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- • Reentry Resource Directory: “Coming Home: A Resource Directory for Ex-Offenders Returning to Massachusetts Communities”
- The Crime and Justice Institute was recently awarded a grant from the Gardiner Howland Shaw Foundation to assume management, production and distribution responsibilities for the “Coming Home” Resource Directory. The initiative focuses on (a) producing and updating a thorough directory of agencies, services and programs in the greater Boston area that assist ex-offenders as they transition from incarceration to the community, (b) distributing the directory to various entities including ex-offenders, corrections facilities, community agencies and other interested parties, and (c) maintaining a website that provides the same information.
Through this initiative, CJI will:
- Update the directory annually through outreach to existing organizations and programs, and to services and programs not in the directory whose presence in the directory would be helpful to users.
- Conduct dissemination and outreach efforts to expand the users of the directory to include all organizations identified in the directory, state agencies that interact with ex-offenders, their families or other interested parties, community organizations, and institutions where public service information is generally available.
- Work with state agencies, through EOPSS and its departments and the appropriate sheriffs’ departments, to integrate the Directory into the reentry planning process.
The long-term plan for the Resource Directory is to expand it to include other urban centers with high offender populations, eventually making it statewide and/or creating a directory for each urban center with a need for connecting returning ex-offenders with the community. Funding for this expansion will be developed over time through sources other than the Gardiner Howland Shaw Foundation including community foundations in areas that will benefit from the directory.
- • Connecticut Contractor Data Collection System
- As part of a multi-year contract, CJI has recently begun working with the Court Support Services Division (CSSD) of the State of Connecticut's Judicial Branch to expand their Contractor Data Collection System (CDCS) and enhance their ability to use empirical evidence to support data-driven decision-making. Through the implementation of the CDCS, the Court Support Services Division has begun a collaborative initiative to collect treatment data on probation clients from their providers. CJI will assist CSSD in identifying, prioritizing, interpreting and reporting measures to monitor and document their progress. CJI's role in the expansion of this initiative will include facilitating the statewide roll-out of the database to all providers, as well as the provision of technical assistance on how to analyze, interpret and use the information collected on a regular basis.
- • Dwyer & Collora
- The Crime and Justice Institute and Community Resources for Justice are partnering with Dwyer & Collora to convene Massachusetts criminal justice stakeholders to collaboratively develop and implement a statewide reentry system reform plan. To begin this process, CJI and Dwyer & Collora are planning to convene a national criminal justice educational forum. This forum would include a group of diverse criminal justice stakeholders from across the country who are engaged in innovative, evidenced-based practices. The forum would provide an opportunity for Massachusetts professionals to enhance knowledge, foster dialogue, and examine promising practices in offender reentry in Massachusetts and from other jurisdictions. Forum participants would include attorneys, judges, jail administrators, treatment providers, commissioners, policy makers, and other system-involved professionals. The forum findings would be articulated in a position paper and distributed to government officials, system stakeholders, community providers, the media, and other interested parties.
It is hoped that this forum and ongoing discussions with criminal justice stakeholders across Massachusetts will result in the development and implementation of a comprehensive offender reentry initiative.
- • Annie E. Casey Foundation – Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative
- The State of Massachusetts, through the Department of Youth Services (DYS) and with other Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) partners, is in the process of implementing detention reform in two pilot counties. With funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety, CJI provides technical assistance to DYS and the JDAI partnership to support the organizational change process necessary to implement detention reform, as well as other assistance specific to detention reform as needed.
- • Task Force on CORI Employer Guidelines
- CJI partnered with the Boston Foundation to examine the Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) system and its impact on ex-offenders seeking employment and housing. The collaboration produced a report and a public forum where more than 200 people observed a discussion of the key issues by state officials and practitioners with various viewpoints. At the time of this forum the issues of CORI were not well understood by the public, policy makers or the users of the information. In addition to educating these interests, the report and forum led to a year-long, substantive public discussion about the problems and benefits of the current system and resulted in legislative activity at the city and state levels.
- • Charles E. Shannon Community Safety Initiative
- With funding from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety, CJI is collaborating as the local action research partner with the city of Fall River. CJI staff are working closely with Fall River partners to use data to help guide and assess collaborative effort to reduce youth gang violence. The project includes gathering and analyzing a variety of data to help refine the problem definition and intervention strategies; providing ongoing feedback to assess progress and guide improvements; and preparing a case study evaluation of the initiative.
- • Roca
- CJI is providing research consulting services to Roca, an innovative community-based organization in Chelsea, Massachusetts that intervenes with high-risk and gang-involved youth, to refine its program model to prepare for a rigorous outcome evaluation.
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