MCORP Steering Committee Page 5 of 5

MCORP Steering Committee Page 5 of 5

Meeting Minutes September 25, 2007

General Meeting

September 25, 2007

9:00 AM – 11:30 AM

Minnesota Department of Corrections—Central Office

Attendees:

Dennis Avery (Hennepin Co.) Pat Krauth (DHS-CSED)

Farris Bell (DOC) Melanie LaComb (MN House)

Wanda Berg (Olmsted Co.) Tim Lanz (DOC)

Lee Buckley (Governors’ office) Susan Moore (DOC)

Andy Erickson (Ramsey Co.) Shelia Olson (Goodwill/Easter Seals)

Chris Fotsch (Wilder) Cherie Shoquist (MN Housing)

Rob Hope (Goodwill/ Easter Seals) Lynne Singelmann (DHS)

Tricia Hummel (MN Justice) Sabrina Sutter (DOC)

Gary Johnson (DOC) Claudia Waneuman (Wilder)

Gary Karger (MN House) Carol Woolverton (MDH)

Gary began the meeting by welcoming everyone. An Agenda was passed out to follow along. The Representatives’ from the Goodwill/Easter Seals were introduced and they started the meeting with a power point presentation.

Transitional Employment, “Reentry Works” presentation: Chris Fotsch and Rob Hope

· It is a national project with sites in St. Paul, Detroit, Milwaukee and two in Chicago. The project has been up and running since mid-January. It is a three year demonstration project involving the 5 different sites. Each site has two different projects. In St. Paul there is currently the job search assistance service which is done with the Wilder Foundation and the transitional employment services is done with the Goodwill/Easter Seals. Each site was funded $200,000 a year, for three years to implement this project.

· There is currently little information on what type of employment strategies work for ex-offenders as they reenter the community. The transitional job study will yield an understanding of transitional employment benefits to different populations. Few employment strategies have been proven to be successful for ex-offenders. The Joyce foundation has put together a research team consisting of MDRC, Urban Institute and University of Michigan. The study will include the impact on employment outcomes, a cost/benefit analysis, and the impact on recidivism.

· The project began the intake on January 17, 2007. To complete the study there will be 400 participants which will be split into the two study groups.

· When an offender comes to the Wilder Job Club they must fall into a specific research group consisting of being a male 18 years and older, be in the 90 day release window from a Minnesota Department of Corrections state facility and be ready to work full time (32.5 hrs). This is a voluntary research program that the ex-offenders must agree to participate in.

· The ex-offenders will be given one of two random assignments consisting of either job placement assistance at Goodwill or job search assistance with the Wilder Job Club. When the random assignment has been decided by the computer, the ex-offender either remains at the Wilder Job Club or they take the bus five blocks to Goodwill for further intake processing.

· When they remain at the Wilder Job Club they see a presentation and get to participate in a one-on-one with a counselor whom provides specialized job search assistance. The counselors also provide resume preparation, interview strategies and a “how-to” answer the conviction question with core competency. They can also provide financial assistance for housing, transportation, work equipment, interview clothing, and identification documents.

· At Goodwill, the ex-offenders arrive and go through intake. They could start work as soon as 9 AM the next day. There is an immediate satisfaction/attachment to a minimum wage transitional job for the ex-offender. They can start accumulating a positive job reference and accumulating money for their reentry needs.

· For the offender to be successful in the program they must have four weeks of “work ready” performances to move on to the placement services or a hard skills training program.

· Wilder Job Club recognizes the ex-offenders for accomplishing things like getting their drivers license, perfect attendance, graduating skills training, reunification with family and possibly purchasing and insuring a car. The ex-offender also receives follow up/retention services following placement in competitive employment. The motto of Good will is “Once a Goodwill participant, always a Goodwill participant.”

· The some of the things that are working well for the study are: having information available pre-release through Wilder pre-release classes, community corrections agents passing the information along and a proven track record of providing effective services. Also the location of Goodwill being only five blocks away from the Wilder Job Club helps the success of the program.

· Currently there are 259 participants enrolled in the program as of September 21, 2007. The median age of the group is 32. Seventy-five percent are Black/African American. Two-thirds are on intensive supervised release. The study might be out for review around summer of 2009.

· One of the several challenges of the program is the work flow. It is not knowing how many participants will walk through the door every morning. The goal is to attract the most diverse population for the study to get the most accurate results. Actually acquiring and keeping housing is also a problem for the ex-offenders. There are also ex-offenders that might need special accommodations at a job due to mental and physical disabilities. Sometimes obtaining identification can be a difficult and long process that needs to happen in order to obtain a job.

Legislative work group on offender reentry update: Melanie LaComb and Gary Karger

· Representatives Michael Paymar and Robert Eastland have interest in offender reentry both in a rural and urban way due to their locations in the state. They have realized that it has become a popular topic that needs to be discussed to see if there is more legislation needed. There will be three more meetings that include a wide variety of members from the DOC, county attorneys, sheriffs and sentencing guidelines members. It is a group of high level people discussing the issues and ultimately it is going to be a good group to educate more people on reentry.

Housing Presentation to Legislative Reentry Work Group Summary: Cherie Shoquist

· The Wilder survey data is used by the housing department and other state agencies to guide policies. The Wilder Group does a survey every three years to study how the transitional programs are working. According to the Wilder Survey, there are about 7,000 people homeless on any given night. The mission of the Minnesota Housing Department, as a member of the MCORP Steering Committee, is to get stable housing for the offenders being released back into the community. Minnesota Housing has funding to end long term homelessness among people with criminal records. There is not enough transitional housing for the amount of people being released from DOC facilities. There is a definite need for affordable housing where people with a criminal record can be housed. Ex-offenders with a connection to stable housing may be less likely to be re-incarcerated. There will be more information on affordable housing in general coming from Cherie.

Pilot Grant Proposals/Advisory Group Update: Dennis Avery, Andy Erickson, and Wanda Berg

· In Hennepin County was granted $550,000 to use over 2 years from the state Department of Corrections for reentry services. The one guideline from the DOC was that the case loads need to be reasonably capped. Hennepin County will be involving three experienced agents to carry out MCORP vision in Hennepin County. The biggest challenges for the agents involved will be coordinating with the reentry programs that are in place and the new groups that are emerging with reentry services. Another challenge is the distance that agents would need to travel to do in-reach with offenders in prisons. They are working on coordinating with their IT department to start webcam chatting between the inmates, case workers and agents. It is currently in place in the workhouse and is working well. The web cam chats can be helpful for agents to discuss with offenders as they about to be released, to discuss the release plan. The first 72 hours after release are the most critical in preventing recidivism.

· In Ramsey County they are going to hire two supervised release agents. They are trying to get a couple experienced agents to make a lateral move and take on the reentry program during the pilot phase, but ultimately returning to their previous position. There needed to be effective case management training, motivational interviewing training and case planning training for the supervised release agents.

· In Dodge, Filmore and Olmsted Counties they have been ahead of the curve. They got an early start on the reentry program thanks to a director of corrections finding the funding before there was funding appropriated for MCORP. A few new things that they have added to their program are they have started a computer training class with old laptop computers and it is run by an ex-offender. The Counties will be approaching a recycling center through Express Personal Services for possible transitional employment. Most recently there have been 5 offenders that started college after being released from the “Starting Over program”. The new reentry coordinator is Anne Rivas.

Update on Reentry Grants Award: Farris Bell

· There were 3 grant rounds conducted and grants rewarded to 3 different agencies.

· The first agency is the Emerge Program from North Minneapolis. The grant is for the establishment of a pilot project for employment services for ex- criminal offenders living in North Minneapolis. It is an award of $200,000 for 2008 and 2009.

· The second grant was rewarded to The University of Minnesota: School of Social Work. The grant is intended to provide services to reentering offenders and their intimate partners. This will be subcontracted with two other programs in the community. The award is $200,000 for 2008 and 2009.

· Finally the third was a mentoring grant for children of incarcerated parents. It was awarded to Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization. The award was $375,000 for 2008 and 2009.

Annie E. Casey Foundation: Farris Bell

· The Annie E. Casey focus is on the community and the reentry of ex-offenders into the communities. The neighborhood areas that Annie E. Casey foundation will focus on are: North Minneapolis, St. Paul (to be determined) and Rochester (to be determined). This involves community resource identification and support, community assessment and community resource planning and sharing. They the committee has requested $ 150,000. Of that amount, $54,600 would be used for a DOC employee as a community liaison that would be employed in that position for 1 year full time. Then there will be an RFP put out to contract with a research organization to design, conduct and report on three community listening sessions at a cost of $15,000. Annie E. Casey or a community organization will be putting out a similar RFP to design, conduct, and report on offender listening sessions or individual offender interviews in three stages of release at a cost of $45,000. There will be a third RFP by Annie E. Casey or a community foundation for reentry forums. Total cost will be $95,000 for the contracts. The proposal has been submitted and the committee is now waiting to hear back from Annie E. Casey Foundation.

· A summary about Annie E. Casey proposals will be done by the DOC and sent out to the Steering Committee members.

PRI Grant Presentation: Susan Moore

· The planning that went into the Prison Reentry Initiative grant was done very well. The first strategy is to hire three agents to become the transition plan management across county and state systems. These people make the connection between the offenders and the transition plan. Second strategy is to engage community employers and bridge the gap for reentry employment. Third strategy is moving toward a systems change at the DOC. The total budget for the Prisoner Reentry Initiative is $449,955.

· The next step is getting this set up in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties. Hiring and training the two new employees and getting them ready to start the program. There is not a time line currently in place, but there will be one in the future.

Case Planning Work Group: Tim Lanz

· The Case Planning work group of 27 people met for the first time on September 24, 2007. They are trying to come up with a case planning model that works within Minnesota. The work group is trying to create a continuum of case planning that starts in the prison and continues out into the community. The case management culture is not where it should be in the Department of Corrections. They are trying to involve the three pilot counties eventually.

· Included in the case plan is dealing with family issues, housing issues, job issues, chemical dependency issues. The case plan is to identify the offender specific issues for an effective reentry. They have to be careful not to make the case plan too overwhelming for the offender to follow.

NGA Policy Academy Update: Gary Johnson

· The Academy was really a face to face with other reentry coordinators from Maine, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Washington and Minnesota to develop a reentry network.

· Washington State has done a lot of reentry work. They start from a state level with their Governor being the driving force. Minnesota is doing it in reverse. By using the connections made with the other states at the academy it will benefit our current system on reentry.

· It was a valuable experience because of technical assistance we will get from NGA.

Next Meeting:

· The next scheduled meeting will be October 23, 2007, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. We look forward to seeing you all there.