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106th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5567
An act to authorize funding for successful reentry of criminal
offenders into local communities
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 26, 2000
Mr. Conyers introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on
Government Reform, for a period to be subsequently determined by the
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
An act to authorize funding for successful reentry of criminal
offenders into local communities
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Offender Reentry and Community
Safety Act of 2000.''
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(a) There are now nearly 1.9 million individuals in our
country's prisons and jails, including over 140,000 individuals
under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
(b) Enforcement of offender violations of conditions of
releases has sharply increased the number of offenders who
return to prison--while revocations comprised 17 percent of
State prison admissions in 1980, they rose to 36 percent in
1998.
(c) Although prisoners generally are serving longer
sentences than they did a decade ago, most eventually reenter
communities; for example, in 1999, approximately 538,000 State
prisoners and over 50,000 Federal prisoners--a record number--
were returned to American communities. Approximately 100,000
State offenders return to communities and received no
supervision whatsoever.
(d) Historically, two-thirds of returning State prisoners
have been rearrested for new crimes within three years, so
these individuals pose a significant public safety risk and a
continuing financial burden to society.
(e) A key element to effective post-incarceration
supervision in an immediate, predetermined, and appropriate
response to violations of the conditions of supervision.
(f) An estimated 187,000 State and federal prison inmates
have been diagnosed with mental health problems; about 70
percent of State prisoners and 57 percent of federal prisoners
have a history of drug abuse; and nearly 75 percent of released
offenders with heroin or cocaine problems return to using drugs
within three months if untreated; however, few States link
prison mental health treatment programs with those in the
return community.
(g) Between 1987 and 1997, the volume of juvenile
adjudicated cases resulting in court-ordered residential
placements rose 56 percent. In 1997 alone, there were a total
of 163,200 juvenile court-ordered residential placements. The
steady increase of youth exiting residential placement has
strained the juvenile justice aftercare system, however,
without adequate supervision and services, youth are likely to
relapse, recidivate, and return to confinement at the public's
expense.
(h) Emerging technologies and multidisciplinary community-
based strategies present new opportunities to alleviate the
public safety risk posed by released prisoners while helping
offenders to reenter their communities successfully.
SEC. 3. PURPOSES.
The purposes of this Act are to--
(a) establish demonstration projects in several federal
judicial districts, the District of Columbia, and in the
Federal Bureau of Prisons, using new strategies and emerging
technologies that alleviate the public safety risk posed by
released prisoners by promoting their successful reintegration
into the community;
(b) establish court-based programs to monitor the return of
offenders into communities, using court sanctions to promote
positive behavior;
(c) establish offender reentry demonstration projects in
the states using government and community partnerships to
coordinate cost efficient strategies that ensure public safety
and enhance the successful reentry into communities of
offenders who have completed their prison sentences;
(d) establish intensive aftercare demonstration projects
that address public safety and ensure the special reentry needs
of juvenile offenders by coordinating the resources of juvenile
correctional agencies, juvenile courts, juvenile parole
agencies, law enforcement agencies, social service providers,
and local Workforce Investment Boards; and
(e) rigorously evaluate these reentry programs to determine
their effectiveness in reducing recidivism and promoting
successful offender reintegration.
TITLE I--FEDERAL REENTRY DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS
SEC. 101. FEDERAL REENTRY CENTER DEMONSTRATION.
(a) Authority and Establishment of Demonstration Project.--From
funds made available to carry out this Act, the Attorney General, in
consultation with the Director of the Administrative Office of the
United States Courts, shall establish the Federal Reentry Center
Demonstration project. The project shall involve appropriate prisoners
from the Federal prison population and shall utilize community
corrections facilities, home confinement, and a coordinated response by
federal agencies to assist participating prisoners, under close
monitoring and more seamless supervision, in preparing for and
adjusting to reentry into the community.
(b) Project Elements.--The project authorized by subsection (a)
shall include the following core elements--
(1) a Reentry Review Team for each prisoner, consisting of
representative from the Bureau of Prisons, the United States
Probation System, the United States Parole Commission, and the
relevant community corrections facility, who shall initially
meet with the prisoner to develop a reentry plan tailored to
the needs of the prisoner and incorporating victim impact
information, and will thereafter meet regularly to monitor the
prisoner's progress toward reentry and coordinate access to
appropriate reentry measures and resources;
(2) regular drug testing, as appropriate;
(3) a system of graduated levels of supervision within the
community corrections facility to promote community safety,
provide incentives for prisoners to complete the reentry plan,
including victim restitution, and provide a reasonable method
for imposing immediate sanctions for a prisoner's minor or
technical violation of the conditions of participation in the
project;
(4) substance abuse treatment and aftercare, mental and
medical health treatment and aftercare, vocational and
educational training, life skills instruction, conflict
resolution skills training, batterer intervention programs,
assistance obtaining suitable affordable housing, and other
programming to promote effective reintegration into the
community as needed;
(5) to the extent practicable, the recruitment and
utilization of local citizen volunteers, including volunteers
from the faith-based and business communities, to serve as
advisors and mentors to prisoners being released into the
community;
(6) a description of the methodology and outcome measures
that will be used to evaluate the program; and
(7) notification to victims on the status and nature of a
prisoner's reentry plan.
(c) Probation Officers.--From funds made available to carry out
this Act, the Director of the Administrative Office of the United
States Courts shall assign one or more probation officers from each
participating judicial district to the Reentry Demonstration project.
Such officers shall be assigned to and stationed at the community
corrections facility and shall serve on the Reentry Review Teams.
(d) Project Duration.--The Reentry Center Demonstration project
shall begin not later than six months following the availability of
funds to carry out this section, and shall last three years. The
Attorney General may extend the project for a period of up to six
months to enable participant prisoners to complete their involvement in
the project.
(e) Selection of Districts.--The Attorney General, in consultation
with the Judicial Conference of the United States, shall select an
appropriate number of federal judicial districts in which to carry out
the Reentry Center Demonstration project.
(f) Coordination of Projects.--The Attorney General, may, if
appropriate, include in the Reentry Center Demonstration project
offenders who participated in the Enhanced In-Prison Vocational
Assessment and Training Demonstration project established by section
105 of this Act.
SEC. 102. FEDERAL REMOTE SATELLITE TRACKING AND RETRAINING (RESTART)
DEMONSTRATION.
(a) Authority and Establishment of Demonstration Project.--From
funds made available to carry out this Act, the Director of the
Administrative Office of the United States Courts, in consultation with
the Attorney General, shall establish the Federal Remote Satellite
Tracking and Reentry Training (ReSTART) Demonstration project. The
project shall involve federal offenders under supervised released who
have previously violated the terms of their release following a term of
imprisonment and shall utilize, as appropriate and indicated, emerging
satellite tracking and global positioning technologies, other
monitoring technologies, community corrections facilities, home
confinement, and treatment and programming to promote more effective
reentry into the community.
(b) Project Elements.--The project authorized by subsection (a)
shall include the following core elements--
(1) participation by federal prisoners who have previously
violated the terms of their release following a term of
imprisonment;
(2) the use of global positioning, remote satellite, and
other monitoring technologies, as appropriate and indicated, to
monitor and supervise participating offenders in the community;
(3) use of community corrections facilities and home
confinement that, together with the technology referenced in
paragraph (b), will be part of a system of graduated levels of
supervision;
(4) substance abuse treatment and aftercare, mental and
medical health treatment and aftercare, vocational and
educational training, life skills instruction, conflict
resolution skills training, batterer intervention programs, and
other programming to promote effective reintegration into the
community as appropriate;
(5) involvement of a victim advocate and the family of the
prisoner, if it is safe for the victim(s), especially in
domestic violence cases, to be involved;
(6) a description of the methodology and outcome measures
that will be used to evaluate the program; and
(7) notification to victims on the status and nature of
prisoner's reentry plan.
(c) Mandatory Condition of Supervised Release.--In each of the
judicial districts in which the demonstration project is in effect,
appropriate offenders who are found to have violated a previously
imposed term of supervised release and who will be subject to some
additional term of supervised release, shall be designated to
participate in the demonstration project. With respect to these
offenders, the court shall impose additional mandatory conditions of
supervised release that each offender shall, as directed by the
probation officer, reside at a community corrections facility or
participate in a program of home confinement, or both, and submit to
electronic and other remote monitoring, and otherwise participate in
the project.
(d) Project Duration.--The Remote Satellite Tracking and Reentry
Training Demonstration shall begin not later than six months following
the availability of funds to carry out this section, and shall last
three years. The Director of the Administrative Office of the United
States Courts may extend the project for a period of up to six months
to enable participating prisoners to complete their involvement in the
project.
(e) Selection of Districts.--The Judicial Conference of the United
States, in consultation with the Attorney General, shall select an
appropriate number of federal judicial districts in which to carry out
the Remote Satellite Tracking and Reentry Training Demonstration
project.
SEC. 103. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA INTENSIVE SUPERVISION, TRACKING, AND
REENTRY TRAINING (DC ISTART) DEMONSTRATION.
(a) Authority and Establishment of Demonstration Project.--From
funds made available to carry out this Act, the Trustee of the Court
Services and Offender Supervision Agency of the District of Columbia,
as authorized by the National Capital Revitalization and Self-
Government Improvement Act of 1997 (Pub. Law 105-33, 111 Stat. 712)
shall establish the District of Columbia Intensive Supervision,
Tracking and Reentry Training Demonstration (DC iSTART) project. The
project shall involve high risk District of Columbia parolees who would
otherwise be released into the community without a period of
confinement in a community corrections facility and shall utilize
intensive supervision, monitoring, and programming to promote such
parolees' successful entry into the community.
(b) Project Elements.--The project authorized by subsection (a)
shall include the following core elements--
(1) participation by appropriate high risk parolees;
(2) use of community corrections facilities and home
confinement;
(3) a Reentry Review Team that includes a victim witness
professional for each parolee which shall meet with the
parolee--by video conference or other means as appropriate--
before the parolee's release from the custody of the Federal
Bureau of Prisons to develop a reentry plan that incorporates
victim impact information and is tailored to the needs of the
parolee and which will thereafter meet regularly to monitor the
parolee's progress toward reentry and coordinate access to
appropriate reentry measures and resources;
(4) regular drug testing, as appropriate;
(5) a system of graduated levels of supervision within the
community corrections facility to promote community safety,
encourage victim restitution, provide incentives for prisoners
to complete the reentry plan, and provide a reasonable method
for immediately sanctioning a prisoner's minor or technical
violation of the conditions of participation in the project;
(6) substance abuse treatment and aftercare, mental and
medical health treatment and aftercare, vocational and
educational training, life skills instruction, conflict
resolution skills training, batterer intervention programs,
assistance obtaining suitable affordable housing, and other
programming to promote effective reintegration into the
community as needed and indicated;
(7) the use of monitoring technologies, as appropriate;
(8) to the extent practicable, the recruitment and
utilization of local citizen volunteers, including volunteers
from the faith-based communities, to serve as advisors and
mentors to prisoners being released into the community; and
(9) notification to victims on the status and nature of a
prisoner's reentry plan.
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