Mississippi Co-Occurring Re-Entry Program (MSCORP)

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. This includes 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 award funds to implement a program designed to: 1) improve identification of high-risk offenders with COD and their criminogenic needs by utilizing the Global Assessment of Individual Needs (GAIN) and MDOC risk assessments; 2) achieve multi-agency collaboration for developing risk-informed re-entry plans; and 3) provide integrated pre and post-release treatment and recovery support services. Interventions will include cognitive-behavioral modalities, motivational interviewing, crisis intervention, and recovery support services. The project strategy is to integrate multi-agency services to improve identification of high-risk offenders with co-occurring disorders (COD), address their individual criminogenic needs, fill the existing COD treatment service gap pre and post-release, and provide linkages to community resources with integrated pre and post-release service plans in order to support successful reentry and reduce recidivism. The target population consists of 90 high-risk, nonviolent offenders with COD returning to Hinds County, Mississippi.

CA/NCF