| CSOSA Helps Ex-Offenders in
DC
Ex-offenders get help in the learning lab. |
The officials at the Court Services and Offender Supervision
Agency (CSOSA) in Washington, DC, know they are better funded
than most community corrections agencies. They have taken
their good fortune and organized myriad programs to serve ex-offenders
and improve reentry initiatives in communities throughout
the nation's capital.
An independent executive branch agency of the federal government,
CSOSA provides supervisory and treatment services to more than
26,000 individuals on pretrial release, probation, and parole.
CSOSA has a lot of support in the community thanks to the
groundwork it lays by working with community leaders and ensuring
that the community understands what CSOSA does. A community
relations team goes door-to-door explaining CSOSA's mission,
attends community meetings, and makes CSOSA representatives
available. The investment in the team "has paid off tremendously," said
CSOSA's Associate Director Cedric Hendricks.
A visit to a CSOSA field office and a nearby resource center
reveals how CSOSA keeps itself rooted in the community. The
offices are in the neighborhoods where the ex-offenders live.
Community supervisory officers (CSOs), who have caseloads of
approximately 50 clients and work in special teams, go on "accountability
tours" during which they ride along with police officers
to do home visits.
"We have an extremely dedicated staff motivated to
assisting offenders to reestablishing themselves in the community
as law abiding members," said Tom Williams, Associate
Director for Community Supervision Services.
But motivation is a tough issue for a lot of ex-offenders.
About 40 percent of his clients want to get a job and keep
it from the beginning, but others need to be shown how their
lives can improve if they participate in programs, said CSO
Floyd Jackson.
The Vocational Opportunities Training and Education/Employment
Unit, for example, provides educational, vocational, training,
and referral services to offenders under CSOSA supervision.
At the center, ex-offenders can take computer, literacy,
and GED classes and get counseling or job-training assistance.
Keith Hankins, age 26, has been in the program for 5 months
and is working toward his GED. He takes two buses to get to
the center and says his family is supportive. After 10 months
in a DC jail, Hankins seems to like the classroom setting. "I
needed this in my life," he said.
Darrell Warren just started the program, although he has
been out of the prison system for 3 years. He has worked odd
jobs but says he needs to work on his reading skills and ultimately
get a GED. He wants his life to be more stable, and he plans
to get married this summer.
For some, the faith community was instrumental in changing
their lives. Albert Farmer went through job-training and mentoring
programs at a church, and now he mentors other ex-offenders.
The spiritual foundation that the church provided was important
and helped him help himself, Farmer said. "In my moment of
despair, they opened the door," he
said.
Recognizing the power of faith institutions, CSOSA started
the CSOSA/Faith Community Partnership several years ago. More
than 40 interdenominational faith institutions throughout the
city belong to the partnership. Its mentoring program has trained
more than 200 mentors, and over 100 offenders have been placed.
The partnership also refers offenders to a network of faith-based
support services, including job training, transitional housing,
substance abuse counseling, and family support.
CSOSA also provides comprehensive assessment and treatment
services for substance-abusing probationers and parolees. Clients
who are involved with drugs are evaluated through individualized
assessment inventories and are subsequently placed in a variety
of rehabilitative settings. These include residential and intensive
outpatient treatment programs, continued drug surveillance
monitoring, and other specialized assessment and treatment
services delivered within the context of a sanctions-based
case management process.
"Part of the concurrent goals of treatment and supervision
is holding offenders accountable for their actions," said
Williams. "CSOSA has a large percentage of its caseload
in very high levels of supervision. Frequent contact and drug
testing along with the efficient and swift imposition of intermediate
sanctions sends a message that CSOSA takes its public
safety mission seriously," he said.
For further information, contact:
Leonard Sipes
Senior Public Affairs Specialist
202-220-5616
www.csosa.gov
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