A new study provides a clear warning to all of us involved in programs that prepare inmates for release: programs alone don’t reduce recidivism.
In the study, Implementation and Outcome Evaluation of the Intensive Aftercare Program: Final Report, the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) studied three Intensive Aftercare Programs (IAP) that sought to reduce recidivism among high-risk, incarcerated juveniles by providing them with many services that would not usually be available to them, and provided low staff to offender ratios in case management. (The Denver IAP program case managers worked with a maximum of 18 youths). The study found that the IAP programs “did not have an influence on recidivism”.
This should not discourage those working to reduce recidivism among returning offenders. The IAP programs are excellent models of targeting staff attention and services on at-risk offenders. However, they lacked one element that Prison Fellowship has found essential to successful reentry: a relationship with a loving mentor who will assist the offender during the critical first few months of freedom. The IAP programs are focused on “case management” and are very process oriented. Add a relationship with a good mentor, and you have the recipe for success.
While offenders desperately need the services IAP’s provide, such as housing, job placement, health care, education and transportation assistance, they need a good relationship with a mentor even more.
Prison Fellowship’s InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI) is structured to provide the intensive services similar to the IAP and link the inmates to mentors from local churches. Dr. Byron Johnson studied the graduates of IFI Texas for two years after their release and compared them to inmates with similar backgrounds and offenses who had not participated in IFI. Dr. Johnson’s study, The InnerChange Freedom Initiative, a Preliminary Evaluation of a Faith-Based Program, found that:
- InnerChange Freedom Initiative graduates were two times less likely to be rearrested. The two-year post-release rearrest rate among InnerChange Freedom Initiative program graduates in Texas is 17.3 percent, compared with 35 percent of the matched comparison group.
- InnerChange Freedom Initiative graduates were two-and-a-half times less likely to be re-incarcerated. The two year post-release reincarceration rate among InnerChange Freedom Initiative program graduates in Texas is 8 percent, compared with 20.3 percent of the matched comparison group.
Dr. Johnson emphasized that mentors were “absolutely critical” to these impressive results. Among the IFI participants that did not maintain their relationship with the mentors, the recidivism was statistically no different than the comparison group.
The support and accountability provided by mentors often make the difference between a successful return to society and re-offending. As offenders make the difficult transition back into the community, they need relationships with caring, moral adults. The greater the density of good people we pack around them, the greater the chance that they will be successfully replanted back into the community.
Moving from the very structured environment of prison, in which they had virtually no control over any aspect of their lives, inmates returning to their community face a myriad of options and temptations. Such basic decisions as where to sleep, where to seek employment, and with whom to associate confront them the minute they hit the street. They need the love, advice, and encouragement of a mentor. And they need someone to hold them accountable.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, said, “To change someone, you must first love them, and they must know that you love them.” As President Bush has often said, government can’t love someone—only people can do that. Returning offenders need to know that someone cares about them individually and will help them think through their transition back to freedom; someone to hold them accountable and to help them when they stumble. That is not the role of a case manager, but it is a role the community and in particular the Church can and should undertake.
Our goal should be a partnership between the government providing good case management and coordination of services in tandem with mentors from the community. That is the recipe for safer communities and fewer victims.
“Second Chance Act” Streamlines Reentry Services and Encourages Mentors
This partnership between government and the community is the vision of the Second Chance Act (HR 1704) which will be soon have a hearing in the Crime Subcommittee in the House. The bill seeks strengthen inmate families and streamline the provision of services to returning inmates.
The bill will strengthen families by:
- Encouraging community nonprofit organizations and churches to mentor adult and juvenile offenders.
- Rewriting regulations to encourage family preservation and safety services for families impacted by incarceration.
- Allowing family members of offenders to be involved in facilitating the successful reentry of offenders into the community.
- Encouraging expansion of family-based treatment centers that offer comprehensive treatment.
- Developing prisoner and family policies, procedures, or programs to help prisoners reconnect with their families and communities.
- Encouraging states to remove obstacles to the maintenance of family relationships while the offender is in custody.
It will streamline the bureaucracy of reentry by:
- Encouraging the states to coordinate their programs to assist inmates find jobs, housing, substance abuse treatment/mental health, and children and families.
- Establishing the National Offender Re-Entry Resource Centerto help states, local governments, service providers, faith-based organizations, corrections and community organizations by collecting and disseminating best practices.
- Coordinating federal programs and resources on re-entry, and identifying federal barriers that exist to successful re-entry.
- Conducting research to provide hard data about reentry on which decision makers can design their programs.
While we have strong bi-partisan support for the bill, it is important that it not get lost while Congress struggles with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the War in Iraq, immigration and the host of other important issues. It would be good if you contacted your Senators and Congressman to let them know the importance of improving prisoner reentry through the Second Chance Act.
Mentoring Resources
I am getting a very positive response to my book, When Prisoners Return, in particular the chapter on Mentoring and the resources listed in it. The book is a very practical explanation of why helping prisoners return is important and the steps you, your church and your community can take to help our returning brothers and sisters make the difficult transition back to the community. In response to many requests from churches and departments of corrections we offer the book in quantity discounts. Just click on the link below.
See You at the National Conference on Transition of Prisoners
Detroit Transition of Prisoners (TOPS) is a national leader in the movement of church-based mentoring of returning prisoners. TOPS works with pastors to recruit mentors and then trains them and links them with returning offenders. TOPS coordinates services for the ex-offenders and has a great relationship with the Michigan Department of Corrections.
Each year TOPS sponsors a National Prison Aftercare Conference, and I have found it the most rewarding conference all year. This year we are meeting in Nashville, October 28-30. I am honored to be on the program, and look forward to learning all the great things the Lord is doing in reentry programs across the country. I hope to see you there.
In His service,
Pat Nolan
President, Justice Fellowship
Resources
The Implementation and Outcome Evaluation of the Intensive Aftercare Program: Final Report |
