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Governor Cuomo Announces More Than $5 Million for Programs Designed to Reduce Crime and Change Offender Behavior

Written by Long Island News & PR  |  10. January 2014

Albany, NY January 10, 2014 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that 23 programs across New York State will share more than $5 million in grant funding to support alternatives to incarceration (ATI), alternatives to jail detention and programs for individuals incarcerated in local jails, all of which are designed to reduce crime and avoid further victimization. This funding supports Governor Cuomo's commitment to enhance the state's efforts to help formerly incarcerated individuals successfully re-enter and remain in the community and the recently announced Council on Community Re-Entry and Reintegration.

Reducing recidivism in communities across the state will not only create safer streets, but will also expand opportunity and improve the lives of all New Yorkers,” Governor Cuomo said. “Research has shown that half of felony offenders and three-quarters of misdemeanor offenders who are sentenced to jail will re-enter the system within five years. The grants announced today, along with Council on Community Re-Entry and Reintegration announced in this week’s State of the State, are common sense steps we can take to change these odds by helping those most at-risk of re-offending modify their behavior, lead crime-free and productive lives, and contribute to our safer communities.”

Governor Cuomo announced the creation of the Council in his 2014 State of the State address to effectively coordinate State resources that are directed towards stopping the revolving door of incarceration for so many New Yorkers. The Council is expected to bring leadership from a wide array of agencies together with key community stakeholders, including non-profits and re-entry service-providers statewide, to ensure that State policies regarding a broad spectrum of issues – housing, health care, education, employment, and veterans’ services, among others – are aligned with both federal and local efforts.

Other innovative criminal justice efforts aimed at reducing incarceration rates, while saving money for New York taxpayers, include the nation’s first state-led Pay for Success project funded by private investors and foundations that will train and employ formerly incarcerated individuals and Work for Success, a program Governor Cuomo launched with community-based organizations to promote and increase the employment of formerly incarcerated individuals.


FUNDING PRACTICAL & EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVES TO INCARCERATION
The programs receiving the grants responded to a competitive request for proposals (RFP) issued earlier this year by the state Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), which will administer the grants. Studies have shown that ATI and alternative to detention programs that are effectively implemented and targeted to the needs of specific offenders can reduce recidivism while reducing government costs.

The RFP detailed several key objectives that grantees were to consider when submitting responses, including matching services and supervision at the earliest point in an individual’s case through risk and needs assessments; delivering high-quality cognitive behavioral therapy and offender workforce development programs; targeting communities that had a demonstrated need but lacked adequate services; providing more service options for jail detainees and offenders sentenced to jail; and implementing an evaluation system to ensure program effectiveness.

DCJS Executive Deputy Commissioner Michael C. Green said, “The work of all involved in the criminal justice system has led to significant decreases in the crime rate in New York State, but there is still more work to be done. We still see too many of our citizens, especially our young people, going to prison or jail, and alternatives to incarceration programs, when used for appropriate people, are showing success in diverting people from jail who do not need to be there as well as keeping others from winding up back behind bars.”

The following programs will share more than $5 million over a 12-month period:

New York City

  • CCI/Fund for the City of New York/Brooklyn ATI Program: $300,000 – An existing program will be expanded to annually enroll 150 jail-bound young adults (ages 22-24) who are sentenced on misdemeanor charges in Brooklyn Criminal Court.
  • Osborne Association/Bronx Adolescent Career Focused DBA: $300,000 – The Association’s Court Advocacy Services, created to serve indigent adolescent defendants in the New York City courts and detained on Rikers Island will be expanded.
  • CASES/Manhattan START Community Case Management: $300,000 – A short-term ATI program will be created to target chronic misdemeanants in New York County Criminal Court, including men and women with mental illness, trauma and/or substance use disorders.
  • EAC, Inc./Bronx Treatment Alternatives for Safer Communities (TASC): $300,000 – The program will target young men and women arrested in Bronx County who are 15 years old and older and have a substance use disorder, are considered suitable for placement in the community and for whom appropriate treatment and services are available.
  • Greenhope Services for Women, Inc./Alternatives to Incarceration: $300,000 – Specialized supervision and treatment will be made available to female ex-offenders with the purpose of reducing crime, recidivism and victimization and limiting the use of jail and prison beds.
  • EAC, Inc/Queens TASC: $240,000 – The program will target young men and women arrested in Queens County who are 15 years old and older and have a substance use disorder, are considered suitable for placement in the community and for whom appropriate treatment and services are available.
  • EAC, Inc./Brooklyn TASC Mental Health Diversion: $160,000 – The program will target men and women who are charged in Brooklyn with felony and misdemeanor offenses and have co-occurring substance use and mental health issues.
  • EAC, Inc/Staten Island TASC and Mental Health Diversion: $140,000 – The program will target men and women who are charged on Staten Island with felony and misdemeanor offenses and have a substance disorder or co-occurring substance use and mental health issue.

Long Island

  • Leadership Training Institute/Nassau ATI: $300,000 – Cognitive behavioral programming and evidence-based services for 135 young men and women between the ages of 16 and 24, either while they are incarcerated at the Nassau County Correctional Center or following their release.
  • EAC, Inc./Suffolk TASC: $250,000 – The program will target individuals who are at least 16 and older with cases in Suffolk County District and County courts who have been identified as having a substance use disorder.
  • EAC, Inc./Nassau TASC: $225,500 – The program will target individuals who are at least 16 and older with cases in Nassau County District and County courts who have been identified as having a substance use disorder.

Western New York

  • Erie County Probation Department/Erie County ATI: $211,931 – An Intensive Release under Supervision Program will be funded, combining case management, cognitive behavioral intervention and intensive supervision for un-sentenced detainees.
  • Community Services for the Developmentally Disabled/WNY Developmentally Disabled Offender Program: $111,577– The program will provide ongoing court advocacy, training and assistance with the goal of ensuring compliance with legal mandates and reducing the risk of recidivism.
  • Niagara County Probation/Alternative to Jail Detention: $81,253 – The TASC program in the county will be expanded to reduce the daily un-sentenced probation in the Niagara County Jail through immediate intervention following arrest and matching of individuals with services.

Finger Lakes

  • Monroe Pre-trial Services Corporation/Pre-trial Release Expansion Project: $298,523 – Current pre-trial services will be expanded to include individuals arraigned in town and village courts. The project also will use a new risk assessment instrument and hire additional case managers for targeted interventions.

Central New York

  • Center for Community Alternatives/Client Specific Planning: $180,000 – Based in Onondaga County, the program will create programs in Onondaga, Monroe and Erie counties to reduce recidivism by ensuring each client is confined only as long as absolutely necessary to protect the public, while enhancing individuals’ opportunities for rehabilitative programming and support services and using structured alternative sentencing.
  • Center for Community Alternatives/Onondaga Self Development: $160,000 – Programs will be created to reduce recidivism and victimization for individuals 18 and older who are incarcerated in local jails for felony or misdemeanor convictions, or for youthful offenders who score at medium or high risk for recidivism and are within five months of release.
  • Catholic Charities of Syracuse/Catholic Charities Sex Offender Treatment Program: $63,600 – The program will provides treatment services for male adults convicted of felonies and misdemeanors.

Mid-Hudson

  • Project MORE, Inc./Women’s Reporting Center: $300,000 – The program will create a Dutchess County Women’s Reporting Center to provide evidence-based case management, cognitive behavioral interventions and other services to female inmates incarcerated pre-trial and those who are sentenced, as well providing alternatives to revocation and re-incarceration.
  • Orange County Council on Alcoholism, Inc./Stayin’ Out Project (ADAC): $259,302 – The program will provide services aimed at reducing recidivism and victimization for male and female offenders age 16 and up who are sentenced to Orange County Jail for felony and misdemeanor offenses (including youthful offenders), who are at a high risk of re-offending and who would otherwise be released without supervision or services.

Capital Region

  • TASC of the Capital District, Inc./TASC of the Capital District ATI: $250,162 – The program will evaluate, refer and provide case management services using evidence-based practices to new offenders, probation or parole violators and returnees from state prison.

Mohawk Valley

  • Workforce Investment Board of Herkimer, Madison and Oneida/Oneida County Job Connection: $250,000 – The program will provide employment training in jail-based settings, with a strong community follow-up component, to implement a connection between local inmates and community resources in order to reduce recidivism.


North Country

  • Watertown Urban Mission/The Bridge Program: $40,850 – The program will offer opportunities for individuals who are arrested and convicted to turn their lives around by addressing their addictions through treatment and intense supervision.

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