Most ex-offenders need help finding jobs, homes and support services after they’re released from correctional facilities. They also face obstacles in obtaining legal identification and resolving outstanding legal issues such as child support obligations.
A new resource is available to coordinate many of the services parolees need as they undertake their re-entry journey. Opportunity Reconnect–Camden is a re-entry center that co-located key agencies and service providers to help the formerly incarcerated rejoin society.
Richard Harris, director of the Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs at Rutgers–Camden and the head of the re-entry project, explains that “the center at 1812 Federal Street brings together a host of resources under one roof to coordinate the delivery of services and promote collaboration across government and nonprofit partners serving the re-entry population.”
Funded by a grant from the Nicholson Foundation, the Rand Institute for Public Affairs rents the space from Volunteers of America and runs the re-entry program.
The Nicholson Foundation is a North Jersey-based nonprofit organization that supports efforts dealing with substance abuse, juvenile justice, criminal justice and offender re-entry.
“At Opportunity Reconnect, we hope to enhance the coordination of existing government and community-based services towards the goal of providing our re-entry clients with the resources needed to assist them to make a successful return to their communities,” says Joseph Cassisi, a program coordinator at the Rand Institute at Rutgers–Camden.
For the past 12 years, Cassisi has worked with the Juvenile Justice Commission as regional manager in the Office of Juvenile Parole and Transitional Services. Earlier, Cassisi was a Cumberland County probation officer. He also has worked for the Intensive Supervision Program of the Administrative Office of the Courts.
Cassisi says studies have shown that unless former convicts can obtain jobs, successfully reunite with their families, and obtain treatment for substance abuse and mental-health problems, the majority will return to prison within three years.
In Camden, about 65 percent of the city’s adult offenders will be re-arrested within five years of being released from prison, Cassisi says.
The Rutgers–Camden re-entry program joins forces with several entities to provide assistance to the ex-offenders. Every Tuesday morning, representatives from the New Jersey Department of Labor, the One-Stop Career Center, the Camden County Resource Center, Legal Services of New Jersey, and other organizations meet one-on-one with clients at the facility.
Partners not located at the site have agreed to provide enhanced services to clients the center refers to them.
Cassisi says he also hopes to offer seminars for credit counseling and child support issues. Seminars for driver’s license restoration are available on the second and fourth Monday of each month.
The Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs at Rutgers–Camden delivers high-quality, policy-relevant research on public issues that cut across local, regional, national, and global boundaries; timely and meaningful technical assistance to governments and nonprofit organizations in southern New Jersey; neutral convening of stakeholders and citizens; and academic opportunities for faculty and students to connect classroom and scholarly objectives with public service and applied research in a service learning environment.
For more information, contact Cassisi at cassisi@camden.rutgers.edu or call 856-583-1414.
Media Contact: Ed Moorhouse
856-225-6759
E-mail: ejmoor@camden.rutgers.edu