Offender's with Mental Health Diagnosis Mentoring Services

The Second Chance Act of 2007 (Pub. L. 110-199) provides a comprehensive response to the increasing number of people who are released from prison and jail and returning to communities. There are currently over 2.3 million individuals serving time in federal and state prisons, and millions of people cycling through local jails every year. Ninety-five percent of all prisoners incarcerated today will eventually be released and will return to communities. The Second Chance Act will help ensure the transition individuals make from prison or jail to the community is safe and successful. Section 211 of the Act authorizes grants to nonprofit organizations and federally recognized Indian tribes that may be used for mentoring projects to promote the safe and successful reintegration into the community of individuals who have been incarcerated.

The Second Chance Act grant programs are designed to strengthen jurisdictions characterized by large numbers of returning offenders. 'Reentry' is not envisioned to be a specific program but rather an evidence-based process that begins with initial incarceration and ends with successful community reintegration, indicated by lack of recidivism. Per the Second Chance Act, funded mentoring projects should use validated and dynamic assessment tools to determine the risks and needs of offenders included in the project's target population. Program components must include mentoring adult offenders during incarceration, through transition back to the community, and post-release; transitional services to assist in the reintegration of offenders into the community; and training regarding offender and victims issues.

Applicant agencies/organizations are expected to demonstrate their capability to deliver or broker the provision of transitional services proposed to be offered in conjunction with the core mentoring component. Examples of 'transitional services' designed to increase success in reentry and thus reduce recidivism might include the establishment of a pre-release mentoring relationship, housing, education, substance abuse treatment, mental health treatment, services to enhance family reunification, job training and readiness, and post-release case management.

The Northwestern Human Services of PA, Inc. will use the FY 2009 Second Chance Act Mentoring Grants to Nonprofit Organizations funds to provide offender's with mental health diagnosis mentoring services. Under the grant funds, the organization will implement a peer mentoring program which will be part of a re-integration process. The program will provide forensic peer mentor support to individuals with severe mental illness who are incarcerated in the New Orleans Parish Prison system. The targeted population will be individuals over the age of 18 with a history of a diagnosed mental illness, with a history of hospitalizations for mental illness, and who are incarcerated at the time of referral for non-violent crimes. The global objectives include recruiting and training two forensic peer mentors, providing forensic peer mentor services to participants, and reducing the recidivism rate of program participants served to below 25 percent during a one year period.

CA/NCF