The Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Discretionary Grant Program (Reentry) was developed through a federal partnership by the Departments of Justice, Labor, Health and Human Service, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, Veterans Affairs and Agriculture. The federal partners' goal is to help state and local agencies navigate the complex field of existing state formula and block grants and to assist them in accessing, redeploying and leveraging those resources to support the components of a comprehensive reentry program. In addition to the new funding, the
federal partners are identifying funds from their respective agencies that are already available to state and local agencies to provide the necessary services to implement a reentry program. The Reentry Program is designed to provide funding to state and local units of government to develop and
implement institutional and community corrections-based offender reentry programs through collaborative partnerships with government, social service, faith-based, and community organizations, in order to reduce recidivism, increase public safety, and successfully reintegrate serious and violent offenders back into the community. Reentry programs are required to partner with a state adult or juvenile correctional agency.
The Commissioner of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS,
formerly the Division for Youth) is designing this program to augment the Back To Your Future (BTYF) program. This supplemental funding will assist in the leveraging of existing community and State resources to enhance the BTYF program to the size originally proposed. OCFS has
been able to make available to BTYF a full-time psychologist, a consultant psychiatrist, and 2.5 FTE nurses to provide the mental health services originally planned for BTYF youth.
CA/NCF
