Contact us:

Phone       
773.336.6086

E-mail
ntjn@heartlandalliance.org

Address                        
National Transitional Jobs Network
in c/o Heartland Alliance   
4411 N. Ravenswood         
2nd Floor
Chicago, IL 60640                         

• Background Information
• Opportunities for Transitional Jobs
• Advocate
• Making the Case: Resources to use when speaking with Legislators

The Second Chance Act (HR 1593, S1060) became public law on April 9, 2008.

The Act amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to reauthorize, rewrite, and expand provisions for adult and juvenile offender reentry demonstration projects to provide expanded services to offenders and their families for reentry into society. The purpose of the Second Chance Act is to reduce recidivism by improving reentry planning and implementation, and provides competitive grants to promote program innovation in areas of: post-release housing, substance abuse and mental health services, mentoring programs, and education and job training.

In the purposes/findings section of the Act, mention of Transitional Jobs programs was cited as "proven to help people with criminal records to successfully return to the workplace and to the community, and therefore can reduce recidivism."

The Second Chance Act authorizes the Department of Labor (DOL) to grant funds to nonprofits for the "Responsible Integration of Offenders." The same grant funds can be used for mentoring programs to be established through nonprofit partners, which includes; 'transitional services to assist in the reintegration of offenders into the community.' The Act calls that grant funds can be used for the following purposes:

• Mentoring eligible offenders, including the provision of support, guidance, and assistance in the community and the workplace to address the challenges faced by such offenders;
  
  
• Providing job training and job placement services to eligible offenders, including work readiness activities, job referrals, basic skills remediation, educational services, occupational skills training, on-the-job training, work experience, and post-placement support, in coordination with the one-stop partners and one-stop operators that provide services at any center operated under a one-stop delivery system established under section 134(c) of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, businesses, and educational institutions; and
  
  
• Providing outreach, orientation, intake, assessments, counseling, case management, and other transitional services to eligible offenders, including prerelease outreach and orientation.

Under current DOL definitions, work experience and on-the-job training have the flexibility to be used for Transitional Jobs programs.

The Second Chance Act authorizes $181 million in federal funding for Fiscal Years 2008 and 2009 for state and federal reentry programs, but it is now up to the Appropriations Committees in Congress to allocate the full amount of funds the Act authorizes.

Call your U.S. Senator or Representative today and urge him or her to support full funding for this important law.

Click here to contact your Senators.

Click here to contact your Representative.

Click here to visit the NTJN's Advocacy page to learn more about how you can effectively educate your Members of Congress about the importance of Transitional Jobs Programs.

Over 2 million people are serving time in our federal and state prisons, and millions more are in local jails. Ninety-five percent (approximately 650,000 per year) of all prisoners incarcerated today will eventually be released. These individuals face a variety of barriers to employment:

• little or no job skills (up to 60% are unemployed)
• inadequate drug treatment (57-70% of inmates used drugs regularly prior to incarceration)
• insufficient housing (15-27% expect to go to homeless shelters upon release)
• lack of positive influences
• lack of basic physical and mental health services

Not surprisingly, two-thirds of released state prisoners are expected to be rearrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years after release. The cost to society is enormous. The average cost of incarcerating a prisoner is $20,000 per year.

Click here for more information and resources on formerly incarcerated persons.