Connecticut Budget Stalemate Makes State’s Bad Inequities Worse By Jim Schaffer, for Nonprofit Quarterly

Connecticut Budget Stalemate Makes

 State’s Bad Inequities Worse

By Jim Schaffer, for Nonprofit Quarterly

Family ReEntry Featured in Nonprofit 

Quarterly, Oct. 15, 2017

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Although not in the national news as much as some states, Connecticut faces many challenges. These include the fact that the state has the nation’s largest income gap and the nation’s largest achievement gap. Yet another complication is a 2016 state Supreme Court ruling that found the state’s education funding system to be unconstitutional.

Most states run on a July–June fiscal year. Passing budgets late is not unusual. For example, as of this past July 2^nd, 11 states had not passed budgets. But today, Connecticut is the only state that has not enacted a budget. As such, it operates under the authority of a gubernatorial executive order, updated on August 18^th to restore $40 million to services and programs provided by nonprofit organizations.

The state missed a key deadline on October 1^st, when the executive order zeroed out education funding for 85 school districts and significantly reduced aid to 54 districts. With no county governments, Connecticut’s structure forces its 169 self-governing cities and towns to compete for state aid to supplement property taxes. The continuing standoff has widespread implications as the state’s financial crisis worsens. For example, an approved state budget includes the funding Hartford needs to avoid bankruptcy in the coming weeks. As just reported by the Connecticut Mirror, the “budget fight threatens credit for a third of [Connecticut] municipalities.”

Susan Haigh’s reporting for the Associated Press provided an update on the state budget process as of Sunday, October 15^th.

For the past week, Democratic and Republican legislative leaders have been holed up in the state Capitol, without Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, combing line-by-line through budget documents. They said they have been discussing ways to not only cover a projected $3.5 billion deficit in a roughly $40 billion two-year budget, but to make lasting fiscal changes in hopes of stopping what’s become a cycle of budget crises in one of the nation’s wealthiest states.

On Monday, October 16^th, Malloy offered his fourth budget proposal for the new biennium asking the state’s General Assembly to reduce tax increases by accepting even deeper cuts to town aid, education and social services. Malloy presented his first budget on February 8^th, followed by revised two-year plans on May 15^th and September 8^th. Malloy continues to insist that the state meet its pension obligations, according to Haigh’s reporting.

The governor, who expressed frustration Thursday over the slowness of the process, has warned that he’s willing to veto another budget, even a bipartisan one, if he believes it includes “gimmicks” to cover the red ink, such as reducing payments to state employee pension funds.

NPQ reported several days after the Connecticut fiscal year began on July 1^st on what nonprofits might expect with no state budget. Haigh provides an update on how the governor’s executive order reduced funding for “social service programs, such as day services to people with developmental disabilities and initiatives serving people leaving prison.”

The Connecticut Mirror offers perhaps the best daily update on the budget process and the consequences of the impasse. Malloy’s signature prison reform “Second Chance Society” legislation is a national model for reducing penalties for drug possession and helping people charged with nonviolent crimes to apply for parole. Despite this exemplary commitment, the state’s Department of Correction lost 4.5 percent in this fiscal year’s first-quarter funding.

Jeff Grant, the executive director of Family ReEntry, which helps inmates leaving prison and their families, said his agency escaped specific cuts this month but said its non-residential behavioral health programs were cut last year and services to former inmates are diminishing across the state.
He said he has seen hundreds of former inmates, including himself, who were helped by mental health and addiction counselors as well as housing and employment placements provided by state-funded non-profits.

“When I came out, I went to court-ordered drug and alcohol counseling, which I did do in state here. Thank god it was available for me,” Grant said.

“With the opioid epidemic that’s going on now and the cutbacks of a lot of these services, there are a lot of sick and suffering people out there. I had an opioid addiction. I’m clean and sober 15 years this week actually, but I don’t know what would have happened without the programs.”

As the state moves into its fourth month without a budget, the Connecticut Nonprofit Alliance provides tools and on its website homepage to help people urge the state’s 187 legislators to pass a budget soon that protects nonprofit programs and services.—Jim Schaffer

Reprinted from Nonprofit Quarterly, Oct. 17, 2017

About Jim Schaffer

The founders of Covenant House, AmeriCares, TechnoServe and the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp were my mentors who entrusted me with much. What I can offer the readers of NPQ is carried out in gratitude to them and to the many causes I’ve had the privilege to serve through the years.

Hartford Courant: Connecticut Budget Impasse is a Public Safety Risk

Connecticut Budget Impasse is a Public Safety Risk

Letter to the Editor reprinted from the  Hartford Courant, August 2, 2017

As the Executive Director of Family ReEntry, a Connecticut 

criminal justice nonprofit, and as a formerly incarcerated person myself, I am greatly concerned about the state legislature's inability/unwillingness to pass a budget.

In the criminal justice sector, this represents a huge public safety risk as people are released from prisons in ever larger numbers (a good thing) without adequate access to critical cost-effective wraparound services such as substance abuse and mental health counseling, career training, housing, family services, etc.

It should be no surprise that, when left with no other option, these individuals often return to the very behavior that landed them in prison in the first place (a very bad thing).

As the cost to incarcerate a person can be up to 10 times the cost of nonprofit-provided re-entry services, it is obvious that it is in our short-term and long-term financial best interest to reinvest state budget savings in quality community corrections.

Each day without a budget and adequate funding of Connecticut's nonprofits wastes the precious few resources we have at huge fiscal cost - and at even larger costs in human suffering and public safety.

Jeff Grant, JD, M Div

Executive Director - Family ReEntry, Inc.

75 Washington Avenue

Bridgeport, Connecticut 06604

familyreentry.org

jeffgrant@familyreentry.org

(office) 203-290-0855

(mobile) 203-957-0162

Family ReEntry's Testimony on Criminal Justice Before the Connecticut State Legislature Appropriations Committee

Prisonist.org: Faith & Dignity 
for the Days Ahead
Blogs, Guest Blogs & News

Family ReEntry's Testimony on 

Criminal Justice Before the 

Connecticut State Legislature 

Appropriations Committee 
 

Public Hearing:

Weds., Feb. 22, 2017, 6:30 pm

_____________

H.B. No. 7027 AN ACT CONCERNING THE STATE BUDGET FOR THE BIENNIUM ENDING JUNE THIRTIETH 2019, AND MAKING APPROPRIATIONS THEREFOR.

Good afternoon, Senator Formica, Senator Osten, Representative Walker, and members of the Appropriations Committee.   

My name is Jeff Grant and I am Executive Director of Family ReEntry.  Founded in 1984 in Bridgeport, Family ReEntry’s mission is to develop, implement, and share innovative and cost-effective solutions to the unprecedented numbers of people involved in the criminal justice system.  We contract with the Connecticut Department of Correction and the Court Support Services Division, as well as other state agencies, to provide services inside and outside of prison, in support of DOC’s mission to “protect the public” and “provide offenders with opportunities for successful community reintegration.”  

Our high-impact services for youth and families tackle the root causes of violent crime through evidence-based social, cognitive and behavioral interventions that restore healthy family functioning and assist returning citizens in becoming positive contributing members of society. For example, participants in our court-referred domestic/family violence programs (n=1539) for 2014-2015 had a re-arrest rate of 8%, which is 60% lower than the program benchmark for re-arrest rates set by the state (20%). 

I would like to take this opportunity to applaud the bold steps that this administration has taken to reduce the numbers of people in prison through criminal justice reform and Second Chance Society legislation. Having served thirteen and a half months in a federal prison myself for a white-collar crime I committed in 2001, I can personally attest to the humanitarian value of second chances. Without the support from my wife, the faith community and opportunities to volunteer with Family ReEntry when I came out of prison, it is unlikely that I would be standing before you today as a tax-paying citizen, non-profit leader and advocate for returning citizens.  

All taxpayers in our state will benefit if Connecticut’s prison population levels can be sustained or further decreased, so long as public safety is not jeopardized.  With these goals in mind, Family ReEntry opposes the proposed one-million dollar cut to DOC’s community support services, and requests that the amount remain at the same level as last year ($34,803,726). 

While we understand the pressing need for a balanced state budget, we believe that cuts to community-based services are not in the best interest of public safety or the longer-term fiscal health of our state.  

With more individuals returning from prison and jail to our communities, it is all the more urgent that we maintain our investment in community services to ensure that recidivism rates do not increase.  Research shows that when individuals returning from prison do not have the social supports and resources they need to rebuild their lives, they are much more likely to commit another crime and return to prison within one to three years of release.^[i] The first six months in reentry are a critical time for intervention and for linking individuals without the necessary supports to much needed behavioral health, housing, legal aid and other rehabilitative services.[ii]  Reentry service providers are on the front-lines in preventing other critical problems our state faces as well, including overdose deaths[iii] and children from witnessing domestic violence.

Evidence-based community programs yield significant returns on investment by reducing recidivism.  As stated in a PEW Center on the States report[iv]: 

Policy makers must confront the reality that, for the foreseeable future, roughly seven out of every ten offenders will continue to serve all or part of their sentences in the community. Ensuring public safety and balancing a budget, then, require states to strengthen badly neglected community corrections systems, so they can become credible options for more of the lowest risk offenders who otherwise would be in prison. 

The non-partisan Connecticut Regional Institute for the 21rst Century (CT21) report[v] concerning the fiscal future of our state---recommends that, “The current Department of Correction re‐entry programs both internal and community based need to be funded and sustained” and they also warn that “Connecticut must resist temptation to reduce funding for these programs.”  A 2006 national opinion survey likewise indicates that the general public also favors rehabilitative services for offenders, as opposed to a punishment-only approach by an almost 8 to 1 margin[vi].

As the state continues to garner cost savings from criminal justice reform measures, it would behoove the state legislature to maintain the state’s investment in reentry services as part of justice reinvestment. Everyone will be the beneficiary from front-line investments that will help restore healthy families, increase public safety, rebuild our communities and continue to reduce our prison population. 

Thank you for your attention to this important issue.  Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.

Respectfully submitted,

Jeff Grant, JD, M Div, Executive Director

Family ReEntry, Inc.

75 Washington Avenue

Bridgeport, Connecticut 06604

FamilyReEntry.org

(o) 203-290-0855

(c) 203-957-0162

jeffgrant@familyreentry.org

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[i] Kempker, G., Gibel, S., Giguere, R. A (2010) Framework for Offender Reentry. Silver Spring, Maryland. Center for Effective Public Policy.

[ii] Source: Draine, J., & Herman, D. B. (2007). Critical time intervention for reentry from prison for persons with mental illness. Psychiatric Services, 58(12), 1577-1581.

[iii] Yale’s 2016 plan for Connecticut Opioid Response (CORE) states that 44 percent of fatal overdoses in Connecticut occurred among individuals who had a history of having been detained by the DOC.  For individuals with an opioid disorder released from DOC, 60% of overdose deaths occurred within six months of their release. Retrieved from

http://www.plan4children.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/COREInitiativeForPublicComment.pdf

[iv] Source: One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections; PEW Center on the States; March 2009; page 22

[v] Source: BlumShapiro (2010). Connecticut Regional Institute for the 21^st Century: Assessment of Connecticut’s Correction, Pardon and Parole (Report No. 2). Retrieved from http://www.ct21.org/attachments/article/116/prisonreportppt.pdf: page 37 [emphasis added].

[vi] Krisberg, B. & Marchionna, S. (2006). Attitudes of U.S. Voters Toward Prisoner Rehabilitation and Reentry Policies. Oakland, CA: National Council on Crime and Delinquency.

An Open Letter to Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy and Our State Legislators, by Rev. Jeff Grant, JD, M Div: On the State's Plan to Cut Funding for Prisoner Reentry

Prisonist.org: Faith & Dignity 
for the Days Ahead
Blogs, Guest Blogs & News 

An Open Letter to Connecticut 

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy 

and Our State Legislators:

 On the State's Plan to Cut Funding for

Prisoner Reentry

By Rev. Jeff Grant, JD, M Div

Dear Governor Malloy and
Our Connecticut State Legislators,

I am on the Board of Directors of Family ReEntry, an essential nonprofit agency serving released inmates and their families in Fairfield and New Haven Counties.   

These reentry services include critical mental health and substance abuse treatment for over 1,500 Paroles each year – thus increasing public safety, reducing recidivism, and decreasing the collateral consequences and costs.  In addition, Family ReEntry provides effective interventions for over 1,200 family violence offenders throughout the State - resulting in significant reductions in the victimization of women and children. These programs help halt the tragic intergenerational cycle of violence and abuse. 

Family ReEntry Youth Programs focus on prevention and very early intervention for children of incarcerated parents and youth involved in the Juvenile Justice System – thus saving lives and dollars. Other community justice providers across the State are essential to the social order, humane and effective care, and public safety.   

Without these services, crime will increase, incarceration will increase, associated costs will increase, unemployment will increase, and communities will suffer. This is not an attractive climate for business!

I am reaching out to implore you to do everything in your power to prevent budget cuts in the community justice sector. 

Cuts already implemented have devastated the community justice providers across the State.  Family ReEntry, for example, has lost 67% of its Department of Corrections community programs, including two large mental health and substance abuse treatment programs, which were already over utilized by 450 Parolees and were projected to effectively assess and treat 1,600 by June 30 when the contracts are terminated. What happens to public safety after that?  And these are only two of the many mental and substance abuse treatments programs eliminated this week.   

If you recall, it did not go so well when hundreds of psychiatric facilities were closed in the U.S.  According to the NYT, the policies that led to the release of most of the nation's mentally ill patients from the hospital to the community without appropriate care in the community are now widely regarded as a major failure. Sweeping critiques of the policies, notably a report of the American Psychiatric Association, have spread the blame everywhere, faulting politicians…..and others.  Another dismal policy failure should not be your legacy. 

Some relevant points for you to consider:

Find Another Way: Please attempt to meet the projected budget deficits without devastating the nonprofit human services and criminal justice (CJ) sectors.  Even a small reduction in these sectors will have a devastating and lasting ripple effect.  In the long-term, these cuts will increase costs and leave a legacy of human and social destruction.

Plan Long-Term: Create a long term State Budget plan that funds human services and community justice at appropriate levels that maintain quality of care and a stable workforce. Nonprofits are businesses throughout the State - vital to the State’s economy and its ability to attract new businesses.

Don’t Compromise Public Safety: Cuts to the criminal justice sector will result in decreased public safety (and commensurate costs) and setback much needed criminal justice system reforms (with commensurate human, societal, and financial costs).

Don’t Retreat: Decimating the community justice sector and the mental health and substance abuse sectors will make future structural changes and savings much less likely.  “You cannot build an effective and efficient criminal justice system on a weak crumbling foundation destroyed in fiscal years 16, 17, and 18.”
 
Consider Alternative Solutions: Although long-term structural changes are needed in the State’s Budget, the only way to achieve the long-term fiscal and policy goals without major setbacks is a combination of carefully targeted and realistic expense reductions and some increases in revenue.  Consider other investment strategies in the nonprofit sector, such as Social Impact Bonds and similar instruments.

Focus on Effectiveness: Like other providers in the CJ sector, Family ReEntry is a high-impact, cost-effective provider of community justice services for reentering citizens, those suffering from mental health & substance abuse, perpetrators of family/domestic violence, and at-risk youth and families.  These services are proven to decrease costs, increase public safety, reduce victimization, and create a climate for business growth in the State.

I have confidence in you and all the leadership to recognize that Connecticut holds a unique position in this country - we have a safe place to live and work that leads the nation in social reform.  It is inconsistent and simply wrong to cut funding at a time when the Federal government and our sister states finally recognize the scope and severity of criminal justice, mental health and substance abuse problems, and are redoubling their efforts and funding to find solutions.

We need to keep moving forward and use justice reinvestment strategies to provide an ever safer, more secure and more enlightened place for our children to grow and prosper. We must keep our eye on the long-term prize, not cave to short-term budget demands. Otherwise, what do we have left?

Please feel free to call upon me if I can provide any service in this regard.

Thank you for your consideration of these critical issues.

Blessings,

Rev. Jeff Grant 

Steve Lanza, Executive Director of Family Reentry,

provided key points incorporated in this letter.

_________

Comments from Social Media: 

Alison O Jordan: "There are cost benefits to consider as well - linkages to primary care after incarceration using an evidence- informed intervention have found reductions in ED use and improvements in socioeconomic status that reduce other systems costs and improve lives (see paper below). Health outcomes for HIV-infected persons released from the New York City jail system with a transitional care-coordination plan. . Citation Am J Public Health. 2015 Feb;105(2):351-7. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.302234."

Laura Lillian Best Absolutely! Second Chance Initiatives WILL NOT Work without Reentry Initiatives!

Irma Fordin Ceglia Well said

   

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DONATIONS

We are grateful for all donations to our Ministries that enable us to grow, reach out and serve this community for which there is far too little understanding, compassion and empathy.  Donations can be made by credit card/PayPal here, at the "Donate" button on on our site, prisonist.org, or by sending your check payable to: "Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc." P.O. Box 1232, Weston, Connecticut 06883. 

Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc. is a CT Religious Corp. with 501c3 status - all donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. Thank you for your support and generosity.

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If you, a friend or a family member are experiencing a white-collar or nonviolent incarceration issue, please contact us and we will promptly send you an information package by mail, email or via Dropbox.

The darkest days of a person's life can be a

time of renewal and hope

__________

Progressive Prison Project/ Innocent Spouse & Children Project

Rev. Jeff Grant, JD, M Div, Minister/Director
jgrant@prisonist.org
(o) 203-769-1096
(m) 203-339-5887
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Lynn Springer, Founding Advocate, Innocent Spouse & Children Project
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