BOSTON – The Crime and Justice Institute is partnering with the National Institute of Corrections to provide technical assistance through NIC’s Transition from Jail to Community initiative, a nationally recognized reentry program, which assists jurisdictions in development and implementation of programs to ease the transition for individuals transitioning from local jails to the community.
CJI will provide technical assistance in six to eight sites around the country that will implement the Transition from Jail to Community, or TJC, model to help remove barriers for men and women to reintegrate back into the community and stay crime free. CJI’s work will focus on providing quality training and technical assistance to sites and strengthening several aspects of the TJC model, including addressing the challenge of organizational change and making adjustments to better respond to the needs of individuals with mental health issues.
CJI’s expert team brings decades of combined experience in training and technical assistance, including work on jail-based reentry initiatives.
Even short jail stays can have a significant destabilizing effect on individuals’ lives through disruptions to employment, housing, family relationships, and household income, all of which can present daunting obstacles when men and women are released. And in many jurisdictions, recidivism – the rate at which previously incarcerated individuals are returned to incarceration – remains high.
Research has shown that reentry programs can help reduce recidivism by providing a solid foundation for formerly incarcerated individuals to start a new life, including access to housing, employment, and substance abuse and mental health counseling. Many more individuals are released from jails than prisons each year, but local jails face challenges in developing effective transition supports, including higher rates of mental illness, substance abuse disorders, and physical health problems among their inmate populations.
NIC launched the TJC initiative in 2007 in response to the needs of jurisdictions around the country to better support the more than 12 million people who pass through local jails each year. The initiative involves development, implementation, and evaluation of individualized transition programs for local jail systems with the goal of improving public safety and reducing recidivism.