Bridges to Success: A Comprehensive Prisoner Reentry Initiative

The Prisoner Reentry Initiative (PRI) is designed to provide funding to state units of government to develop and implement institutional and community corrections-based offender reentry programs. The PRI strengthens urban communities characterized by large numbers of returning offenders. The PRI is designed to reduce recidivism by helping returning offenders find work and assess other critical services in their communities. The PRI supports strategies to deliver pre- and post-release assessments and services, and to develop transition plans in collaboration with other justice and community-based agencies and providers for supervised and non-supervised offenders.

The Florida Department of Corrections (FDC), in partnership with Operation New Hope and other key community agencies, will use the grant funds to create a pilot project to develop a comprehensive model for non-violent prisoner reentry to communities in Duval County, Florida. This proposed project will focus on pre-release planning and services that are individualized and comprehensive. The pre-release services will begin with individual needs assessments then focus the delivery of reentry services based on identified needs. These services include thorough reentry planning, GED preparation, vocational training, cognitive-based skills training, and a coordinated hand over of offenders to the community-based post-release services coordinators at Operation New Hope. This proposal targets offenders returning to communities in Duval County: Jacksonville, Atlantic Beach, Baldwin, Jacksonville Beach, and Neptune. The target population for this proposal consists of offenders, age 18 and older, imprisoned and leaving correctional institutions in Florida and returning to Duval County with or without criminal justice supervision.

Award funds will be used to support the hiring of project personnel, travel to required conferences and training, service provider contracts, and office supplies.

CA/NCF