R.I. Government Agencies | Privacy Policy |
Teresa Foley, Professional Services Coordinator/Transitional Services
Dix Building
Cranston, RI 02920
Phone: (401) 462-1129
Fax: (401) 462-0924
"Ex-inmates have gone from America's most wanted to America's least wanted. The churning of repeat offenders through the system poses a risk to public safety and contributes to rising correctional costs."
A.T. Wall, II, RIDOC Director
Click here to link to a list of press coverage from the Justice Center of The Council of State Government's website.
Click here to link to an article by Bernice Yeung in the July-August issue of Miller-McCune magazine titled Freeze You're Under Examination about Rhode Island's Project Bridge and the importance of providing continuity of healthcare services to high risk inmates returning to their communities.
An article on the Woonsocket Reentry Council's community forum on prisoner reentry appeared in the Providence Journal on Sunday, June 21st. Access it by clicking here. The Woonsocket Call's June 18th article on the same forum can be accessed here.
Click here to link to a story on employer event the RIDOC cosponsored with the RI Family Life Center and the Dept. of Labor & Training on November 13th at the Providence Biltmore. The article, by Andy Smith, appeared in the Jobs Section of the Providence Journal on Sunday, November
Click here to link to in the Providence Journal on Saturday, September 13th, about the new Probation & Parole Office, co-located with the District 2 Providence Police Department substation, in the Urban Leauge building on Prairie Street.
Click here to link to an article titled Re-entry Council Links Post-Prison Services, published in the August 15th Pawtucket Times about the Open House at our Pawtucket Probation and Parole Office.
Click here to link to RIDOC Policy 20.10 Offender Reentry - Transition from Prison to the Community.
Click here to link to an article in the Reentry Policy Council's newsletter titled Vermont and Rhode Island Enact Initiatives to Increase Public Safety and Reduce Corrections Spending.
Click here
to link to an article co-written by Director A.T. Wall and Chief of Information and P.R. Tracey Z. Poole titled Parternships with Local Law Enforcement and Community Agencies: A Critical Component to Successful Prisoner Reentry, which appears in the April 2008 issue of the ACA's magazine, Corrections Today.
Click here for the Rhode to Reentry statewide prisoner reentry brochure or here if you're an employer considering hiring an ex-offender or Work Release inmate.
Click here for a brochure on the April 2008 conference Interrupted Life: How do we Break the Cycle of Inter-generational Crime and Violence?
Click here for a link to an article by RIDOC's Bree Derrick on Gender Responsiveness in Rhode Island published in a National Institute of Corrections report called Topics in Community Corrections.
Publications for Prisoner Reentry
The following list of resources was prepared by the Department of Labor Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. For questions or further information, contact them at 202-693-6450 or the Office of Youth Services at 202.693.3030.
Each year more than 650,000 men and women are released from federal and state prisons, and return to their communities and families. To aid community leaders and law enforcement officials, The United States Department of Labor's Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives is pleased to announce the following prisoner reentry materials.
Prisoner Reentry Toolkit -- This toolkit is a guide for faith-based or community organization interested in establishing or enhancing their prisoner reentry program. This document covers a variety of topics, such as recruiting, case management, job placement, mentoring. Available for download: http://www.dol.gov/cfbci/pritoolkit.pdf
Mentoring Ex-Prisoners: A Guide for Prisoner Reentry Programs -- This manual provides guidelines and recommendations intended to address the challenges and to increase the benefits of mentoring adult ex-prisoners as part of their involvement in reentry programs.
Available for download: http://www.dol.gov/cfbci/20071101Mentoring.pdf
Reentry Partnerships: A Guide for States & Faith-Based and Community Organizations -- Reentry Partnerships is written for state government officials and representatives of faith-based and community organizations who want to create and sustain collaborative efforts to reduce recidivism and to help people returning to the community from prisons or jails lead productive and law-abiding lives. Available for download: http://www.dol.gov/cfbci/20081218.pdf
Just Out -- This promising practices guide examines the early implementation of Ready4Work and reports on the best emerging practices in four key program areas.
Available for download: http://www.ppv.org/ppv/publications/assets/198_publication.pdf
Other Prisoner Re-entry Resources: The following website gives a list of documents, programs and resources that may be useful in learning more about prisoner re-entry programs and how faith-based and community organizations are active partners in the re-entry process. This information includes other agency efforts and programs, training, and technical assistance opportunities and publications. http://www.dol.gov/cfbci/pri-resources.htm
Click here to link to a new publication - The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law's Lifelines: Linking to Federal Benefits for People Exiting Corrections.
With Rhode Island’s prison population reaching reccord numbers (average inmate population in calendar year 2008 was 3,837), prisoner reentry is quickly becoming a major public safety and budgetary issue. To address this issue, RI is working towards an integrated statewide system that fosters the preparation & gradual transition of incarcerated individuals to productive, healthy, & crime-free lives.
Developing coordinated reentry strategies, including social services and life skills training, in addition to the traditional supervision of probation and parole, helps ex-inmates break the cycle of incarceration. Evidence suggests that providing services beyond post release supervision, such as substance abuse treatment, mental health services, job placement and educational services lowers the recidivism rate.
The community benefits from reentry programs that work. Public safety improves and correctional and criminal justice costs are reduced in the long run when ex-inmates are directed away from re-offending to more productive work.
Working under the guidance of Governor Carcieri’s Steering Committee on Prisoner Reentry (established through Executive Order 04-02) RI has initiated a comprehensive approach to offender reentry. This approach, facilitated with technical assistance from the National Institute of Corrections, represents the combined efforts of the Department of Corrections, the state legislature, numerous other state agencies, local governments, law enforcement and countless community agencies. The committee includes key state agencies and is divided into three tiers. The first tier, comprised mainly of cabinet-level appointees, focuses on larger policy issues. The second tier, consisting of departmental appointees and directors of community based organizations, examines management issues. The third tier, comprised of font-line worker and managers, addresses programmatic issues.
Additionally, community reentry councils, a group of community leaders and service providers, have been established in Providence, Pawtucket, Newport and Warwick to help assist offenders returning to their community.
