FedCURE 8 | Harley G. Lappin, Dir. FBOP | Good Time - Reentry

Director Lappin, thank you Congressman, it's a pleasure to see you again. I want to thank you and the Congressional Black Caucus for inviting me here tonight to participate in this panel to discuss re-entry and the Bureau of Prisons' use of community correction centers. I want to join you in thanking the remaining participants for your endurance and your obvious interest in such a very important topic. If it's any reflection of your commitment, we're going to go a long way with this. So again, you all deserve a round of applause. Preparing inmates for reentry into the community is a very high priority of the Bureau of Prisons. I know when most people think of prisons, they think of protecting the public and safety of inmates. Without a doubt, our mission is threefold: we are obligated to protect the public from those who are confined in our institutions, we are also committed to providing a safe environment for folks who are in our custody, as well as a safe environment for employees to work in. But in addition to that, it is also a responsibility to provide inmates with a range of work and other self-improvement programs that will help them adopt a crime-free lifestyle upon return to the community. We are committed to doing everything we can to help protect the public by reducing recidivism. Unfortunately, we are constrained in our ability to attend to this important priority. Over the past few years, we've been able to provide all inmates with the breadth of programs they need to gain the skills and training necessary to prepare them for a successful re-entry into the community. Although our institutions offer a wealth of inmate programs, including work opportunities in prison industry and other institution work assignments, education, vocational training, substance abuse treatment, observance of faith and religion, psychological services, counseling, and other programs that impart essential life skills, we've not been able to attend to all the needs of every inmate. We are currently in the middle of implementing the Inmate Skills Development Initiative, which the judge referenced, which will help unify our inmate programs and services into a comprehensive re-entry strategy. We have found through rigorous research our staff have conducted over the years that inmates who participate in work programs, vocational programs, occupational training, education programs, and residential drug abuse treatment are less likely to recidivate. Certainly based on the proven success of the residential substance abuse treatment program, we've implemented a number of other programs to address the needs of other segments of our inmate population, such as young offenders and offenders in high security institutions. These programs emphasize life skills and the development of pro-social values, respect for self and others, responsibility for personal actions, as well as tolerance. At five of the institutions, we have a Life Connections program, which is a residential multifaith-based program that provides an opportunity for inmates to deepen their spiritual life as well as assist their ability to successfully re-enter society. In addition, we provide a wide array of inmate programs. We provide a release preparation program which inmates become involved in towards the end of their sentence. This program includes instruction in resume writing, job seeking skills, retention skills, presentations by officials from community-based organizations that help ex-inmates find employment and job training, as well as a number of mock job fair opportunities. We've also established Employment Resource Centers in all institutions, providing a wealth of information to assist inmates in obtaining employment after release. The Bureau of Prisons has and continues to use community-based facilities prior to release from custody in order to help inmates adjust from release from custody to release into the community. We help them find suitable post-release employment and in many cases find suitable housing. We refer to these facilities as residential reentry centers, also known as halfway houses. These centers provide a structured, supervised environment and support in job placement, counseling, and other re-entry initiatives. For the one-year period ending March 2009, we released 30,120 inmates through halfway houses. This is 80% of the 37,635 inmates who were appropriate for such placement prior to their release. As part of these community-based programs, some inmates are placed on home detention, typically after a transition period of re-entry. Inmates on home detention are subject to strict schedules, curfews, in-person check-ins, telephonic monitoring, and sometimes electronic monitoring. The use of residential reentry centers is a topic of significant interest, especially with the enactment of the Second Chance Act. We understand the interest in placing inmates in halfway houses for periods of time longer than the current average of four months. We are limited, however, by the number of existing halfway house contracts and the number of beds available in these centers, tight budgets which have precluded our ability to acquire additional halfway house beds, the reticence in the public to allow halfway houses in their communities, and the concern that inmates will abide by the restrictions of re-entry centers for a long period of time after their immediate re-entry needs have been met. We're currently conducting research to assess whether anecdotal evidence that extended halfway house placements leads to increased failures is confirmed by the data. We will continue to balance each inmate's individual needs with our duty to use our limited resources judiciously and provide re-entry services to as many inmates as possible. Again, Congressman, thank you for your invitation to join you today, and I certainly look forward to continuing this discussion as it progresses.