Reducing Recidivism: Oklahoma's Co-Occurring Reentry Intensive Care Coordination Team (CRICCT)

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 services—including addressing individual criminogenic needs—based 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 recipient will use grant funds to develop and deploy a Co-Occurring Reentry Intensive Care Coordination Team (CRICCT) in Oklahoma County. The program will focus on post-release community based programs; will be located in a geographic area with demonstrated high rates of prison returns; will implement a specialized probation model for the target population; will partner with an independent research organization; and will link participants to affordable and supported housing. The project goals are to successfully develop an integrated care delivery system for offenders who have serious mental illness and co-occurring substance abuse disorder needs and high levels of criminogenic risks who have serious mental illness and co-occurring substance abuse disorder needs and high levels of criminogenic risks; increase the number of evidence-based mental health and substance abuse programs/activities completed by offenders pre- and post-release; increase individualized programming that targets offender’s criminogenic needs; and reduce recidivism rates of offenders released from ODOC. The program will serve 100 offenders.

CA/NCF