CONTACT:
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
202/225-3665
BOEHLERT SECURES $387,995 FOR ONEIDA COUNTY
Project Will Provide Early Start to Connect County Jail Inmates With Job Training
WASHINGTON, D.C. –U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-New Hartford) today announced that Oneida County has received a $387,995 grant from the U.S. Department of Education through the Life Skills for State and Local Prisoners Program.
"Securing these funds allows Oneida County to develop a new program that will help those who have made one mistake in their lives avoid making another, so that they can become productive members of our community," Boehlert said. "I am pleased to have worked with the Department of Education on Oneida County's behalf because I know that we need to maximize the potential of every single person in our workforce."
Oneida County Executive Joseph A. Griffo said, "Giving offenders the tools they need to fix their lives reduces the burden taxpayers face through social service costs and helps build a stronger community. This project brings together a partnership that can break the cycle of recidivism. Giving those who are in the county jail a head start at job training and education pays off for employers and the community. The community has urged us to do more to help friends and family members who need this support, and we are fortunate."
Oneida County Sheriff Daniel Middaugh said, "One of the most important elements in operating a correctional facility is to use the time inmates are sentenced as a time when they can begin to confront their problems, develop a plan for the rest of their lives and start getting the education, skills and support they need to become successful after their release. We have a number of outstanding community agencies that help ex-offenders, and through this project we can begin the process of getting inmates on the right road even before they leave the facility. Innovative correctional facilities need to be pro-active. Through this grant, we are able to move in a new direction with overall savings and at no cost to the local taxpayers."
Workforce Development Director David Mathis said, "I want to thank Congressman Boehlert for his efforts to secure this money by standing up for us in Washington. Helping offenders find employment is one of the most fundamental steps we can take to avoid the cycle of recidivism. By working with offenders while they are in the county correctional facility, we can make contacts that will help them come out with contacts who can help them find work, get the skills they need and have the supports they need from local agencies to address problems such as substance abuse or emotional instability that helped put them in jail in the first place."
The Oneida County Life Skills for Prisoners Project of the Oneida County Sheriff's Department will reduce recidivism by targeting 500 inmates at the Oneida County Correctional Facility to provide a seamless re-entry project. Grant funds will create a pre-release project for adults that will connect with an existing network of community providers to reduce recidivism.
The project, which will work in partnership with the Oneida County Re-Entry Task Force comprised of community, local and state agencies, brings together the criminal justice system, workforce system, community- and faith-based organizations and social services agencies to increase capacity and help ex-offenders successfully transition to the community. By combining intensive assessment to determine an inmate's major mental health, substance abuse, physical health, educational, vocational, housing, family, employment and financial needs as well as life skills instruction within the facility along with practical vocational/education instruction and connections to a network of agencies working in the community, this project will significantly impact post release outcomes, achieving such socially desirable outcomes as employment success, crime free living, and family reunification and support.
This Life Skills for State and Local Prisoners Program of the U.S. Department of Education provides financial assistance for establishing and operating programs designed to reduce recidivism through the development and improvement of life skills necessary for reintegration of adult prisoners into society. It is unique in being one of the few federally funded programs that provides funding directly to local correctional facilities. In its latest grant awards, the Department of Education funded about a dozen projects across the country, equally divided between state- and local-level projects.
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