Louisville Group Violence Reduction Reentry Project

There is a direct correlation between the returning of adult and juvenile gang members from in-custody programs and violent crime rates experienced within communities. Gang members have higher rates of post-release recidivism than non-gang members. Studies have consistently shown that gang membership continued to have an effect on recidivism when other risk factors were controlled. Recidivism was most likely to be associated with drug-related and violent offenses. Often the daily individual or group conflicts faced by gang members resume upon release, particularly when returning to familiar communities. Regardless of whether group/gang disengagement has occurred within the custody setting, gang members returning to the community face the challenges of navigating both external and internal group violence commonly associated with the gang culture.

Louisville Group Violence Reentry Project will create a collaborative process between criminal justice agencies and community organizations to ensure that such challenges are mitigated for those gang members returning to the community - to include release from both adult and juvenile state facilities. A core team of cross-sector individuals will evaluate not only the needs of the individual returning, but also evaluate the impact of the person's return on the current level of both internal and external conflicts/disputes between Louisville's gangs and groups, which is often not considered during typical reentry programming. This unique approach will tie in and coordinate the efforts of Louisville violence reduction initiatives, to include but not limited to; the Group Violence Intervention Program, the Community Violence Intervention Program, Louisville's Public Safety Partnership program and the city's Offender Reentry Project. Louisville's Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods will serve as the backbone agency for this project.

The goal of the project is to reduce gun violence related to gang members returning to the community and to ensure successful reintegration of those individuals.