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Last Updated: May 30th, 2008 - 11:49:13 |
A federal agency recently teamed up with Washington, D.C.'s faith community to help 2,000 inmates prepare for re-entry into society and to reduce recidivism.
This was the sixth year that the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency worked with churches in the program called “40 Days of Re-entry.” This year’s five-week long program included ten faith-based events that sought to raise awareness about the struggles affecting offenders re-entering the community, in addition to educating, mentoring and training the released inmates. Issues addressed included breaking the cycle of incarceration, children of incarcerated parents and a forum on female inmates re-entering society.
“We believe that a faith-based approach and preparation for re-entry, and assistance during the return to the community, will make the city and metro area safer,” said Leonard Sipes, a spokesman for the agency.
The agency provides newly released inmates with a system of encouragement and support through events, workshops, seminars, and mentors in order to help prevent them from regressing back into a life of drugs, crime and violence.
The six partnering churches were Peace Baptist Church, Campbell A.M.E Church, Upper Room Baptist Church, Mount Pleasant Baptist Church and Metropolitan A.M.E Church in Northwest.
The agency was created by the National Capital Revitalization and Self-Government Improvement Act of 1997 and provides probation and post-incarceration supervision to 15,000 offenders in DC. The agency has established a critical initiative, in order to preserve and carry out the mission of the bureau—a community supervision program, through oversight and enforcement activities.
States have long neglected newly released inmates and made no effort to help rehabilitate them, or facilitate their re-entry into society. As a result, many prisoners return back to overcrowded prisons months later. Being released back into society has become “a doorstep right back into the corrections facility,” Gov. John Corzine of New Jersey said recently to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Now that the long-term costs of building and operating correctional facilities have become more and more expensive, governments are realizing it is far cheaper to provide ex-offenders with training, jobs, and housing than to continue to shelter, feed, and clothe them in jail.
Glenn Martin is the co-director of a national network called Helping Individuals With Criminal Records Re-enter through Employment (HIRE). Martin argues that most re-entry programs ignore prisoners while they are incarcerated. “Saying we don't have to address these issues on the inside but [can] address them when they come out is ridiculous,” Martin told The Washington Post.
Additionally, Martin argued legislation that sends so many young people to prison needs to be reversed because it is more expensive to lock people up than it is to help them stay crime-free.
“Productive, employed, drug-free citizens who take care of their children are in society’s best interest,” said Sipes. His agency provides probation and post-incarceration supervision to 15,000 offenders in D.C.
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