Articles & News

October 1, 2008

Philadelphia will refocus prisoner program

By Marcia Gelbart, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The Nutter administration has decided to revamp the city's prisoner-reentry program, reducing the number of inmates targeted for help with an eye to improving their chances of success.

The goal is to provide services primarily to nonviolent inmates from the city's prisons who have been identified as likely recidivists. Inmates released from state and federal prisons will still receive services, but only after those from city jails do.

"We want to have a focus on people who are teetering," Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Everett Gillison said. "If we can keep them from doing the next crime, we can literally halve the crime rate in Philadelphia."

Since the reentry program's creation in 2005, nearly anyone with a prison record seeking city help - family counseling, drug-treatment support, job training - could receive it. That included thousands of former state and federal inmates returning home to Philadelphia.

Under the new emphasis, educational and job-training services will be aimed at about 250 Philadelphia prison inmates still incarcerated, as well as recently released city inmates. This would be the first time the office has worked with inmates before their release.

Those eligible must be between 18 and 35, and convicted of not more than one felony.

As prison populations explode nationwide, the number of ex-offenders returning to Philadelphia from city, state and federal facilities is growing.

Last year, the Philadelphia Prison System alone released about 7,000 inmates who had been convicted and served time for a crime. The vast majority had been in jail for crimes related to drugs and theft.

Study after study has shown that a majority of returning prisoners are likely to wind up back in jail.

For example, a 2006 report by the Urban Institute Justice Policy Center in Washington found that between 1996 and 2003, about half of incarcerated prisoners in city jails had been in and out of prison more than three times.

The report also provided a profile of the typical city prisoner returning home: an unmarried, 31-year-old black man with no high school degree.

Under the new guidelines, this is just the sort of inmate who would be targeted for help.

However, Philadelphia is disproportionately impacted by the number of inmates released from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections; nearly a third of the state's 46,000 inmates were committed from Philadelphia, with many serving time for more serious crimes such as rape and murder.

Gillison said he was hoping to persuade foundations to fund reentry programs for state and federal ex-offenders. "The plan is to try to get to everybody, but we have to have a focus to get some successes going forward," Gillison said.

"We are building a network, and we'll expand it as we get community partners, but you have to start somewhere."

In addition, there are existing programs for inmates leaving state prisons.

John Roman, an author of the Urban Institute study, was surprised at the decision to focus on the city jail population, suggesting that more effective results would come from an emphasis on state inmates.

"Those are the people who committed more serious acts, so the focus should be on the people doing the things that are most damaging to the community," he said. Since state inmates are serving sentences longer than those in city jails, there is more time to work with them and build skills.

Ray Jones, an experienced reentry provider, also expressed concern, particularly about the age limit.

"There are just too many people coming back who need help, and limiting their opportunities will hurt the overall city," said Jones, a director at Impact Services Corp., which has a 34-year history of providing ex-offenders social services and jobs.

Of the differing viewpoints, Gillison said: "Those are all choices. This is ours."

The decision to reorganize the mayor's reentry office came after a review of reentry programs in other cities, such as Memphis, Tenn., and Newark, N.J.

That work was primarily done by Ronald L. Cuie, the former director of the mayor's reentry office, and Carolyn Harper, Cuie's chief of staff.

Cuie last month was demoted after nearly doubling his staff and overspending his budget. His demotion was a setback for the administration, which last spring highlighted his hiring - Cuie is an ex-offender - with great fanfare. Harper now oversees the office.

Other changes under Gillison's plan include credentialing for social-services providers who wish to work with the reentry office.

There are 281 agencies providing various re-entry services to ex-offenders in Philadelphia. The hope is that the credentialing process will lead to better program monitoring.

To date, there has been little electronic record-keeping, making it hard to assess the effectiveness.

"The previous administration did a great job of starting the ball rolling," said Gillison. "We need to take it a step further."

Contact staff writer Marcia Gelbart at 215-854-2338 or mgelbart@phillynews.com.