| 
Ken Zimmerman
Executive Director, New Jersey Institute for Social
Justice
Mr. Zimmerman is the founding Executive Director of the
Institute. Previously, Mr. Zimmerman served in the federal
government as a civil rights policy maker and litigator.
He was the Deputy Assistant Secretary in HUD's Office of
Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, serving as a third ranking
official in the 600 person civil rights enforcement office.He
was also a senior trial attorney with the United States
Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, litigating
housing and lending discrimination cases across the country.
He has also worked as a legal services attorney, taught
at the American University's Washington College of Law and
at the Attorney General's Advocacy Institute, and served
as a Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow Harvard Law School.
He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and
Yale University.
Jeremy Travis
Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute co-chair of the
Reentry Roundtable
(New Jersey Institute for Social Justice)—a group
of prominent academics, practitioners, service providers,
and community leaders working to advance policies and innovations
on prisoner reentry that reflect solid research. Jeremy
is co-author of "A
Portrait of Prisoner Reentry in New Jersey" prepared
in cooperation with the New Jersey Institute for Social
Justice
Jeremy advises that there is no one significant prisoner
reentry model that could serve as a prototype for the nation.
He cites examples of parts of programs such as a drug treatment
component that work in particular state like Ohio; however,
other parts of that program are not as successful. Travis
states that places like Baltimore, Maryland have adopted
a community organization approach that seems to work well
in involving the community in the reentry process, yet once
again, has its drawbacks. Jeremy feels that in order for
a reentry program to be successful it must possess state
and local dimensions. State level policy should address
issues like sentencing, parole, release and supervision,
and clearly outline how outcomes are to be measured and
evaluated. This policy must be constructed within the needs
and abilities of the communities to which these prisoners
are returning. Communities must be given adequate support
and resources in order to ensure a positive transition.
That support is not only financial, but also an acknowledgement
from members of the business community, faith-based organizations
and government that they stand in favor of the program and
will actively seek to participate in realizing its goals
and mission.
Richard Liebler
President & Founder - New Community Youth and Adult
Automotive Training Center (YAATC)
Rich feels that there is a “big disconnect" between
what is needed to help prisoners reenter society successfully
and what bureaucratic structures create to serve that mission.
Leibler’s is a good example of a successful public/private
partnership reentry program. Liebler states that since the
late '60's there was a big push for people to go to college
and pursue degrees in computer sciences versus learning
a trade. Today, there are 60,000 job openings in the automotive
field and salaries range from $40,000/year to $100,000/yr.
He states that anyone can work in it because there are different
grades or skill levels for everyone.
He indicates that the program is a collaborative effort
between a number or community organizations and business
partners, including New Community Corporation who made the
project part of their Work Force Development Project. If
participants complete the program, they are guaranteed a
job at the end. The program teaches not only auto mechanics
- it teaches life skills too. Rich advises that over 90%
of ex-offenders who complete the program do not recidivate.
This full-year 5 day-a-week half-day program does not have
monies available to pay students or give stipends.
Kim Hunter
Former Prisoner, Hyacinth Foundation
Kim was arrested in 1989 for first degree robbery with unlawful
weapons possession and receiving stolen property, and spent
seven years in the Edna Mahon correctional facility in Clinton,
New Jersey. In 1996, as part of her prerelease program,
Kim was sent to a community halfway house were she stayed
for 16 months. The facility was part shelter and halfway
house, having residents who were either homeless (Department
of Housing) or part of the Department of Corrections pre-release
program. This mixing of residents was unsuccessful and eventually
the Department of Corrections retained the building.
Kim is HIV positive and has been living with the disease
for over fourteen years. She believes she contracted the
disease through IV drug use. During the time she was incarcerated
an outreach worker from the Hyacinth Foundation visited
Kim to talk about the disease and to make plans for her
medical needs upon release from prison. Kim advised that
this relationship turned into a mentoring situation. Kim
continued to volunteer with Hyacinth for four years following
her release from prison and was often called upon to speak
to various organizations.
In 2000, Kim was hired by the Hyacinth Foundation to participate
and coordinate a variety of programs with incarcerated and
parolees. An estimate of recidivism for women participating
in these projects (current caseload 70) is between 20 to
25%.
|
