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Mentors Help Reduce Recidivism
District of Massachusetts
The Boston Reentry Initiative (BRI) is an innovative public safety and recidivism-reduction initiative directed by the Boston Police Department and the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department. It is designed to help some of the city’s most violent offenders successfully return to their neighborhoods and become law-abiding members of society.
Participants in the initiative are selected by gang-intelligence officers, with input from BRI’s criminal justice partners. Inmates with a history of violent offenses, multiple firearms violations, or gang involvement—as well as those who are returning to high-crime areas and who are deemed most likely to return to a violent lifestyle after release—are required to participate in BRI by attending a panel presentation shortly after they arrive at the Suffolk County House of Correction. Through the panel, representatives of community- and faith-based organizations offer services, opportunities, and individual mentors for those who want to change their lives and move away from violence. Mentors help inmates develop plans for their lives after their release and encourage them to meet the goals they establish for themselves. In addition, offenders are offered a wide range of resources, including employment assistance, child support information, and case management services (i.e., identification, licenses, housing assistance, and access to healthcare and substance abuse resources).
The law enforcement members of the panel, which includes state and federal prosecutors, describe the mandatory sentences and strict enforcement of the law that offenders will face if they return to violence and gang activity. They provide specific examples of individuals who returned to gang or gun violence upon their release and who are now serving lengthy federal or state prison sentences, or who were murdered within months of their return to the community.
BRI began in September 2000 and has experienced some success. Although long-term research is needed, preliminary statistics suggest that participants in the project have much greater success when released back into the community. This early success has encouraged expansion of the reentry initiative into similar projects with the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services and the Federal Probation Department. In the federal reentry program, high-risk individuals who are released from incarceration and who are returning to the community on supervised release participate in a similar panel presentation. They are also eligible for the resources and mentor services available through the initiative. BRI is also currently designing a project with the Massachusetts Department of Corrections to address offenders being released from state prisons. Although each project is slightly different, each has the same mission: to help offenders make a successful transition back into the community while protecting the neighborhoods to which they are returning.
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