http:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/audio\/2013\/11\/employment-reentry-criminal-offenders-council-state-governments\/<\/a><\/p>\n[Audio Begins]<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 From the nation\u2019s capital, this is DC Public Safety. I\u2019m your host, Leonard Sipes. Today\u2019s show, ladies and gentlemen, employment and criminal offenders and reentry. We have two guests from the Justice Center and the Council of State Governments. We have Henry Rosen. He\u2019s a policy analyst, Reentry Program, National Initiatives, Council of State Governments Justice Center; and we have Phoebe Potter, she\u2019s a senior policy analyst, again, Reentry Program, National Initiatives, Council of State Governments Justice Center and to Henry and to Phoebe, welcome to DC Public Safety.<\/p>\n
Henry Rosen:\u00a0 Thank you very much. Thank you for having us.<\/p>\n
Phoebe Potter:\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right. Now this is an extraordinarily interesting topic, because you\u2019ve written quite a few publications explaining this whole concept of dealing with people caught up in the criminal justice system, and employment \u2013 \u201cIntegrated Reentry and Employment Strategies\u201d. I\u2019m gonna have a link to this document within the show notes, but for those who don\u2019t have an opportunity to write it down, the website is www.csgjusticecenter.org; www.csgjusticecenter.org. Needless to say, one word, Council for State Government Justice Center.org. You know, this whole concept of offenders and employment is one of the most difficult topics we have within the Criminal Justice System. It is something that has been discussed for decades. It is something that has bedeviled us for decades. It all has some sort of impact on reentry. So let\u2019s start off with, before we start off with a topic, give me a sense of the Justice Center \u2013 what it does \u2013 the Council of State Governments and what they do.<\/p>\n
Henry Rosen:\u00a0 So the Council of State Governments is a national, non-profit, membership organization providing services and support to states and elected officials that are part of the Council. As the Justice Center, we are the criminal justice arm, under the larger umbrella of the Council of State Governments and what we do is we work with state agencies, governors, counties, mayors, sheriffs, a host of people working in the criminal justice field \u2013 courts included, to help develop data driven or research supported policies that improve public safety, as well as improve the lives of folks involved in the criminal justice system, and sort of bring the evidence base on effective public safety and recidivism reduction strategies into the policy and practice sphere, all while minimizing cost to taxpayers and folks.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 The Council of State Governments, I mean, it\u2019s a wide array of issues that they deal with on a day-to-day basis.<\/p>\n
Henry Rosen:\u00a0 Certainly.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Correct?<\/p>\n
Henry Rosen:\u00a0 Correct.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 So the criminal justice policy is just one of them. The Justice Center is just there to deal specifically with criminal justice policy.<\/p>\n
Henry Rosen:\u00a0 Correct.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Okay, I can\u2019t think, also, Phoebe, I\u2019ll throw this question over to you \u2013 I can\u2019t think of a major issue where the Council of State Governments and the Justice Center, I can\u2019t think of major issue in terms of offender reentry, of people coming out of the prison systems, what to do about crime and criminal justice issues; I can\u2019t think of a major issue where the Council of State Governments and the Justice Center have not been involved. Correct?<\/p>\n
Phoebe Potter:\u00a0 That\u2019s right. I mean, we support a wide range of programs through the Justice Center that cover a whole host of different issue areas. Employment is just one of many programs that we\u2019ve undertaken. We address health problems, behavioral health specifically, some mental health and substance abuse issues. We have a courts program. A lot of the justice reinvestment work going on across the country \u2013 so states reforming corrections policy comes through the Justice Center. We\u2019ve had the opportunity to partner with a number of federal agencies, foundations, to kind of pursue a wide range of work through the Justice Center.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 And American Probation and Parole Association is through the Council of State Governments correct?<\/p>\n
Henry Rosen:\u00a0 Correct, good friends of ours, yeah.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right, so you all are integrated. So that\u2019s just one example. I mean, that is the leading national organization for those of us in Parole and Probation so it\u2019s integrated. There\u2019s just layer on top of layer in terms of what the Council of State Governments does and what the Justice Policy Center does.<\/p>\n
Henry Rosen:\u00a0 Correct. We\u2019re definitely sort of corrections and courts and law enforcement and policy and APPA. They\u2019re our go-to anything, supervision related.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Okay. Now, let\u2019s get into this issue of employment and people coming out of the prison system and employment of people who have never been in the prison system or who are on probation. First of all, the vast majority of people on community supervision, and we\u2019re talking about 400,000 on any given day, correct? Out of the 7,000 people under, I\u2019m sorry, it\u2019s 7 million people under correctional supervision, 4 million are on parole and probation and there are far more than that under pre-trial supervision. We\u2019re not even talking about those individuals today. So the concept of employing people who are on community supervision, those 4 million people, that\u2019s an enormous undertaking, is it not?<\/p>\n
Henry Rosen:\u00a0 Yeah. Certainly. You know, I think one of the things that we see is you know, folks involved in the criminal justice system, whether they\u2019re returning from incarceration, or under community supervision, the supervision officers and even the people themselves are prioritizing employment as sort of the key to staying crime free.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right, but you know, we\u2019ve been discussing this for years. I mean, there has been a lot of major initiatives, the department of labor, lots of other organizations have tried this concept in the past, and the results have been confusing. So talk to me about that. I mean, everybody, every politician in this country will say the best way of stopping people from going back to the criminal justice system is a job, but the research doesn\u2019t necessarily say that. Correct, or incorrect?<\/p>\n
Henry Rosen:\u00a0 That\u2019s correct.<\/p>\n
Phoebe Potter:\u00a0 Right, so I think that one of our goals with this project was to take a more nuanced look at that relationship between recidivism or the likelihood of people reoffending when they\u2019re back out from prison or jail, and employment. And what role does employment play in keeping people crime free? And I think one of the main myths that we want to distill through this is that just job acquisition alone, just placing somebody in a job is going to be some sort of silver bullet for reducing recidivism. And so how can we better understand what it is about employment that matters and what other things we need to deal with to promote successful reentry. And that\u2019s one of the big goals of this project.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 So, I\u2019m assuming somewhere along the line your partners, who are your partners on this project?<\/p>\n
Henry Rosen:\u00a0 The project is funded by the Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance and Annie E. Casey Foundation and we also partner closely and get guidance from the Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, and then Mindy Tarlow, the Chief Executive Officer from Center for Employment Opportunities was a huge partner and help in this, along with Sheila McGuire and there\u2019s another advisory committee that we work with \u2013 folks who work in the Corrections and Reentry field as well as the Work Force Development and Policy field and some researchers, both from non-profit organizations, actually working for corrections agencies as well as social science research organizations.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Here\u2019s my assumption. Everybody was sitting at a table several years ago and said, and took a look at the existing research regarding people coming out of the prison system, people on probation and recidivism and everybody sat there and said, \u201cYou know what, the research is confusing. These results are confusing. In some cases they work, in some cases they don\u2019t work. In some cases where they work the rate of recidivism, the reduction just wasn\u2019t that much. There has to be something nuanced to all of this. There has to be not just the placement of a job, but has to be more qualitative than quantitative and here, in the briefing sheet which you prepared for me, which I absolutely adore, you say there\u2019s a much more nuanced relationship between employment and recidivism but things like job stability, satisfaction with employment, willingness to take low end jobs and to work up, and having realistic job expectations are related to recidivism. In short, it\u2019s people\u2019s attitudes about work that matter and if we don\u2019t address anti-social attitudes, placing somebody in a job is not going to get us very good results. That seems to be the heart and soul behind the entire research in terms of its findings and in terms of its structure and in terms of its recommendations. Correct?<\/p>\n
Henry Rosen:\u00a0 Correct.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Okay, tell me about that.<\/p>\n
Henry Rosen:\u00a0 Well, I think, you know, in that assessment of what works to promote job readiness or connect someone to employment and reduce recidivism, the idea that those factors are important is not necessarily unique. What it actually comes from are guiding principles in the Corrections and Reentry field to help policy makers and folks working in Reentry make decisions about who to serve and what kinds of services they\u2019re enrolled in to promote better outcomes. We call those the \u201crisk, need, responsivity\u201d principles. And those essentially say that there are some key variables, some criminogenic need, risk and need factors that are most associated with the likelihood to reoffend. And typically, you know, people might think that having a job or you know, a mental health need, or substance abuse need, or a housing need are the things that will help someone transition back into the community, but those principles actually suggest that it\u2019s more along the lines of attitudes about crime, attitudes about work, you know, having pro-social relationships in the community, family ties, those sort of attitudes and behaviors are what are most closely linked to the likelihood of reoffending. And so instead, if we can work to address those attitudes and those behaviors and sort of those other stabilizing factors, then someone is more likely to be successful upon return as opposed to simply, you know, offering a job or a place to stay.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Phoebe, is sort of the whole idea here is that you know, it is a matter of that individual\u2019s pro-social attitudes, how he or she sees a job, how he or she sees the employer, how he or she sees themselves, how he or she sees their own prospects?<\/p>\n
Phoebe Potter:\u00a0 Right, exactly, those attitudes and obviously those attitudes affect more than just work, right? And I think that\u2019s why they\u2019re so strongly prevalent in the research around what helps reduce recidivism. It\u2019s just how somebody interacts in a pro-social environment and work is such a key component of that, that obviously in the employment field it really comes out that way.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Okay, so when you consider the fact that such a high number of offenders here, under Court Services and Offender Supervision, 14,000,\u00a0 in any given year \u2013 in any given day, 24,000 any given year; we have a high number and so does the rest of the country, who have mental health issues. We have a high number and so does the rest of the country in terms of substance abuse issues. We have a high number with lousy job histories, bad school histories \u2013 so we\u2019re talking about individuals who have a lot to deal with, whether they\u2019re in prison or not, whether under community supervision or not. And so it\u2019s just not a matter of the right attitude, it\u2019s just not a matter of being pro-social about the job, it\u2019s breaking through all of those barriers, all of that baggage that comes with that individual offender. Correct?<\/p>\n
Henry Rosen:\u00a0 Yeah. I don\u2019t think we\u2019d ever say that, you know, in that regard, we\u2019d never say employment, in and of itself, is a silver bullet. I think what we\u2019re sort of getting at is, you do need to address some of those other issues and barriers that makes someone likely to be unsuccessful in other settings besides just the job setting. If you can help someone become successful, you know, connect with their family, develop a strong peer support network, and rethink sort of their attitudes about crime and behavior, then they\u2019re gonna succeed in the job environment just as they will in the family environment or in the community.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Okay. Now everybody here is looking forward to this interview in terms of my agency, Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency, because they want to know, we\u2019re out there every day. I mean, on the front page of our website, our radio shows, television shows, www.csosa.gov. We have radio shows, television shows, we\u2019ve done articles, the Washington Post has covered us with front-page coverage. I mean, we\u2019re trying to have this conversation with employers to get them to tell us what it is that we need to do, what it is the people under supervision need to do to make themselves become more employable. We\u2019ve had a series of conversations with lots of employers over the course of years, we have our own vocational training staff, educational staff; we work, we do anger management, we do behavioral \u2013 I\u2019m sorry, what am I looking for? \u2013 Cognitive behavioral therapy, Thinking for a Change. We\u2019re doing all of that, and yet at the same time, our folks are saying, \u201cBut we still have to break through the barrier of the stereotypes of people who have criminal histories; having employers who are willing to give these individuals a second chance. That – they see that as the biggest problem. The lack of employers willing to provide a second chance. So they want to know, okay, they\u2019ve read the report, they love what you\u2019ve written, they\u2019re very supportive of what you\u2019ve done, but how, their question to you guys is, how do you break through that resistance barrier on the part of employers, their reluctance to hire people under supervision?<\/p>\n
Phoebe Potter:\u00a0 Right. So, you know, the white paper was written from a service and a programmatic perspective. Helping, kind of, practitioners and providers think about how to develop programming that addresses these factors that we\u2019ve just been talking about, that we need to address. But obviously the piece you\u2019re just talking about is critical, you know, counterpart to that. And we touch on it in the white paper a little bit, you know, about the issues of collateral consequences, they need to break down barriers to employment, engage employers. And what we\u2019ve done, as part of this larger project, beyond writing the white paper, is actually developed some other resources and partner with other folks around that, you know, kind of other half of the problem. Almost the, you know, kind of the supply issue of which jobs are out there. And so that is something that we\u2019re very, you know, attuned to. And I think the work that CSOSA has done around employer engagement is kind of a model that a lot of other jurisdictions should be looking at in terms of trying to break down the stigma, talk to employers about opportunities and engage them effectively. We\u2019ve worked in New York State and they have a Work for Success initiative that\u2019s doing similar work to engage employers, help them understand the legal rights of people coming out in terms of access to jobs, talking about incentives that are out there for employers such as the work opportunities, hacks, credit, federal bonding \u2013<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right, bonding programs, yes.<\/p>\n
Phoebe Potter:\u00a0 So yeah, so all of those pieces we touch on in the white paper, but you know, I think our larger strategy in addressing this problem at the Justice Center goes beyond what we\u2019ve done in the white paper, is tackling this issue of employer engagement.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Okay, because they want the next white paper to be on breaking down the barriers. Because, you know, I\u2019ve talked to people under supervision who have been years away from their last criminal activity, years away from their last positive test for substance abuse; they\u2019re completely compliant. They have skills, and they have an education and yet they can\u2019t find work.<\/p>\n
Phoebe Potter:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 So there\u2019s, you know, there are low hanging fruit in any population and we go after those first, because they\u2019re the easiest to place, and yet you still talk to that person six months later without a job is frustrating \u2018cause \u2013 so we formally ask you guys [Laughter], that the next white paper be on that particular topic. Before we get into the second half \u2013 the show is going by like wildfire, we want to reintroduce our guests. Ladies and gentlemen, we have Henry Rosen, Policy Analyst, Reentry Program, National Initiatives, Council of State Governments, Justice Center and Phoebe Potter, again, Senior Policy Analyst for the same organization, Council of State Governments, www.csgjusticecenter.org, www.csgjusticecenter.org. We\u2019re talking about a, what I consider to be a ground breaking piece of research. Integrated Reentry and Employment Strategies from the Justice Center. The Council of State Governments will have links to all the documents within the show notes. So where do we go to from here? Let\u2019s talk about this.<\/p>\n
Reentry matters because, my God, there are 700,000 people being released from state and federal prisons every year, and an awful lot of those, 40 to 50% return to the prison system. The states can\u2019t afford this rate of return. It has real implications for public safety, criminal victimization. We do believe that done right in terms of your recommendations, we could reduce that rate of recidivism considerably, correct?<\/p>\n
Henry Rosen:\u00a0 Correct. That\u2019s the hope, certainly.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 So reentry does matter?<\/p>\n
Henry Rosen:\u00a0 Yeah, it certainly does. You know, I think that, you know, personally I\u2019m from Montana. The state is barely a million people. When I hear stats about more than 600,000 people returning from incarceration, my God, that\u2019s more than half my state. I can\u2019t imagine that and I think, you know, folks are returning at such a high rate, they\u2019re cycling in and out of jails at such a high rate, if there\u2019s a way to sort of disrupt that cycle and provide the services and supports to make someone successful, I mean, the benefits of employment in that sense are sort of endless. You\u2019re providing someone with a means to support their family and contribute to a tax base, and likewise keeping them out of a very costly system that ends up being you know, on average, the fourth largest line item in any state\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Fewer people being victimized, literally, the possibility of saving billions of dollars at the state level and the federal level in terms of people not coming back to the criminal justice system. So the secret sauce in all of this is what? What we talked about before, a nuanced approach to the employment issue.<\/p>\n
Phoebe Potter:\u00a0 So you know, I think we talked about kind of having a nuanced appreciation for what employment can do to help reduce recidivism and some of the takeaways from that conversation are that, one, is be part of a more kind of comprehensive strategy to adjust to the pretty complex needs of this population and we touched on the fact that there\u2019s mental health problems and substance abuse and housing and there\u2019s a lot of dynamic needs that all interact with each other, really. So employment is one part of the puzzle. And the other part that we talked about, right, is that employment is not just about job acquisition, it\u2019s about understanding how employment is really kind of a tool to help people connect with pro-social, you know, associates and the community. And so it\u2019s about people\u2019s attitudes towards jobs, if people want to see them be successful.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 But how do you get them to the point where they have the right attitudes?<\/p>\n
Henry Rosen:\u00a0 So, I think one of the things that we proposed and outlined in our paper and as an agency at the Justice Center, we are strong advocates of is enrolling people in services that like cognitive behavioral therapy, like Thinking for Change, programs that are aimed at restructuring those attitudes about you know, their peer relations, about crime, and towards the community. And so for those who are most likely to reoffend, if you\u2019re providing them or if you\u2019re placing them into services that offer that opportunity, that offer opportunities for social learning, to practice the skills, you know; how to interact with co0workers, how to interact with peers, how to interact with your family, that\u2019s going to improve the likelihood that they\u2019ll be successful, whether it\u2019s an employment program or some other kind of service, they\u2019ll sort of be armed with the skills to succeed in that scenario. So what we\u2019re really trying to get the field to think about is how you identify people with the greatest need in that area, and then sequence and build services that address those needs, or address those issues.<\/p>\n
So the highest risk folks, who are sort of, you know, the most anti-social, the hardest to work with typically, they will benefit most from intensive behavior change type services, coupled with job readiness services. Things that promote soft skills. \u201cWhy should I be to work on time? How do I interact with my coworkers?\u201d You know? \u201cWhat\u2019s the value of doing an exceptional job versus the bare minimum?\u201d Things that, you know, promote sort of positive workplace attitudes and behaviors. Focus on those things for the high risk folks, who are less job ready. For the individuals who are not high risk, who have strong relations with their family, have had, you know, held a job prior to their incarceration, maybe have completed some level of college education or technical vocational school, they don\u2019t necessarily need those same kind of intensive services. They\u2019ll likely do very well on their own, but they will need support from you know, the workforce development field or their supervision officer in terms of breaking down those barriers you mentioned earlier about \u201cwhy should I hire someone with a criminal record?\u201d They don\u2019t need those services, they need someone to help them sort of navigate those challenges of communicating their record and finding the right job for them, as opposed to the more intensive behavior, change based services.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 So Phoebe, it\u2019s a matter of picking the right person through a needs analysis, a risk and needs analysis, to figure out who this person is, what that person needs, to give that person an appropriate level of intervention. But that appropriate level of intervention could be fairly complex. I mean, it could be a GED, which is complex unto itself. For a person who doesn\u2019t know how to read, they\u2019re not going to do well on the job. So it can go there. To job training, which is complex and very difficult and expensive, but all that needs to be wrapped up in a cognitive, behavioral therapy like Thinking for a Change. Basically, rearranging that person\u2019s attitudes towards, maybe, authority figures? Right?<\/p>\n
Phoebe Potter:\u00a0 Yeah, that\u2019s right. And these aren\u2019t simple strategies, you know? When you\u2019re talking about your highest risk, highest needs populations, but to Hank\u2019s point, you know, our goal with the white paper and what we were seeing in the field and trying to address is that a lot of jurisdictions are using a one-size-fits-all model. Which means your resources are probably too intensive for a lot of people and not intensive enough for a lot of people, so you\u2019re not getting, really, any benefits across the board. So how can we restructure the way we triage our resources in a way that, you know, we\u2019re kind of pouring more resources into those more intensive services, but only for the population that needs it, and defining that more clearly and then reducing the number of services that go to the lower risk, lower need population. Which, you know, not only do they not necessarily need, we\u2019ve actually seen through the research can be made worse off if they\u2019re provided too intensive service, they\u2019re put in programming that aren\u2019t appropriate.\u00a0 And so it\u2019s not, you know, necessarily about needing a lot more resources, it\u2019s about changing the way we triage our resources that we do have to get a bigger impact and that\u2019s a big goal of the white paper.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 And I think that\u2019s what I\u2019m hearing from American Parole, Probation and Parole Association, what I\u2019m hearing from the Council of State Governments, what I\u2019m hearing is, \u201cFocus your resources on your high risk individuals and scale down for everybody else.\u201d But that\u2019s assuming that the criminal justice system is supple enough, sophisticated enough, to employ those sort of strategies. I mean, we are the criminal justice system. We\u2019re not exactly known for our nuanced approach to anything. It is a great, big, moving, giant blob that has its own speed and has its own attitudes and being that precise is not necessarily our forte, but that\u2019s what you\u2019re saying to us. We need to be far more nuanced and use tax paid dollars in the best possible way.<\/p>\n
Phoebe Potter:\u00a0 That\u2019s right, but I think we\u2019ve seen a lot of advancements in the corrections field in the last, you know, five, ten years, around the use of risk assessment especially to be smarter about how we triage our resources and who we place in programs and you know, I think a big part of that has been the support the Second Chance Act has put out in the field, kind of promoting these principles for a long time now and giving a lot of jurisdictions the resources to start to invest in these investment tools and case management strategies that we\u2019re talking about. You know, and Second Chance Act reauthorization out now, we\u2019re really excited about the opportunity to kind of build on that progress that we\u2019ve seen. But it\u2019s not simple and one of the things that the white paper does that is kind of taking it a step beyond just risk assessment, we\u2019re also kind of asking the field to be more kind of sophisticated in the use of job readiness assessment too. So not just knowing the risk level of an individual, but also better appreciating, \u201cWhat are their job readiness needs as well, from a work force perspective?\u201d And so that is a little bit new, I think, in terms of what we\u2019re asking the field to look at and do.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 I\u2019m reading from your briefing notes. So the key takeaway from all of this is that we can\u2019t treat all individuals in the same way. Now the criminal justice system is famous for that. I mean, every person with a substance abuse problem goes in a group, and it\u2019s one group and there\u2019s one formula and there\u2019s one way. It doesn\u2019t matter what drug of choice, how long they\u2019ve been using, their age, their complexity, whether they\u2019re a high risk or low risk, everybody goes to a group because that\u2019s all we have the capacity to do. Part of this is a matter of us, in the criminal justice system, understanding the nuances. Part of it is money. Part of it is the fact that we have to have dollars to back up what it is that we do, correct? And dollars are hard to come by nowadays.<\/p>\n
Henry Rosen:\u00a0 Yeah, I think that\u2019s a major concern of folks working in this field and you know, especially and including the workforce development field. I think a lot of work force development practitioners are very eager to learn about effective strategies they can use when working with ex-offenders and you know, the services that NIC offers to that end are phenomenal, they do great work. I know that work force investment; membership agencies out there are looking for new ways to tackle those issues. And one thing that we\u2019re hoping to say is, you know, given the pot of money that you have, if you use a risk assessment to identify the risk and need level of individuals, the highest risk folks, the lowest risk folks, and then needs related to their recidivism, and then you layer that in with the job readiness and employability assessments that the Workforce Development Practitioners are using, you can begin to understand of that $1,000 you have to spend, you should be spending $500 on these two people, you know, $100 on these two people, and then you know, the rest of the money, whatever else you\u2019re doing. And obviously I\u2019m not very great at math on the fly. But the point being that essentially \u2013<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Close enough.<\/p>\n
Henry Rosen:\u00a0 You know, the people who need that $500 a day program are, those have got to be your high risk, high need folks that have the employment need as well as the job readiness need, whereas the lower risk folks, they\u2019re not going to benefit as much from that intensive service and so it\u2019s not necessarily important that you put a lot of money into that service for them.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Go ahead, please.<\/p>\n
Phoebe Potter:\u00a0 I do think it\u2019s worth noting that, you know, we\u2019re not asking for every agency that\u2019s working with this population out there to go out and buy a risk assessment tool tomorrow. A lot of this is going to be accomplished through better collaboration with key partners and most major corrections agencies at this point are using some level of risk assessment, you know, the sophistication of the risk assessment tool might vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction but ultimately, you know, if you\u2019re a community provider, you know, listening to this right now and kind of panicking about the need to invest in a bunch of assessment tools, chances are your corrections agency, you know, in your jurisdiction has some of that information that you can tap into if you develop those partnerships. And that\u2019s another big thing that has been pushed with Second Chance Act, is increasing the collaboration. So from a resource perspective, you know, I think partnerships are a key way to getting this done.<\/p>\n
Henry Rosen:\u00a0 That\u2019s exactly right. You know, it think probation and parole officers will have an offenders case plan and it may have the risk assessment information on that case plan, but if you\u2019re a workforce development practitioner or some other reentry service provider, you\u2019ll have no idea what those numbers mean. So it\u2019s really sort of up to those two agencies to come together and understand what that information means, and how to use it to drive decision-making.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 We only have a minute left. I want to get this message across to the aide of the mayor of Milwaukee and the aid to the governor in Oklahoma and they\u2019re listening to this program because they\u2019re searching for information about employment and the criminal offender population. If done well, this can work. That\u2019s what I get from your paper. We can be far more effective if we used a nuanced approach and we couple all these different programs with programs that help that person think better, be better, perform better while on the job. So it\u2019s the attitude that becomes the crucial component of all this.<\/p>\n
Phoebe Potter:\u00a0 That\u2019s right.<\/p>\n
Henry Rosen:\u00a0 Definitely.<\/p>\n
Phoebe Potter:\u00a0 This is founded, you know, this framework we\u2019ve presented is founded on years of research and we\u2019ve seen programs that have started to take this integrated approach have significant impacts on recidivism.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Tell me about that.<\/p>\n
Phoebe Potter:\u00a0 Sure, you know, at the beginning of the show, Hank mentioned that Mindy Tarlow for the center of employment opportunities was a key partner on this project. CEO operates the Transitional Jobs Program that has done a great job of integrating, you know, the kind of those risk, need, responsivity principles we talked about. Focusing on high risk people, and addressing criminogenic needs in a wrap around approach that goes beyond just job acquisition. So really building skills and you know, we\u2019re evaluating and found that they did have significant impacts on recidivism among that high risk population. So kind of demonstrating the importance of focusing on high risk and also the need to have that wrap around approach. So we are seeing results that this can work.<\/p>\n
Henry Rosen:\u00a0 Right? And the way they did that is they had, they placed people into work crews, where they were trained on the skills they needed. They had sort of a work crew manager, almost like a peer leader, who sort of navigated them through the work process and they provided an opportunity to sort of practice those good, workplace behaviors on the job and debrief on that afterwards, and that was really effective.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Well, we\u2019re leaving everybody with a note of hope in terms of this and this is something that I think all of us in the criminal justice system are really looking at with great joy, because we think this provides us with a roadmap that maybe we didn\u2019t have that clear of a roadmap before. \u201cIntegrated Reentry and Employment Strategies\u201d, ladies and gentlemen, is the name of the research. I\u2019ll have the notes within the show notes as to the exact address for that document, or you can go to www.csgjusticecenter.org , the Justice Center, the Council of State Governments. Our guests today have been Henry Rosen, Policy Analyst, Reentry Program, National Initiatives, Council of State Governments, and Phoebe Potter, again, Senior Policy Analyst for the same organization. Ladies and gentlemen, this is DC Public Safety. We appreciate your comments and we even appreciate your criticisms and we want everybody to have themselves a very, very pleasant day.<\/p>\n
[Audio Ends]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Welcome to \u201cDC Public Safety\u201d \u2013 Radio and television shows, blog and transcripts on crime, criminal offenders and the criminal justice system. The portal site for \u201cDC Public Safety\u201d is http:\/\/media.csosa.gov. Radio Program available at http:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/audio\/2013\/11\/employment-reentry-criminal-offenders-council-state-governments\/ [Audio Begins] Len Sipes:\u00a0 From the nation\u2019s capital, this is DC Public Safety. I\u2019m your host, Leonard Sipes. Today\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,9,10,52,18,21],"tags":[233,275,76,276],"class_list":["post-1101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audiopodcast","category-education","category-employment","category-parole-and-probation","category-reentry","category-whatworks","tag-criminal-offenders","tag-employment","tag-offenders","tag-reentry","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pBoKk-hL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1102,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101\/revisions\/1102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}