Offender Employment : press release

DOWD Conference Now Accepting Presentation Proposals

Scott — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:38:00 GMT

The National Planning Committee for the 2009 Defendant / Offender Workforce Development (DOWD) Conference is seeking proposals for the various presentations. The conference is scheduled April 5-8, 2009 in Pittsburgh, PA. All are welcome to apply. The deadline is Monday, September 15^th. Details about the conference and submitting a proposal can be found here.

FBI: Violent crime decreases

Scott — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:02:00 GMT

According to the FBI:

Violent crime dropped 1.4 percent overall compared to 2006, reversing a two-year up tick. That includes decreases in all four offense categories-forcible rape (down 4.3 percent), murder/non-negligent manslaughter (down 2.7 percent), and robbery and aggravated assault (each down 1.2 percent).

Property crime declined 2.1 percent from 2006, with decreases in each city grouping. Arson-tracked separately from other property crimes-also fell 7.0 percent from 2006.

Read the full article here.

You can download excel data sets and view how your region/state/city did on this page.

Offender Workforce Development Announcements: Conferences, Grants

Scott — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:43:00 GMT

NCDA Global Conference: July 9-11, 2008
The National Career Development Association is excited to announce the 2008 NCDA Global Conference. The conference will be held at the wonderful Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill, Washington D.C., July 9-11, 2008. You won't want to miss this great opportunity to attend this conference! NCDA is expecting 1,000+ attendees at the premiere conference for career development professionals across all areas of career development and in all settings. For more information, click here.

White House To Host Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Conferences

The White House is hosting a series of 2008 conferences designed to connect effective social service organizations with resources that can strengthen and expand the services they offer. The conferences will provide an understanding of the President's Faith-Based and Community Initiative and information about the Federal grants process, funding opportunities, and the responsibilities that come with Federal funding.

The conferences are scheduled as follows:

May 29-30, in New Orleans, LA
June 26-27, in Washington, DC
August 5, in Sacramento, CA
August 29, in Dallas, TX.

Go to http://www.dtiassociates.com/fbci/index.cfm for more informatino.

U.S. Department of Labor awards nearly $3 million to advance President's Prisoner Re-entry Initiative

The U.S. Department of Labor has announced grants totaling almost $3 million to advance the President's Prisoner Re-entry Initiative. Through a partnership operated with the U.S. Department of Justice, grants of $130,434 each will go to 23 criminal justice agencies across the country. They, in turn, will fund faith-based and community organizations to deliver employment services to prisoners returning to civilian life. For more information, click here.

The Performance Benchmarking Project

The Performance Benchmarking Project is seeking prisoner reentry/employment organizations to participate in the next round of data collection. P/PV is developing a tool that allows similar organizations to anonymously compare their job placement and retention outcomes. A long-term goal of the project is to identify meaningful outcome benchmarks for the workforce development field, so that practitioners, funders and policymakers can be better informed about what constitutes "good" performance when working with diverse populations and service delivery strategies.

To be eligible, organizations must directly provide workforce development services to individuals 18 or older and be able to submit aggregate data on job placement and retention results, services and participant characteristics for a recent one-year cohort of enrollees. For a summary of the requested data, please click here.

Presidents 2008 Community Based Job Training Grant Awardees

Click here for the list of awardees.

Maryland’s Correctional Education Transition Mobile Unit Featured at National Defender/Workforce Conference

Scott — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:57:00 GMT

Press Release from the Maryland State Department of Eductation

Maryland's Correctional Education Transition Mobile Unit

Featured at National Defender/Workforce Conference

WHO: Representatives, Maryland State Department of Education - Correctional Education Program

WHAT: The Correctional Education Transition Mobile Unit, the first of its kind that provides transitional information and library services for inmates in the pre-release system, will be onsite for tours during the National Defender/Workforce Development Conference in Cleveland, Ohio. The mobile unit, which was designed and is operated by the Maryland State Department of Education, travels across the Maryland to prepare men and women for release from incarceration into the community and employment.

Upon release from incarceration, inmates will have the skills to demonstrate the knowledge and job skills they have obtained through education, library services, and occupational training while incarcerated; use effective job search and retention strategies to successfully reintegrate into society; access available career planning, library and community resources to advance in their chosen professions and community transition; and develop and use effective decision-making techniques to achieve career goals.

The Mobile Units are co-sponsored by the Maryland State Department of Education - Correctional Education Program; Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services; and the Maryland Correctional Enterprises.

WHEN: Monday and Tuesday, April 14 and 15, 2008

8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (Tours of Mobile Unit)

WHERE: Renaissance Cleveland Hotel

24 Public Square

Cleveland, Ohio 44113

(216-696-5600)

President Signs Second Chance Act

Scott — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 12:11:00 GMT

The President signed H.R. 1593, the Second Chance Act, on April 9th at 10:30 a.m. Read the transcript of his comments here and the White House fact sheet here.

Click here to read the full text of the Second Chance Act.

Click here for an overview of the Second Chance Act.

Click here, here, and here to read NY Times articles about the Second Chance Act.

Read Chris Uggen's blog entry about the Second Chance Act here.

U.S. Senate Passes Second Chance Act

Scott — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:21:00 GMT

The Council of State Governments (CSG) reports that the U.S. Senate has passed the Second Chance Act. According to the CSG, "the legislation passed the Senate by unanimous consent and now proceeds to the President's desk for signature." Information on the Second Chance Act can be found here.

Additionally, the Consensus Project reports that the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Reauthorization of the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act. The bill would "help provide states and counties with the resources needed to design and implement collaborative efforts between the criminal justice and mental health systems."

3/17/08 Second Chance Act update: According to Yahoo News, "The President is expected to sign the bill soon."

Additional information about the Second Chance Act can be found in the articles below.

PR Newswire: Tubbs Jones Applauds Passage of Second Chance Act in Senate

Wall Street Journal: Senate Clears Prisoner Bill

Standard Newswire: Brownback Applauds Senate Passage of Second Chance Act

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Senate passes bill to help ex-prisoners

NYC Mayor Bloomberg on the Significance of Employment for Offenders

Scott — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 13:16:00 GMT

In his keynote address to the US Conference of Mayors, the majority of Mayor Bloomberg's speech focused on employment issues for offenders. Here are some highlights:

"...instead of simply opening the cell doors and letting people fend for themselves, we work with them beforehand to assess their needs and create a plan for where they will go and what they will do after they're discharged. If they don't have a plan, then they don't have a chance. And that's why, on the day of their release, we also provide them with transportation from Rikers Island directly to the housing or community-based provider that's detailed in their plan. The program's participants then continue to receive case management and support for up to 90 days after their release.

So far, the program has provided assistance to about 31,000 men and women, arming them with the tools and skills they need to begin leading honest, productive, and fulfilling lives. And our efforts are clearly paying off: A study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice discovered that the participants who completed the full program were 30 percent less likely than other participants to return to jail within the year after their release."

***

"But by far the most important thing we can to do to help people leaving our jails rebuilds their lives and become productive members of society is to help them find good jobs. A good job provides more than a paycheck; it affords a sense of pride and self-worth and that creates a domino effect, empowering people to take charge of all aspects of their lives. Of course, connecting the formerly incarcerated to jobs is a particularly daunting challenge, because people with criminal records are among the hardest-to-employ in the nation. So to really make a difference, we must make sure that these people have the skills that employers want."

***

"Over the past six years, our City's Department of Small Business Services, led by Rob Walsh, whom you'll hear from later today, has completely revamped the way we help businesses hire New Yorkers by customizing job-training programs specifically to employers' needs. We are now bringing those same elements to many of the re-entry programs we offer men and women leaving our jails.

But ensuring that they have the right skills will not, by itself, increase job opportunities. To do that, we must also come to the table with a business proposition that appeals directly to employers' interests. That means showing them that the city's workforce developers can deliver people who are prepared to be responsible, dependable, and trust-worthy. And in many cases, it also means offering support and hiring incentives."

***

"Our City's Commission on Human Rights will also continue to go after businesses that deny employment to individuals because of their criminal record, something that's illegal to do in our city."

***

"We can't guarantee that any of our initiatives will be a complete success but we also can't be afraid to try new ideas and test new solutions when it comes to our most intractable problems. As with everything we do, we will measure our programs' results and make adjustments depending on what works and what doesn't. And if our programs don't work at all, then we will try another approach. We won't give up. Our commitment to this issue and the ramifications of this problem, if we turn our backs to it, are simply too great."

Press Release: White House Faith-Based and Community Initiatives National Summit on Prisoner Re-Entry

Scott — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:35:00 GMT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:

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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