Kansas "Going Home" Community Reentry Initiative for Serious and Violent Offenders

The Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative Discretionary Grant Program 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 Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative Grant 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 must be sustained for a 36-month period and are required to partner with a state adult or juvenile correctional agency.

The Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority (JJA) plans to utilize its FY 2002 funds to address reintegration failures by reforming the admissions and release process at the Kansas Juvenile Justice juvenile correctional facilities and the community transition and long term support in the South Central Kansas areas of Sedgwick, Cowley, and Butler/Elk/Greenwood Counties (13th, 18th, and 19th Judicial District; and in the Northeast Kansas area of Shawnee, Johnson, and Wyandotte Counties (3rd, 10th, and 29th Judicial Districts).

Grant funds will also be used to address the variations in assessment by implementing a full needs and risk assessment process in one institution, allowing it to evolve to a package suitable for Topeka, Beloit, Larned and Atchison Juvenile Correctional Facilities and phasing in its use at all four institutions. It also provides for regular monthly communication with families and field staff, and improved contact assisted by use of teleconferencing to local communities.

The target population for this grant proposal is the juvenile offender population released from the juvenile correctional facilities. The group will include juvenile offenders identified as high risk for new offenses during the reintegration period. JJA has jurisdiction over juvenile offenders up to the completion of their conditional release sentence (for some juvenile offenders jurisdiction extends to 23 years of age).

Program sustainability will be ensured through the commitment to reallocate resources, enhance budgets, and the continuation of community partnerships. Over the last four years Graduated Sanctions funding, which includes community re-entry for this target population, has increased from 13 million to 19 million dollars per year. JJA expect that these budget allocations will continue to increase, giving the Judicial Districts the opportunity to continue this initiative.

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