POLICY

Effective prisoner reentry should be one of the top priorities of this and future legislatures.  Proper execution of a proven mix of services can increase public safety and economic security, lower health care costs, and enhance community well being.  Failure to address prisoner reentry will effectively exacerbate problems in all of these areas exponentially.  Successful reentry requires services from disciplines that often cross the artificial boundaries of State departments and requires a commingling of resources to be effective.  For most returning offenders, a chance for successful reintegration, requires access not only to the accountability and monitoring functions associated with the Department of Corrections; but also to the physical and behavioral health services normally associated with the Department of Human Services; to affordable, supportive housing normally associated with the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency; to living wage jobs, normally associated with the Department of Labor; with all of these areas addressed with an emphasis on familial and community reunification and engagement.

BACKGROUND

• In the past 25 years the Minnesota prison population has grown from under 2000 inmates to over 9000.  We are now at a point where we will release 7000 people per year from State prison alone, not factoring in those who reenter from county jails.
• The ratio of supervising agents to offenders is 3 times lower than in 1980.
• There are fewer Minnesota half-way house beds than there were in 1980.
• The collateral consequences of a criminal conviction have never been more onerous.  We have legislatively created barriers to housing, certain types of employment, student loans, economic assistance and adoption for those with felony convictions.  Furthermore, we as a society have advanced to where background checks are done on virtually everyone who applies for a job, an apartment or a loan, with no oversight on the companies doing the background checks.
• Service most needed by returning offenders; employment advocacy, behavioral health, housing, family services; require the offender to navigate multiple systems and funding requirements, often resulting in needs not being met, or the offender merely giving up.
• A person who cannot get a living wage job, cannot get a decent place to live, cannot support their family, and who is not afraid of prison because s/he has been there, is a huge public safety risk.  7000 of them is a catastrophe waiting to happen.

• Create a sustainable funding subsidy for transitional housing (see transitional housing)
• Expand the protections offered under Minnesota Statutes Chapter 364 to non-public entities.  Failing that, expand them to include any entity that does business with a public entity.
• Create a “Certificate of Rehabilitation” and a process for obtaining it and then make those who hold it a protected class under civil rights regulations.
• Limit liability for negligent hiring for those business who knowingly employ ex-offenders
• Limit liability for those landlords who knowingly rent to ex-offenders
• Create a tax-break incentive for employers and landlords who serve ex-offenders
• Create oversight for those companies that do criminal background checks with remedies for those victimized by erroneous or outdated information
• Eliminate access to arrest data, where the arrest does not result in a conviction, for all but law enforcement and corrections
• Examine and modify the collateral consequences that have been legislatively created so that they comply with the intent of Chapter 364
• Fund enough supervising agents to bring caseload sizes down to 1980 levels
• Consider expanding the discretionary release practices currently in place for the Challenge Incarceration Program and the newly created CRP program to other non-violent offenders, allowing for a limited time cut for participatory behavior while incarcerated.  As a second part of this strategy, dedicate funds saved on shortened incarceration to the reentry effort.

For more information, contact:
Cal Saari (218-885-1375)

11/10/07