Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2015, $600,000)
The Second Chance Act of 2007 provides a comprehensive response to the increasing number of people who are released from prison, jail and returning to communities, including resources to address the myriad of needs of these offenders to achieve a successful return to their communities. Section 201 of the Second Chance Act authorizes federal awards to states, units of local government, and Indian tribes to improve the provision of treatment to adult offenders in prisons and jails during the period of incarceration and through the completion of parole or other court supervision after release into the community.
The goal of Section 201 of the Second Chance Act is to provide support to eligible applicants for the development and implementation of comprehensive and collaborative strategies that address the challenges posed by reentry to increase public safety and reduce recidivism. The objectives of this program are to provide offenders with co-occurring substance abuse and mental health disorders with appropriate evidence-based servicesincluding addressing individual criminogenic needsbased on a reentry plan that relies on a risk and needs assessment that reflects the risk of recidivism for that offender. Funds may be used for treating co-occurring substance abuse and mental health disorders in prison and jail programs, providing recovery support services, reentry planning and programming, and post-release treatment and aftercare programming in the community through the completion of parole or court supervision.
The grantee will use the funds to support a reentry program that will target 80 higher-risk female and male offenders with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. The program aims to 1) increase public safety and reduce recidivism; 2) reduce relapse to substance use; and 3) improve mental health outcomes. Priority considerations will include 1) pre- and post-release services with evidence-based approaches; 2) geography with high returning offender rates; 3) specialized community supervision services; 4) academic partnerships for evaluations; 5) use of agency electronic health records and enhanced shared information from state recidivism records; 6) enhanced post-release healthcare access through state Medicaid collaborations; 7) higher-risk offenders at risk for chronic homelessness; 8) leveraging partnerships to link housing supports; and 9) leveraging knowledge from this program and state level strategies for Pay for Success.
CA/NCF