyk, Lucenti developed programs to help prisoners integrate into society