MARYLAND RESOURCES
Across Maryland, there are numerous faith and secular organizations, community leaders, advocates, and crime victims working with government agencies and policy makers to assist formerly incarcerated men and women seeking to lead productive lives. In collaboration with the work of local law enforcement, parole and probation, and the department of corrections, they constitute a state-wide network striving to improve public safety, and strengthen families and communities.
• Education & Employment
• Health Challenges of Reentry
• Housing
• Family
• Reentry and Public Safety
• Reentry and the Faith Community
• Local Resources
• Other Resources
• Additional Links
EDUCATION & EMPLOYMENT
Associated Catholic Charities provides job placement services and assistance to unemployed and underemployed clients, including former offenders.
Center for Fathers, Families, and Workforce Development, expanded to include STRIVE, Baltimore in 1998. The program, developed by the East Harlem Employment Service in 1985, prepares participants for employment through an intensive three-week workshop that addresses soft skills. With these skills, STRIVE, Baltimore aims to provide former offenders (and others) with skills to obtain and retain employment in order to achieve financial independence.
Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake, Inc. - Supporting Ex-offenders in Employment Training and Transitional Services (SEETTS) Seeks to increase public safety, reduce recidivism, and stop the cycle of drug abuse and criminal behavior by providing inmates and former offenders with interviewing skills, teaching business etiquette, and working on resumes.
Job Opportunities Task Force (JOTF) works in the Baltimore region to develop and advocate policies and programs, forge partnerships, and leverage investments that increase the marketable skills, income, and economic opportunities of low-skill, low-income workers and job seekers. JOTF supports increased education, vocational, and transitional services within correctional institutions and in the community, with a goal of helping public agencies and human service organizations prepare offenders to lead stable and productive lives following their release.
Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services - Partnerships for Re-Entry Programming (PREP) is a Department of Corrections-wide program to serve 90% of inmates being released. Combining cognitive skills training, employment readiness and career development, community resource information, and victim / offender impact and awareness; PREP goals include, partnering with agencies to better coordinate training opportunities, secure personal ID documents, and enhance service delivery.
The Baltimore Transitional Jobs Project consortium was established in 2002 to assist selected ex-prisoners who are returning from prison to Baltimore City and are unlikely to obtain employment in the labor market on their own. Through public/private partnerships, the program will provide eligible ex-prisoners returning to Baltimore City with transitional employment, support services, and placement in the labor market, followed by 12 months of post-placement retention services.
HEALTH CHALLENGES OF REENTRY
Open Society Institute - Baltimore (OSI) Criminal Justice Program plans to concentrate its resources on two program priorities: the successful transition of ex-offenders into the community; and alternatives to incarceration for juveniles. The Program will give special attention to the needs of youth, women, and people with drug addiction and/or mental health problems. Through grantmaking and educational forums, the Program hopes to identify effective approaches that Baltimore can employ to address the needs of youthful offenders and newly released inmates. The Program will work in close collaboration with other OSI-Baltimore programs-including Drug Addiction Treatment, Education and Youth Development, and Workforce Development- and with OSI's national Criminal Justice Initiative in an effort to establish a comprehensive approach to the challenges facing the Baltimore community.
Teen Challenge of Maryland - Volunteers visit and correspond with inmates and offer an aftercare drug counseling program for these inmates upon their release. The prison coordinator often serves as the link between the inmates and the legal system in arranging for inmates to voluntarily enter several Teen Challenge Centers.
Tuerk House, Inc., (730 Ashburton Street, Baltimore, MD 21216; Tel: 410.947.1125 Fax: 410. 233.8540) founded in 1970, provides substance abuse treatment through a variety of drug treatment programs, an Intermediate Care Facility, an outpatient treatment program, and two halfway houses. The Maryland Department of Parole and Probation, Office of Federal Pretrial Services, Baltimore City Jail, and the state prison all refer inmates to the program. A primary goal of Tuerk House is to empower uninsured substance abusers so that they may live in a substance-free environment and thus live more productive and meaningful lives.
HOUSING
Prisoners Aid Association of Maryland, Inc., (204 E 25th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218; Tel: 410.727.4677) The goal of PAA is to support and encourage reform in former prisoners following their release by providing them with stable housing and opportunities to obtain gainful, honest employment.
FAMILY
Angel
Tree Program
Allows individuals and partnering corporations to personalize
a gift for a child in need, including children with one or more incarcerated
parent, by adopting an Angel and purchasing toys or clothing items for
an individual child.
Children Having Incarcerated Parents, Inc. (CHIP) - Staying Connected - Through funding as a Community Fellowship through the Open Society Institute-Baltimore, Staying Connected maintains and strengthens relationships between incarcerated mothers and their children by the establishment of support groups for the children and their caregivers.
Child Welfare League of America Juvenile Justice Division, promotes the development and implementation of effective community-based intervention and treatment alternatives to reduce the reliance on incarceration for accused or adjudicated delinquent youth.
The Federal Resource Center for Children of Prisoners - The Resource Center's ultimate goal is to improve the quality of information available about children with incarcerated parents and to develop resources that will help create better outcomes for these children and their families.
Girl Scouts Bridge Beyond Bars (GSBBB) - Provides continued scouting programming to recently paroled mothers and daughters. Girl Scouts of Central Maryland recognized that newly paroled women face many obstacles in their transition back to family life. The Bridge Beyond Bars program seeks to help these mothers become positive role models in their daughters' lives.
See Forever Foundation - Creates learning environments in urban communities where teens, particularly those who have not succeeded in traditional schools, can reach their potential. Through the Maya Angelou Public Charter School (Washington, DC) and related See Forever programs, students develop the academic, social, and employment skills that they need to build rewarding lives and promote positive change in their communities.
REENTRY AND PUBLIC SAFETY
Baltimore City's Ex-offender Task Force - Formed by the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development to bring together diverse stakeholders to develop a citywide plan to assist former offenders in successfully transitioning back to the community.
Fraternal order of X-Offenders
(FOXO) is a community based organization spear-headed by x-offenders who
have personal experience, professional academic wisdom and understanding
about juvenile delinquency and criminal behavior.
Designed to study and research the prevalence of various social ills within
the communities of Baltimore city, FOXO has a proven track record of facilitating
public forums and workshops which serve to articulate, educate and stimulate
positive change throughout effected organizations.
Maryland Justice Coalition (“MJC”) comprises more than 200 individuals and organizations that seek a fair system of criminal justice in Maryland. Established in May 2002, MJC strives to marry the strengths of legal professionals and policy advocates with the strengths of grassroots activists, community leaders and the people most affected by the injustices in the criminal system.
Maryland Reentry Partnership Initiative (312 N. Martin Luther King , Jr. Blvd, 3rd Floor; Baltimore, MD 21201; Tel: 410.230.2283) Public-private collaborative seeking to engage community members, government organizations, and service providers in developing strategies to reduce recidivism and successfully reintegrate individuals who were formerly incarcerated into the community.
Patuxent Institution – Reentry Facility - Provides for continuation of treatment and assists offenders in reintegrating successfully back into society by operating a half-way house in downtown Baltimore. Clinical staff offer psychotherapy, job and family counseling, and social casework services, as well as monitor residents and community parolees.
US Department of Justice: Office of Justice Programs - Maryland’s reentry program focuses on both juvenile and adult offenders, with an extensive collaboration with correctional, employment, social services, mental health, and supervision agencies. It will provide services that include substance abuse treatment, mental health treatment, transitional housing assistance, faith-based interventions, workforce development, educational services, vocational training, life skills training, employment assistance, victim impact training, community service, and intensive case management and supervision.
REENTRY AND THE FAITH COMMUNITY
Good News Jail & Prison Ministry is a non-profit organization formed for the purposes of organizing a visitation program for the benefit of witnessing to inmates and their families; aiding in a physical and spiritual rehabilitation of men and women upon their release from an institution; and provision of an educational program within the institutions to encourage continuance of formal education among the inmates, as permitted by said institutions.
Helping Up Mission, a nonprofit organization, was founded in 1885 by Pastor Abraham Ezra Brandanbaugh to help the poor and underserved of Baltimore. Currently, the Mission offers a variety of programs designed to meet the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual needs of people who are disenfranchised. Helping Up Mission also has a Spiritual Recovery Program (SRP) that serves former offenders as part of the catchment group.
LOCAL RESOURCES
Power Inside seeks safety, dignity and justice for women and families in Baltimore. Social change that ends gender violence and all forms of oppression is necessary to make our vision a reality.
OTHER RESOURCES
Abell Foundation - Addresses the barriers facing the returning ex-offender, with a particular emphasis on initiatives that provide transitional housing, jobs and skills training.
Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) is an association of 1,000 public and private nonprofit agencies that assist over 3.5 million abused and neglected children and their families each year with a wide range of services.
The Correctional Healthcare Network (HealthNet) is intended to encourage communication among corrections and criminal justice health care professionals and to inform the industry of new developments, trends and initiatives that affect correctional systems nationwide.
The
Enterprise Foundation - Baltimore - Among other projects, the
foundation will give 300 more men returning from prison to their communities
the training to become responsible community members through the Maryland
Re-entry Partnership.
National H.I.R.E. Network - Established by the Legal Action Center, the National Helping Individuals with criminal records Re-enter through Employment Network is both a national clearinghouse for information and an advocate for policy change. The goal of the National H.I.R.E. Network is to increase the number and quality of job opportunities available to people with criminal records by changing public policies, employment practices and public opinion. The National H.I.R.E. Network also provides training and technical assistance to agencies working to improve the employment prospects for people with criminal records.
United States Department
of Justice - The Release Preparation Program includes classes
in resume writing, job seeking, and job retention. The program also includes
presentations by community-based organizations that help ex-inmates find
jobs and training opportunities after release. The Bureau places appropriate
inmates in halfway houses prior to release to help them adjust to life
in the community and find employment.
ADDITIONAL LINKS
Annie E. Casey Foundation - Reentry National Outreach Campaign
Open Society Institute - Rethinking Crime and Punishment in America
Returning Home: Understanding the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry
National Institute of Corrections - Returning Homen
Government Publications Directory and Link to Publications on Reentry
Maryland Correctional Educational Libraries/Reentry Job Search Links
Report: Need for Supportive Housing for Previously Incarcerated People
Reentry National Media Outreach Newsletter, August 2006
