July 24, 2007
General Meeting
Tuesday July 24, 2007
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Minnesota Department of Corrections—Central Office
Attendees
Farris Bell (DOC) Lina Jau (DOC)
Dennis Avery (Henn. Co.) Kristen Hoeft (DOC)
Jeri Boisvert (DPS) Andy Erickson (Ramsey Co.)
Dan Cain (RS Eden) Sabrina Sutter (DOC)
Tim Lanz (DOC)
Farris began the meeting by welcoming everyone. She introduced the two newest staff members: Sabrina and Kristen. The meeting was conducted off of the agenda that had Black Belt Leadership Initiative as the last issue.
Updates:
Reentry Requests for Proposal: Lina Jau
· Three grants: employment services for ex-offenders pilot project, substance abuse reentry and mentoring for children of incarcerated parents. The deadline for the grant submission is August 20th at noon. A Pre-submission workshop will be held August 2nd from 1pm to 3pm.
· The next Request for Proposal is the Demonstration project, which is a contract, not a grant, for high risk adults. It involves $1.55 million over two years and $50,000 is for a required evaluation. It runs from December 1st, 2007 until June 30th, 2009. The tentative date of publication of the RFP is August 13, 2007.
Grants to Pilot County: Farris Bell
· Farris met with the researcher Grant Duwe and decided that a meeting needs to be scheduled with the researcher, the three pilot county representatives, the grant and subsidies representative, and the rest of the group. The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, August 2, 2007 at 9:00 am, at DOC: Central Office.
PRI Federal Grant: Department of Labor and Justice: Farris Bell
· Farris stated that it is a grant that is working with a specific group of offenders from Shakopee and Faribault. It still needs some “tweaking.” The grant was recently modified by the Department of Justice and the Department of Labor. The new and improved model states that a third of the grant money has to be spent on select “Faith based or community service provider” (FBCO) for post release services, but is not to be used for violent offenders or sex offenders. The Department of Justice will provide the 30% that is spent for Faith based program. There was to be a position in Ramsey and Hennepin County to act as a liaison between the institutions. At this point there is still discussion about funding for that position and if it will be a three-quarter time position. The total of $450,000 is the whole grant value to be used over two and a half years. The remaining 70% of funding from the Department of Justice would be used for any offenders need for pre and post release. There is still not a time frame for the grant award, but there was a letter sent out under Harley Nelson’s signature on July 16, 2007, confirming Minnesota Department of Corrections continued interest in the modified grant.
NGA: Reentry Policy Academy: Tim Lanz
· Tim briefly discussed that Governor Pawlenty recently assumed his role as the chair of National Governors Association. We are one of five states to be participating in a reentry technical consultation project through NGA. In the first week of August Kelly, Tim and Gary and two others will be attending a meeting in Washington D.C.. There will be an exchanging of information between the five states about progress they are making. NGA will be there to facilitate. The DOC team will report back to the group at the August meeting. Farris is hopeful that it will lead to more support from the Governor and the Legislature.
· Farris brought up that just about all the county advisory committees are up and running, there is funding in place, and the NGA in place; “We should be able to get some things hammered out.”
Annie E. Casey Foundation: Farris Bell
· Ira Barbell came out to the DOC as a consultant for the Annie E. Casey foundation last year. The foundation works at the community level on how reentry impacts the community. Keith Ellison chaired a town hall forum in North Minneapolis on reentry in which Ira attended about six weeks ago. After the meeting, Ira informed Farris that Annie E. Casey is now really ready to do something in that community with a $150,000 grant. Farris and Gary have put together a proposal for a process in that community. It will assist offenders in their transition back into the community, a sort of “welcome home” process. Dennis and Farris have been involved in a pilot process similar to “welcome home” in South Minneapolis. The foundation will be sending several people from the DOC to Chicago to see similar programs that are in place. Ira from Annie E. Casey should be responding to the “frame work” proposal within the next week. The funding from the grant would be for the community and not the department. The Annie E. Casey foundation is interested in being involved with our state and also bringing other foundation money as well. Farris will keep all of the advisory committees updated.
· Offender housing was brought up and Dan Cain reported that Laura Cadwell has put a committee together on “Siting issues” for single use developments. He thought it would be beneficial for someone from the DOC to be there during the conversations about the neighborhood plans for reentering offenders. There was also a “go ahead” from the Minnesota Housing and Finance Agency for the new development called “Dylan Apartments”. Twenty of the thirty-two new units will be dedicated to the network and the other twelve would be open for the “long term homeless”. Dan feels that the Minnesota Housing and Finance Agency needs to redefine the term “long term homeless” to include exoffenders being without a place to live. Dan thought that there would be no neighborhood problem because of the building being previously used by Project Hope, but has yet to be confirmed. Farris feels that, “We need to get the community involved because they have the power. We need more of those allies on the community side.” There is no timeline yet involved.
Black Belt Leadership Initive: Tim Lanz
· The department is focusing on a strategic process of management succession with quality management training. A select few top level managers attended the University of Minnesota’s Joseph Juran School about a year ago. Then this spring, Tim and Gary were two of the ten that attended the school. Kelly will be in another group of ten attending this fall. The mission of the Joseph Juran school has been further refined to offender reentry by Dennis Benson, Joan Fabian and Harley Nelson. There is now a Department of Corrections steering committee involving the Black Belt folks with a mission statement which will involve giving “marching orders” for projects. Their first project may be case management. They want to cover everything from admission all the way to expiration with the offenders. “We will see the impact that this Black Belt group will have on us as the time goes on,” stated Tim.
Director of Chemical Dependency: Dan Cain
· Carol Falcalsky has been named as the DHS: Director of the chemical dependency program. Dan feels that she is approachable enough to involve her in the efforts with the chemical dependency world and corrections world. She has
been much more visible than other directors and is more willing to take risks.
“A day on the Hill”: Dan Cain
· There is a group in Minneapolis that plans to have a discussion with legislators on reentry issues. Planning for a “Day on the Hill” event has already begun. Guy Gambill of the Council on Crime and Justice is the contact person for people wanting to be involved.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Dan Cain
· Robert Wood Johnson fund has a mission to be the glue that binds all different departments together to benefit the offenders upon reentry. There is “seed” implementation grant funding of $2.4 million dollars to be used over three years in Network activities. The Network builds around behavioral health, physical health, employment, housing, and community reintegration. Basically it is case management of “crew based” work. Dan will bring more information to the next meeting about the Network.
Schedule Next Meeting:
· The next scheduled meeting will be August 28, 2007, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. We look forward to seeing you all there.