Western Region Correspondent
Updated Dec 17, 2008, 09:06 am
LOS ANGELES (FinalCall.com ) - Thousands of men and women will have been paroled to the streets of Los Angeles by the end of the year and according to the Bureau of Justice. Almost 70 percent of them will walk right back into prison within three years due to a lack of resources and staff to help chart their progress.
The Los Angeles Police Department joined with community-based organizations at the Crenshaw Christian Center Nov. 21 to develop a plan to help keep ex-offenders out of trouble and out of prison.
The Urban Assistance Initiative is a voluntary Parolee Reentry Program and the brainchild of LAPD Deputy Chief Kenneth Garner. It is set to launch in January 2009 and parolees who enter can expect a structure that includes employment and life skills training.
They will also receive food, clothing, and immediate housing; help with education, from remedial to community college courses; substance abuse treatment; long-term psychological family counseling; and domestic violence counseling. In addition, they will receive faith-based and legal services and social skill development.
Parole officials welcomed the collaborative and believe it will help to reduce excessive caseloads. Although the average caseload should be one parole agent to seven parolees, the current average is about one to thirty. In extreme cases the caseload is one to one hundred, prison re-entry coordinators said.
"This experience of an information-sharing collaborative for parolees is uncharted waters, and there is much information to be gathered. However, it is already clear that everyone here acknowledges that there must be something that supports the need for all conditions of parole," said Eleanor Luckett, regional re-entry coordinator for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Chief Garner, one of 23 Blacks among the LAPD's top brass, grew up in the South L.A. neighborhood he now commands. He explained to the circle of faith-based groups, independent educators, policy organizations, parole officials, attorneys and employers that a recent drive-by attempt by a man with his six-month-old baby in the car underscores the urgent need for collaboration.
"This program is not designed for powder puffs or a lot of white-collar criminals but it is for hard core criminals, because we could fill it with white-collar offenders and have a huge success rate but the problem in our community would go unsolved. We have to develop a way to help young people stop committing these crimes and going to prison because they ultimately lose and their communities lose their potential," Chief Garner said.
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1 in 30? Where did you get that? The "specialized" caseloads monitoring High Risk Sex Offenders are the LOWEST caseloads at 25 to 1. Most agents carry 100 or more, including absconders...REGULAR caseloads soar as special caseloads increase in number. Every 25-1 agent leaves 75 cases for the others to cover.
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