Project Renewed Families

The Second Chance Act (Pub. L. 110-199) provides a comprehensive response to the increasing number of parents who are incarcerated as well as their families. Research has shown that children may benefit from maintaining healthy relationships with their incarcerated parents. Section 113 of the Second Chance Act authorizes grants to states, units of local government, and Indian tribes to improve the provision of substance abuse treatment within prison and jails and after reentry for inmates who have minor children and also includes outreach to families and provision of treatment and other services to children and other family members of participant inmates. The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) will fund eligible applicants to plan, implement, or expand such treatment programs.

The Family-Based Prisoner Substance Abuse Treatment Program enhances the capability of states and tribes to provide substance abuse treatment for incarcerated parents; prepares offenders for their reintegration into the communities from which they came by incorporating reentry planning activities into treatment programs; and assists offenders and their communities through the reentry process through the delivery of community-based treatment and other broad-based aftercare services. Projects will provide prison-based substance abuse treatment and parenting programs for incarcerated parents of minor children, as well as treatment and other services to the participating offenders minor children and family members. Programming must be targeted to inmates with minor children and include services for these inmates, their minor children, and other family members. By law, no less that 5 percent of the funds available for the Family-Based Substance Abuse Treatment Program will be used for grants to Indian Tribes.

Sacramento County Sheriff's Department will use the grant funds for the Project Renewed Families to provide integrated co-occurring substance abuse and mental health treatment and related recovery and reentry services. The services will include sustained aftercare, case Management, and housing in the community to the participant and their families both in and out of the jail. The 2-year coordinated multi-system project will serve 120 unduplicated ethnically diverse, incarcerated female parents (18+ years) assessed into the program as substance using/abusing, and sentenced to a minimum of six months in Sacramento County Jail.

The program meets Priority Considerations with the Goals and Strategies of working with a collaboration of agencies that provide direct client integrated substance abuse and mental health treatment services. Each participant will sign a release in order for their minor children and families to be located and linked to treatment and other services during the offender parent's incarceration and after reentry. As a continuum of care infrastructure, offenders will receive in-custody assessment, discharge planning, and case management before transitioning into the community-based recovery-oriented treatment and employment preparation phase of the program.

CA/NCF