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Mentoring Former Prisoners: A Guide for
Reentry Programs
by Renata Cobbs Fletcher and Jerry Sherk with Linda Jucovy
November 2009,
90 pages
Few social programs have attempted
to provide high-risk adults—and, particularly, former prisoners—with mentors. And thus there are few resources
that offer practical advice and recommendations for mentoring this population, given its distinct needs, assets and challenges.
While much remains to be tested and learned, this manual draws on the experience of the 11 sites involved in P/PV's Ready4Work prisoner reentry demonstration, as well as established
best practices in the mentoring field, to provide guidelines for practitioners who are interested in developing a mentoring
program to support former prisoners and enhance the effectiveness of other reentry services, such as employment and case
management services.
The guide was
originally published by the US Department of Labor in November 2007 under the title Mentoring Ex-Prisoners: A Guide for Prisoner Reentry Programs. However, because of growing interest in establishing mentoring programs as part
of larger reentry efforts around the country, P/PV decided to reissue the guide, along with updated information related
to P/PV's evaluation of Ready4Work (particularly findings published in Mentoring Formerly Incarcerated Adults, 2009.)
Fortune Society Rehab
Hidden Truth Re-Entry
Pew REport
Prison Health Report-Correctional Association
Prison-Menal Health Hearing
Saturday Prison Visits Cancelled
After three decades of explosive growth, the nation's prison
population has reached some grim milestones: More than 1 in 100 American adults are behind bars. One in nine black men, ages
20 to 34, are serving time, as are 1 in 36 adult Hispanic men. Nationwide, the prison population hovers at almost 1.6 million,
which surpasses all other countries for which there are reliable figures. The 50 states last year spent about $44 billion
in tax dollars on corrections, up from nearly $11 billion in 1987
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Drop the Rock  | Announcements |
Did you know that NY's prison population has decreased by nearly 12,000 people in the last ten years?
Taxpayers are funding thousands of empty prison beds.
COALITION MEETINGS Next Coalition meeting: THURSDAY, SEPT. 17 @ 6pm
Make a donation: One of the most effective ways for you to help repeal the Rockefeller Drug Laws
is to make a donation to the Correctional Association's Drop the Rock Campaign. Click here to donate online. | Dear Coalition Member,
It has been five months since
Governor Paterson signed legislation to significantly reform NY's Rockefeller Drug Laws. The new laws are still being
phased in, and our coalition is dedicated to monitoring their implementation, and continuing to advocate for their full
repeal.
For several months, coalition members have been coming together to strategize about the next steps for
Drop the Rock. We have been thinking about effective ways to use our grassroots infrastructure and strong track record
to continue to reduce the harm which incarceration policies have on individuals, families and communities. After surveying
community members, reading letters from people in prison, and speaking with our allies in the legislature, we have
initiated a prison downsizing campaign aimed at decreasing the number of people in prison and the bed capacity of the prison
system in New York.
We have identified a number of policy measures to advance this agenda.
I'm writing today to get your thoughts on our expanded criminal justice reform platform, and to ask for your help in transforming
it into an organizing drive as engaging and impactful as Drop the Rock.
Here are some ways our coalition can
advocate to downsize NY's prison system:
• Promote full repeal of the Rockefeller Drug
Laws
• Reduce the number of people who are incarcerated for technical parole violations
•
Increase the rate at which people in prison are granted parole release
• Expand the use
of the work release program
• Expand merit time eligibility
• Advocate
for the closure of underutilized prisons
• Reinvest savings in community based programs
Here are a few ways to become involved:
Campaign Development Drop-In Hours
Create
outreach, education, and advocacy initiatives with other coalition members.
Time: Thursday, September 10 from 3-6pm
at the Correctional Association
District Visits with Legislators
Meet with Senators and
Assemblymembers to promote criminal justice reform.
Audio Documentary Project
If you or
someone you know has been affected by the Rockefeller Drug Laws, please consider sharing your story for our interview project.
Your input and ideas are critical and we want to hear from you! Please reply to this
email with your thoughts, and if you are interested in the opportunities above, send us your updated contact information
and we will reach out to you.
Drop the Rock was effective because of the energy, expertise, and commitment
of its coalition members. We are excited to enter the next stages of our campaign, hold elected officials accountable
to the communities most affected by criminal justice policy, speak truth to power, and expand on the positive movement we
have seen already this year.
Please join us for our next coalition meeting on Thursday, September 17
at 6pm, at the Correctional Association. This meeting will serve as a training on the prison downsizing platform.
Best,
Bob Gangi
Executive Director
Correctional Association
212-254-5700 x 305
rgangi@correctionalassociation.org
Caitlin Dunklee
Associate Director
Public
Policy Project
212-254-5700 x 339
cdunklee@correctionalassociation.org
Si Ud. quiere información sobre nuestro trabajo
en español, por favor llame a 212-254-5700 x 339 o puede mandar un email a cdunklee@correctionalassociation.org.
| | The Drop the Rock Coalition, coordinated by the Public Policy Project of the Correctional Association of New York, is a statewide alliance of individuals and organizations dedicated to repealing New York's Rockefeller Drug Laws. |
| |
Click here to unsubscribe 
Building Bridges, May 2009 Dear
Reader, Prison Action Network has been working
with the Coalition For Fair Criminal Justice Policies to develop a strategy for changing parole laws so people can no longer
be denied parole solely because of the type of crime they committed. We feel there are other much more important criteria
to be considered. In our discussions with experienced policy makers, we've become familiar with the Reintegrative Sentencing Model developed by the Center for Community Alternatives (CCA) and championed by ICARE. We recognize
that the foundation for this concept was laid when Penal Law 1.05(6) was amended in 2006 to add a new goal, "the promotion
of their (convicted person's) successful and productive reentry and reintegration into society.." to the four
traditional sentencing goals of deterrence, rehabilitation, retribution and incapacitation. We envision this model being applied to create a documented Reintegration Plan upon arrest, which would
subsequently be used at every step of the process through which the accused person passes, including the bail hearing, the
court's sentencing decisions, and leading to a new role for the parole board. The Reintegration Plan would be designed
in partnership with the arrested person in analyzing the person's strengths and deficits to determine whether incarceration
or an alternative would be most appropriate, and if incarceration, the programs deemed necessary for the person to earn release
and eventual full reintegration into the community to which he or she is returned. That of course, would require a radical restructuring of our current criminal justice process. To encourage this shift we are suggesting that all of our proposals for improving the criminal justice
system, including new Merit Time statutes and Parole Board policies be consistent with this model. In the new paradigm, we visualize Merit Time becoming a tool to demonstrate the positive growth of a person
throughout incarceration and during the reintegration process. Revisions to 259-i, governing the Parole Board's
authority, would be focused on reducing the Board's sanctioning role and expanding its role in monitoring and evaluating
the person's behaviors and activities during incarceration. Upon release their role would be solely to monitor and provide
support until such time as the person is fully reintegrated into all aspects of the community to which he or she returned. Be well, have hope, and please, get involved!
 | | Dear Coalition members,With the recent successful reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, we are more excited than ever to travel to Albany to
fight for more critical changes to the criminal justice system for women and their families. We hope you will be there
for the Coalition for Women Prisoners 15th Annual Advocacy Day on Tuesday, May 5th. Last year, our
Coalition was represented by almost 300 members and we now have a terrific opportunity to once again make our presence known
and bring the issues we care so deeply about to the top of our legislature's list of priorities. If you are interested in attending Advocacy Day, you must attend
an Advocacy Day training. There are two ways for you to do this:·
Attend any of our April meetings which will serve as Advocacy Day Trainings.(If you are from upstate or out of the area, please contact Serena Alfieri at salfieri@correctionalassociation.org or 212-254-5700 x.311 to find out how you can participate in a training.) ·
Contact Stacey Thompson, our Community Outreach Coordinator, who will hold training workshops
throughout the month and can come to your organization if you have a large group of members who would like to attend.
She can be contacted at: sthompson@correctionalassociation.org or 212-254-5700 x.333. Participating in a training will
provide you with an overview of each of the three bills we are advocating for: the DV Merit Time Bill, Department of Health HIV/HepC Oversight Bill, and the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) Expanded Discretion Bill.A huge congratulations to all those who
fought so hard for so long to enact meaningful change to the Rockefeller Drug Laws. As Caitlin Dunklee, Drop The Rock Coordinator, recently wrote in a message to DTR members: "It may not be the end of the laws, but, if we have anything
to do with it, these reforms will be the beginning of the end." Our deepest respect and hats off to everyone who made this tremendous achievement possible.Looking forward to seeing you on May 5th,Tamar, Serena, Stacey & AndreaWomen in Prison Project Staff | The Coalition
for Women Prisoners, coordinated by the Women in Prison Project of the Correctional Association of New York, is a statewide alliance of individuals and organizations dedicated to making
the criminal justice system more responsive to the needs and rights of women and their families. |
|
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Click here to unsubscribe from the Coalition for Women Prisoners email list. 
--
Barbara
Allan
Prison Families Anonymous
P.O. Box 343
Central Islip, NY 11722
www.hiddentruthtv.net
link to Prison Families Anonymous
631-943-0441
| | | center | for | constitutional | rights | | |
| | | Dear CCR Supporter,
In October 2008, U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina ruled that the imprisonment of 17 Uighur men at Guantánamo
was illegal and that they should be released into the United States. The Uighurs, members of a persecuted Muslim minority in Western China, were sold to U.S.
forces by bounty hunters. Most of them were cleared by the military of any offense in 2003, and in 2008, the U.S. government
formally acknowledged that none of them is an enemy combatant. All 17 have been exonerated by both military and habeas courts,
and all three branches of the government have acknowledged that the Uighurs should be released. After 7 years of illegal
detention, the only safe place these men can go is the United States. Join the Center for Constitutional Rights, Witness Against Torture and other human rights groups in supporting their freedom.
The Bush administration
appealed Judge Urbina's ruling to prevent the Uighurs' release into the U.S. But there has never been and never will
be any legal basis or security condition that should extend the imprisonment of these innocent men a single day more. Call
President Obama (202.456.1111) and Attorney General Eric Holder (202.353.1555) today to ask for the immediate release of the
Uighurs in accord with Judge Urbina's ruling. Ask them to dismiss the Bush Administration's appeal of Judge
Urbina's order and vacate the stay preventing the settlement of these innocent men. For more information, click here.
Stand with us against illegal detention and in support of the safe placement of the Uighurs.
Yours truly,
Annette Warren Dickerson
Director of Education and
Outreach
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email was sent to the address: peacelongbeach@optonline.net.
Click here to unsubscribe from CCR Emails. | | | | Center for Constitutional
Rights ll 666 Broadway 7th floor NY, NY 10012 ll 212-614-6464 ll www.ccrjustice.org | | | | | |
New York Times, February 1, 2009 Examining Human Error in Wrongful Convictions By MANNY FERNANDEZ A new examination of wrongful convictions
in New York City and around the state found that a number of them stemmed not from DNA evidence being used to prove someone's innocence, but from a far
older phenomenon: human
error.
The report, released on Friday by the New York State Bar Association, studied the cases of 53 men and women whose convictions were overturned, often after
spending years, sometimes decades, in prison for murders, rapes and other crimes they did not commit. It determined that the root causes of the convictions
included errors by a prosecutor, judge or member of law enforcement, as well as the misidentification of the accused by victims or witnesses. The mishandling
of forensic evidence
and a reliance on false confessions from the accused or false testimony from jailhouse informants were also to blame. Fewer than half the cases involved new DNA evidence.
Even with the DNA cases, elements of human error were found. In many of the 53 cases, several factors, not just one, played a role in the wrongful convictions, the
report found. Thirty-six
cases involved a misidentification by a witness or a victim, and 31 involved errors by prosecutors, judges or law enforcement, it said. "If you were manufacturing widgets,
and 53 widgets were defective, it would be acceptable," said Barry M. Kamins, a Criminal Court judge in Manhattan who was the chair of the state
bar association task force that prepared the report. "If you're dealing in human lives, and 53 people are innocent and serving time for crimes
they didn't commit, that is unacceptable. One is too many, and 53 in New York is unacceptable." The 53 cases in the report read like a litany of legal
missteps.
Betty Tyson spent 25 years in prison before her murder conviction was overturned in 1998. She was convicted of strangling a Philadelphia businessman in Rochester
in 1973, largely as a result of the testimony of two teenagers who said they had seen her with the victim. One of the teenagers later recanted his account, and
a police report of an interview with the other teenager, in which the witness said he did not see Ms. Tyson with the victim, was suppressed by the
police and never given to her lawyers at the time of the trial, according to the report and news accounts. James Walker was convicted in 1971 of murdering an armored car driver
in Brooklyn, based on the testimony of an informant. But the report stated that the prosecutor and the lead detective in the case suppressed the
fact that the informant
had actually implicated a second man and that a surviving victim had seen Mr. Walker in a lineup but selected another person. Mr. Walker served 19 years in prison
and was freed in 1990.
Bernice K. Leber, the president of the bar association, said the wrongful convictions have not only eroded public confidence
in the criminal justice
system but have also had a significant, often-overlooked economic impact. A 1984 state law permits lawsuits and damage awards for unjust conviction
and imprisonment.
Anthony Faison and Charles Shepherd, two men whose cases were examined, were wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for 14 years in the 1987 shooting death of a livery
cab driver in Brooklyn. Their conviction relied on the testimony of a witness who later admitted she had lied to collect a $1,000 reward. In
a settlement with the state, Mr. Faison and Mr. Shepherd each received $1.65 million. "These are huge numbers of dollars we're talking about," Ms. Leber said.
"What kind of toll is that taking on the state? I really do think that this report will be a seismic step and a wake-up call for our legislators and
the governor to take a hard look at where these dollars are going." The report comes amid criticism that New York has failed to do enough to prevent wrongful
convictions. Several states have established innocence commissions to review cases and propose legislative and procedural changes, but New York has
not. The state also
does not require law enforcement agencies to record interrogations, as some other states do. In a statement, Ann Pfau, the state's
chief administrative judge, said, "We look forward to studying the report and working with the bar, legislative leaders, the executive branch
and criminal justice professionals on this critical issue." Paul J. Browne, the New York Police Department's chief spokesman,
said police officials had not had a chance to review the report. "The N.Y.P.D., as much as anyone -- in fact, more than most -- is committed to convicting the guilty
and exonerating the innocent,
and reasonable measures to accomplish both are welcome," he said in a statement. The task force that prepared the report makes a number
of recommendations, including additional training for the police, prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges, as well as changes in how police lineups
are conducted. It also calls for interrogations of all felony-level suspects to be electronically recorded, and urges the state to provide financial
aid and re-entry services
to those exonerated, which Mr. Kamins said is not provided currently. The bar association will hold two public hearings on the report's
findings -- one in Manhattan on Feb. 13 and the other in Albany
on Feb. 24. The report will then be presented on April 4 to the bar association's House of Delegates, which will vote
on whether to formally adopt it.
**************************************************************************************
Date: Thu,
29 Jan 2009 08:41:10 -0500
Subject: [NYAPRS Enews] MHASC Alert: Call Albany Today to Preserve the Promise of Prison
MH Reform! NYAPRS Note: The Governor's budget proposal threatens to erode major elements of the SHU law
(the law ending the practice of solitary confinement for prisoners with severe psychiatric disabilities), by delaying its
implementation, eliminating its application in half of the state's prisons, and reducing mental health training for correctional
officers.NYAPRS joins advocates from Mental Health Alternatives to Solitary Confinement in urging legislators at today's
Mental Hygiene budget hearing to restore these provisions, you can do your part by making calls to the key legislative officials
mentioned below. Help us 'boot the SHU' (inhumane solitary confinement settings called Special Housing Units) by calling
today!
|  | | Featured News - January 2009CA Report Calls for Renewed Public Funding for
Higher Education in Prison Education from the Inside, Out recommends reversing federal and state budget cuts from the 1990s that have virtually eliminated in-prison college programs
in New York and across the country. The report includes a survey of relevant research and a review of six model in-prison
college programs. The report also contains first-hand testimony from program directors and formerly incarcerated program participants. Read the press release | Download the full report Featured press coverage: Watchdog group wants inmate college grants back, Associated Press/Newsday, (January 29, 2009)
MEET THE CA:
Laura Davidson wins Phyllis McCarthy Public Interest Service Award  For 20 years, through successes, political challenges, fiscal difficulties,
periods of rapid expansion, and, literally, a fire, Laura Davidson has been both a pillar and driving force for the Correctional
Association. She is the heart and soul of our organization—and everyday she exemplifies the CA’s mission to ensure
that all members of our society are treated justly and with dignity and respect. [read more]
Get Ready: CA's Prison Downsizing Campaign It is not hyperbole
to say that we now have a historic opportunity to win significant criminal justice reforms. New York’s budget crisis,
combined with a more receptive legislature in Albany and a governor with a history of supporting drug law overhaul, creates
a virtually perfect storm where far-reaching change is possible. The CA is moving swiftly to take advantage of this moment.
[read more] | Upcoming Events | Crime, Justice and the Economic Crisis
February 10, 2009
6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Theresa Lang Community & Student Center More info | | |
Take
Action! | Already signed it? Get your friends, families, and colleagues
to sign and possibly win a prize! [read more] |
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Our postal address is
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| | The Correctional Association of
New York
in collaboration with
The Center for New York City Affairs / The New School
and
The Nation magazine 
CRIME, JUSTICE AND THE ECONOMIC CRISIS Tuesday, February 10, 2009, 6 pm to 8 pm
Theresa Lang Community & Student
Center
55 West 13th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues), 2nd Floor Like
New York, most states face deepening budget gaps and are slashing education and human services. Nationwide, states pour $50
billion a year into incarceration. New York led the way in expanding its prison system more than 25 years ago; should it lead
the way in the other direction today? Will the federal government take a new approach to criminal justice in an Obama administration?
And with at least 25,000 ex-offenders returning home each year from NY state prisons, what kind of support can communities
expect? MODERATED BY:
Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor,
The Nation WITH FEATURED PANELISTS:
Robert Gangi,
Executive Director, Correctional Association of New York
Glenn Martin, V.P. of Development and Public
Affairs, The Fortune Society
Marc Mauer, Executive Director, The Sentencing Project
Denise
O'Donnell, Commissioner, NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services
Anne Swern, First Assistant
District Attorney, Kings County Admission is free, but you must
reserve a seat. Call 212.229.5418 or email centernyc@newschool.edu.
Supported by the Sirus Fund and the Milano Foundation
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Click here to unsubscribe, or send email to unsubscribe.326278.258068326.7624516319234265039-peacelongbeach_optonline.net@en.groundspring.org.
Our postal address is
2090 Adam Clayton Powell Blvd.
Suite 200
New York, New York 10027
United
States
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