Reentry Alabama: State wants to halve prison recidivism rate in 6 years

An initiative to support those released from prison in Alabama aims to cut the state's recidivism rate in half by 2030.

The Alabama Commission on Reentry, also known as Reentry Alabama, met Tuesday and emphasized the need for collaboration and communication to help former inmates find jobs and housing and help them deal with issues such as addiction and mental illness. These services can help them lead productive lives after incarceration.

“This is a very complicated issue,” said Cam Ward, director of the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles. “And there is no one agency or one company that can solve the problem.”

Ward, who has advocated for criminal justice reform in Alabama for more than a decade, is chairman of the Reentry Alabama Commission. The commission is comprised of state legislators and representatives from Alabama's corrections, labor, law enforcement, mental health, human resources and veterans agencies, as well as the Alabama Community College System, the Southern Poverty Law Center and other organizations.

Alabama is one of five states that have joined a program called Reentry 2030 in partnership with the Council of State Governments Justice Center. Jesse Kelley, program director of Reentry 2030, and Nicole Jarrett, senior policy adviser, spoke at the Reentry Alabama meeting at the State House on Tuesday.

According to the CSG Justice Center, the most recent figures available from Alabama, from 2018, show a recidivism rate of 29%. That's the percentage of people who were re-incarcerated within three years of their release. The rate has improved from the previous year, when it was 34% in 2008.

Alabama's rate appears to be fairly close to the middle of the pack among states. The CSG Justice Center report says states calculate recidivism differently and cautions against comparing states' rates. A table in the CSG report shows that 16 states have lower rates than the 29% reported by Alabama.

Nationally, the recidivism rate for state prisoners fell from 35% in 2008 to 27% in 2019, the CSG reported. The report notes that in 2008, Congress passed the Second Chance Act, which provided $1.2 billion for state and local efforts to reduce recidivism.

Alabama authorities have been emphasizing the need to reduce recidivism rates for years. In 2020, Governor Kay Ivey's Criminal Justice Policy Task Force released a report saying that reducing recidivism is the long-term solution to Alabama's perennial problem of overcrowded and understaffed prisons.

In December 2020, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit alleging that violent conditions in Alabama's men's prisons violate the Constitution. The case is still ongoing.

At Tuesday's meeting, members of Reentry Alabama talked about efforts to help people released from the prison system reintegrate into society.

Ward said Pardons and Paroles has helped people at the PREP Center in Perry County, which offers education and job training as well as treatment for mental illness and addictions. Pardons and Paroles offers similar programs at its day centers across the state for people on probation or parole.

JF Ingram State Technical College offers vocational training for state prisoners.

Several initiatives aim to help released prisoners obtain the identification documents they need to find work and build a new life after their prison sentence.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is working on a project to issue them driver's licenses or state identification cards without a driver's license. The Alabama Department of Corrections is in the final stages of a partnership with the Department of Public Health to issue birth certificates to released inmates, said Jeffery Williams, ADOC's deputy commissioner of government relations. Williams said the ADOC has provided Social Security cards to nearly 100% of released inmates.

Alabama Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington said the department established a career center at the Julia Tutwiler prison last year. Washington said the career center begins helping inmates prepare for jobs six months before their release. Washington said the Labor Department plans to establish career centers at other prisons as well.

Ward said state agencies need a common database to help them identify the needs of people released from prison. He said information such as whether a person has a history of drug use or has been diagnosed with a mental illness is currently difficult to find because there is no central database.

“The problem is that my system has an identifier for parolees and those released on probation,” Ward said. “The court has an identifier for those who go through the court system. The DOC (Department of Corrections) has an AIS (inmate number). No one has the same number.”

The Bureau of Pardons and Paroles is preparing to issue a request for proposals (RFP) for companies interested in a central database that agencies can access. Ward said this would help agencies collaborate and help inmates find the services they need.

“The Psychiatric Institute could come and look at my stuff, which is legal,” Ward said. “I can look at their stuff, which is legal. And you wouldn't have to go to eight or nine different locations.”

“Maybe you don't need mental health care,” Ward said. “Maybe you're addicted to drugs. Maybe you have neither. But if we had a unique identifier, we could evaluate you and say, this is what this person needs. Maybe he's only at a third-grade reading level. That's what we need to work on. That's how we can figure out how to best use and allocate the resources we have without just throwing everything at the wall.”

Reentry Alabama was reauthorized through a law passed earlier this year. Ward said the goal is to meet monthly to prepare for the next legislative session, which begins in February.

“Everyone is going to have a role to play in this,” Ward said. “I think we all have to use the best practices in our respective fields, our respective agencies, our respective groups to make it work. I think that's ambitious. But I think with the unified support, the bipartisan support that we've had over the years on this, we can really contribute to a better, safer society for those who are in prison after they're incarcerated.”

“Ninety-five percent of all people in prison are going to get out at some point. You have to figure out what you want to do. I know what I want. I want a safe society. I think we all want that. But that's not cheap. That needs better resources and efforts to make sure people have a job. They can solve their underlying problem. Stable housing. Stable income. And I think we can do that. I think that's a goal we all share.”