HOME | What's New! | Contact Us | Site Map | Sign In
Projects
Rhode Island
:: HOME > Transition from Prison to ... > TPC State Profiles > TPC in Rhode Island

The TPC effort in Rhode Island is guided by the Rhode Island Reentry Steering Committee.

Team Leadership Structure

Rhode Island has implemented a three tiered reentry governance structure. Tier I is chaired by the Governor’s Office and is comprised largely of the Governor’s Cabinet. Representatives from local communities, such as the city of Providence, are also members of Tier I. Tier II (the Steering Committee) represents the deputy directors or those with similar positions within each of Tier I’s member agencies. The following agencies are represented: Department of Corrections; Department of Labor and Training; Department of Education; Rhode Island Housing; Department of Children, Youth and Families; Parole Board; Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education; the Division of Information Technology; Department of Health; Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals; Public Transit Authority; and the Department of Human Services. Tier III represents local community service organizations actively involved in discharge planning for offenders, and individuals with case management responsibility representing institutional corrections, probation, and parole.

Early Targets of Change

As Rhode Island has worked toward a long-term strategic plan to enhance offender transition and reentry – and has defined five key work areas to meet this goal – opportunities for immediate system improvement have presented themselves and served as opportunities for “early wins.” Each of the following examples – which reflect a small representation of the many accomplishments Rhode Island has experienced to date -- represent the significant role the collaborating partners play in Rhode Island’s reentry work.
  • The Department of Labor and Training has: issued and awarded a contract to a local service provider to develop an industry-based transitional employment program for offenders; dedicated agency funds to hire a full time staff member to conduct work readiness workshops and provide job search assistance to prisoners; and co-located probation and parole staff in one of their local Career Centers.
  • The Department of Education has: realigned the department’s comprehensive education strategy within the Department of Correction’s Education Unit; and implemented a series of changes to the teaching programs, creating more responsive and supportive educational programs for incarcerated adults.
  • The Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals has partially funded a position in a community mental health agency to work inside the prisons with inmates who are eligible for aftercare services and funding in the community for their mental illness. The Department has also collaborated on a technical assistance project to enhance Rhode Island’s ability to support the work of ACT teams managing clients who are involved in the criminal justice system.

Assessment Strategy

As a result of Rhode Island’s participation in the TPC project, the Department of Corrections has adopted the LSI-R for risk/needs assessment. Institutional counselors are responsible for the administration of the LSI-R. The LSI-R was introduced in early 2006 in the adult women’s institutions and is administered to all women serving sentences of more than six months. The department is currently in the process of phasing in the assessment protocol in all of the male institutions. At the same time, the DOC is examining several options to institute a gender-responsive assessment tool for women offenders.

Survival Needs

Two of the key issues for transitioning offenders in Rhode Island are identification and housing.
  • The DOC is in discussions with the Department of Motor Vehicles to facilitate a more expedient process for obtaining state-recognized identification for offenders soon to be released to the community. The project will allow DOC to provide state issued ID cards to inmates along with their release papers that will be valid for six months following release.
  • Housing is a significant concern for both men and women who are releasing from the state prison system. Several options are currently being considered by the Tier II reentry housing partners, including the establishment of permanent supportive housing programs, shelter and care programs, and other community based housing options. DOC has provided funds to a community agency to create 19 permanent housing units for their clients.

Pre-Release Planning

Rhode Island has been a forerunner in discharge planning. Discharge planning for inmates with HIV began in 1992. Since the 1990s, the DOC has contracted with twelve community agencies to provide discharge planning services to all releasing offenders six months (or more) prior to release to begin transition planning. Discharge plans address employment, education, housing, treatment, and other community needs, and link offenders to services prior to discharge. In many cases, particularly with high risk offenders including sex offenders, discharge planners continue their work with offenders following their release, coordinating services and activities with probation and parole staff.

Case Planning and Management

A key learning in the TPC project is the need to unify the many agencies working with offenders and their families. An emerging initiative is the establishment of a unified approach to case planning and management across and within government agencies. This aspect of Rhode Island’s case planning and management efforts are in a preliminary stage.

However, much progress has been made in Rhode Island in terms of establishing an IPP (Individual Program Plan) that will link offenders’ risk/needs assessments, social history, institutional program plans, and discharge plans through a web-based automated system. The automated system is currently in its testing phase.

On a broader scale, Rhode Island state government has made a statewide commitment to link and bridge all government agencies’ information systems. The Interagency Data Sharing Initiative is in a pilot phase under an initial project; plans are underway to use prisoner reentry as the second phase of the Interagency Data Sharing Initiative, ultimately enabling agencies such as the Department of Education, Department of Human Services, Department of Children, Youth, and Families, and the Department of Corrections to share data and facilitate multi-agency case management.

Innovative Partnerships

Key partnerships and initiatives are emerging in Rhode Island as a result of the TPC initiative:
  • Several local communities (Providence, Newport, and Pawtucket) have formed county-based multi-disciplinary collaborative teams to examine offender transition and reentry from the local community perspective, and to strengthen and build community partnerships and services to enhance community safety through a more effective system of policies and services for returning offenders.
  • The Department of Corrections houses approximately 240 pre-trial and sentenced women offenders (Rhode Island has a unified jail and prison system). A pilot initiative is underway to establish gender-responsive transition services for women. This initiative is: considering the adoption of gender-responsive risk/needs instruments; conducting an evaluation of the programs available to women to determine the extent to which they are both gender-responsive and evidence-based; examining institutional classification and discipline policies for women; and evaluating the training needs of uniform and non-uniform staff with respect to embracing reentry as an agency philosophy and mission, and carrying out specialized approaches to working with women offenders. This project also serves as the “Learning Lab” for Rhode Island’s Tier II Steering Committee. As implementation strategies are developed by Tier II’s work groups, these strategies will first be pilot tested in the women’s division, where a smaller population of offenders and fewer staff will permit a more deliberate testing ground and opportunity for impact evaluation. Once these strategies are demonstrated to be effective, they will be phased in to the male institutions.

Technical Assistance from NIC

Since Rhode Island’s participation in the TPC Initiative began, NIC has been providing technical assistance through the Cooperative Agreement Partner—the Center for Effective Public Policy. CEPP provides orientation on the TPC model, information, cross-site communication, periodic workshops for participating sites, and expert consultation from a site coordinator assigned to work with the leadership teams.

:: USA.gov > U.S. Dept. of Justice > Bureau of Prisons > National Institute of Corrections > .:: Privacy & Disclaimers :: Accessibility ::.