The Inside Out program will provide adult mentoring and transitional services pre and post-release to inmates at the Travis County Correctional Facility and Travis State Jail.

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.

"Mentoring" refers to a developmental relationship in which a more experienced person helps a less experienced person develop an enhanced sense of self-worth and specific knowledge and skills to increase the chance of successful reentry. Mentoring is a process for the informal transmission of knowledge, social capital, and the psychosocial support perceived by the recipient as relevant to work, career, or professional and personal development with the primary goal of preparing an offender (pre-release) for reentry and supporting him/her during the reentry process to enhance success. Mentoring involves communication and is relationship-based. Mentoring can take many forms: it may consist of a one-to-one relationship or can sometimes occur in a smaller group setting.

The grant recipient will use the grant funds to deliver a mentoring component of the re-entry project in both a pre-release and post-release environment. Funds will be used 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. Per the Second Chance Act, funded mentoring projects will use validated and dynamic assessment tools to determine the risks and needs of offenders included in the project's target population.

This grant will fund the Inside Out Program which will provide services to 100 ex-offenders returning to Travis, Williamson, and Hays counties in Texas. The target population for the Inside Out program is incarcerated fathers of minor children. CA/NCF