News - 2009
Report: Parole Program and CEC Estimated to Save $14 Million for New Jersey
West Caldwell, NJ, May 11 - Community Education Centers' New Jersey-based reentry services for technical parole violators, "will help the state avoid $14 million in incarceration costs in the coming budget year," according to a report in the Star Ledger on May 10. The report described the Residential Assessment Center (RAC) program provided by CEC for the New Jersey State Parole (NJSP) at Delaney Hall, CEC's 1200-bed treatment center in Newark, New Jersey as both innovative and pragmatic in tight fiscal times for the State: The Ledger reported:
For several years, New Jersey has used a system of "graduated sanctions," in which parole officers have more options than simply returning their offenders to prison. Parolees who have not committed a new crime can receive increased supervision, electronic monitoring or substance abuse treatment. As a result, the number of technical violators returning to prison dropped 37 percent from 2001 to 2008.
The Residential Assessment Centers, which opened last summer, use the same concept. According to state officials, 46 percent of technical violators who passed through the centers returned to prison, compared with 81 percent who did not. A total of 810 parolees were diverted from prison as of February, saving more than $2 million.
"New Jersey Department of Corrections has found that annual incarceration costs per offender are $49,000 while community corrections only cost $25,000. As we can see by this report, CEC's reentry treatment services are functioning as they were designed-to reduce offender recidivism. We look forward to expanding these services so all New Jersey parolees have the opportunity to reenter society with the tools and skills necessary to become productive members of their communities, "said John J. Clancy, Chairman and CEO of CEC.
RAC programs are administered by CEC and are designed to provide reentry assessment and treatment services for technical parole violators. The report found that last year, "85 percent of almost 3,000 - committed technical violations, not new crimes. Lowering that number would help take a bite out of prison overcrowding at a time when state prisons have about 5,500 more inmates than what they were designed for."
"The RAC program is the proverbial ���win, win' for New Jersey. The State saves money as incarceration costs are reduced and technical parole violators receive the services they need to lead productive lives. This report confirms what university based research has told us for years-CEC reentry programs work," said Dr. Robert Mackey, Senior Vice President for Dr. Robert Mackey, Senior Vice President for Clinical Services, Quality Assurance and Research.
The effectiveness of CEC's New Jersey-based reentry programs have been measured in two research studies conducted by the New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJ DOC) and Drexel University. In the 2004 study, the recidivism rates of a sample of male offenders who completed CEC's New Jersey continuum-of-care programs were compared with a control group (no treatment) of male offenders. The researchers found that the CEC group had a 30% lower rate of recidivism than the control group. A comparison of CEC's recidivism rates were also compared with the same results. It should be noted that the CEC group were deemed higher risk for recidivism than the control group and the national sample in critical variables. Drexel University and the NJ DOC conducted a more recent study on female offenders from the Bo Robinson facility and found that the CEC group averaged a 50% reduction in recidivism compared to a similar group of female offenders from the NJ DOC.
In March, CEC received further confirmation on the effectiveness of its New Jersey-based reentry treatment services when the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released its 2008 report which found that the State's prison population had fallen to a new eight year low and was down 11% from 2000.
"At CEC, we are particularly proud of these statistics and recognition since we are confident that our unique assessment and treatment services provided to the New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJ DOC) since 1994 and the NJ State Parole Board (NJSPB) since 2002 have significantly contributed to this positive trend," added Dr. Mackey.
In New Jersey, CEC has the capacity to provide reentry treatment and assessment services to nearly 4,000 offenders and currently provides these services for the New Jersey State Parole Board, the New Jersey Department of Corrections, and Essex, Union, Gloucester, and Mercer Counties.
Community Education Centers, Inc. (CEC) is the largest provider of offender reentry and in-prison treatment services in America, operating in over 20 states, with 30,000 individuals in our daily care. CEC provides a full range of therapeutic residential and non-residential reentry services with a document record of reducing recidivism.
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