BALTIMORE—Maryland state and private officials are launching a new innovative model aimed at reducing recidivism and cutting state incarceration costs by offering comprehensive services to a group of inmates who will be released appropriately from prison and immediately assisted with their re-entry into the community.
The Public Safety Compact will provide drug addiction treatment and other services to people both in prison and after they return to the community. Research shows that if people receive drug addiction treatment in prison and when they return to the community, they are significantly less likely to return to prison.
The Public Safety Compact is part of the Maryland Opportunity Compact, a public-private partnership aimed at making government work more efficiently by saving tax dollars and producing better results. The Public Safety Compact was signed recently by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (MD DPSCS), Baltimore's Safe and Sound Campaign, the Family League of Baltimore City and Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems and the Open Society Institute-Baltimore. OSI also provided funding support and helped to design and negotiate the initiative.
"This is a really important, forward-thinking development in Maryland corrections policy," said Gary Maynard, MD DPSCS secretary. "This public-private partnership has the potential to be a model for other states that are trying to reduce overcrowding in prisons while still protecting public safety."
"The Public Safety Compact is an innovative way to reduce our prison population while giving former prisoners the treatment and support they need to become stable, healthy and productive members of their families and community," said Diana Morris, director of the Open Society Institute-Baltimore, which was part of a team that developed the model. "The dramatic increase in the prison population over the last 25 years is largely related to drug offenses and to underlying addiction. Treatment gets to the source of this costly problem, with better outcomes for the state, the individual, and the community. Especially during these tough economic times, we believe the Public Safety Compact will be a national model for reducing incarceration and better serving our most vulnerable residents."
The Public Safety Compact is a written agreement between MD DPSCS and community-based programs to provide drug addiction treatment, case management and other services to prisoners both in prison and in the community. After the successful completion of drug treatment in prison offered by Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems (BSAS), inmates who are eligible for parole will be released on the condition that they continue drug treatment and other services at community-based programs. MD DPSCS will monitor compliance closely with these and other conditions of prisoners' release.
Initially, 250 prisoners from Baltimore City will receive these services. The public savings projected from their release from prison is estimated to total $3 million. These cost savings then will be re-invested in community-based drug addiction treatment and other programs that assist the participants in their successful re-entry, providing ongoing public financial support for programs that will serve people returning from prison.
Local and national foundations are investing more than $2 million to "jump-start" the initiative by providing up to two years of post-release support for the 250 people. The private funding will pay for drug addiction treatment in the community and case managers who will help the individuals find jobs, transportation and housing and try to re-connect them with their families. Ultimately, public savings from reduced incarceration will cover these costs. The Division of Parole and Probation will provide parole officers who will work closely with the case managers and participants, providing alternatives to incarceration if drug relapse or technical violations occur.
"This Public Safety Compact aims to break the inefficient cycle of spending tax dollars on last resorts, such as prisons," said Hathaway Ferebee, executive director of Safe and Sound, a Baltimore nonprofit trying to improve conditions for children and youth. "Instead, the compact targets resources to proven strategies that help vulnerable citizens achieve self-sufficiency."
The Public Safety Compact is one of three compacts managed by Safe & Sound and the Family League under the Maryland Opportunity Compact, which aims to change the way the state delivers social services by reducing excessive spending on "last resort" programs such as prisons and foster care and by expanding investments in successful models. The savings of tax dollars over time is re-invested in maintaining proven programs and expanding prevention efforts.
The launch of the Compact is possible due to the generous support of local and national foundations. Through a fundraising effort led by OSI-Baltimore, more than $2 million in private money was donated from the Abell Foundation, Baltimore Community Foundation, France-Merrick Foundation, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, and the Open Society Institute-Baltimore.
###
Founded by philanthropist George Soros, OSI-Baltimore is a private operating foundation that supports a grantmaking, educational and capacity-building programs to expand justice and opportunity for Baltimore residents. With support from a range of investors, its current work focuses on helping Baltimore's youth succeed, reducing the social and economic costs of incarceration, tackling drug addiction, and building a corps of Community Fellows to bring innovative ideas to Baltimore's underserved communities.
Baltimore's Safe and Sound Campaign, funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's five-city Urban Health Initiative, seeks to measurably improve the health, safety and well-being of Baltimore's children and youth.