"Project No Return" Working

By Walt Gabalski

Rochester, NY – A federally funded program to reduce recidivism rates among young criminal offenders in the Monroe County Jail is getting good results according to program administrators.

Project No Return was announced one year ago. The program provides discharge planning, case management and support services for selected offenders between the ages of 18 and 24 who are returning to society from the Monroe County Correctional Facility.

Program Coordinator Tisha Smith says a variety of services is provided to help participants make the transition back to the community. Support services may include housing assistance, substance abuse treatment, mental health counseling, educational assistance and employment counseling.

The program is administered by Huther-Doyle Memorial Institute Incorporated which received a 1.8-million dollar grant from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Under the grant, Huther-Doyle must serve 220 convicted offenders over a four year period.

Maria Casapini of the Rochester Institute of Technology criminal justice department is responsible for interviewing participants in Project No Return and monitoring the program's results. Casapini says 43 criminal offenders have been served in the first year, and very few have committed new crimes.

The recidivism rate for participants in Project No Return is about 9-percent according to program coordinators, compared with 80-percent among ex-offenders outside the program.

Rochester Institute of Technology Criminal Justice Professor Dr. John Klofas heads the research team that is evaluating the program. He says that policy makers at all levels of government should make such programs a permanant part of the criminal justice system.

Coordinators say that transitional services are time-intensive and expensive, but cost considerably less than incarceration. They believe that the first year results show that such programs work.

The federal grant for Project No Return expires in 2009. The results will be monitored and reported to the federal government over the next three years. Program administrators say they intend to lobby government leaders at all levels to expand the concept and make it a permanant part of the criminal justice system.