Patrick looks to halve repeat offenses

Gov. Deval Patrick outlined several initiatives Thursday, including increased access to education and work-training opportunities and a unique “step-down” program to prepare inmates for reentry into society as part of an effort to reduce repeat offenses by 50 percent over the next five years.”We think there is a more pragmatic, more effective and most efficient way to think about criminal justice, one that deals with the realities of today, learns from the experience of the past and actually makes the public safer,” Patrick said in a prepared statement.Patrick was the featured speaker at UMass-Boston for an event entitled “Reform, Re-entry and Results: Change and Progress in the Massachusetts Criminal Justice System.”In his remarks, Patrick outlined both existing and new administration initiatives to improve inmates’ transition from prison to society and, correspondingly, reduce re-incarceration or further criminal activity for former inmates.The event also featured a presentation by Steve Koczela, president of The MassINC Polling Group, on recent polling that showed Massachusetts residents favor reforms that result in fewer people being sent to jail rather than building more prisons.Koczela and Secretary of Public Safety and Security Andrea Cabral said in a conference call after the event that Patrick’s initiatives and the polling results align with public opinion that fighting crime should shift from devoting resources to incarceration to focusing on crime prevention and rehabilitation of offenders.The poll, which sampled 1,200 state residents from Jan. 23 to 29, also oversampled in Lynn and nine other Gateway cities where the most Department of Corrections inmates return.”There are a number of cities where we had a disproportionate amount of people released,” explained Koczela. “We wanted to be sure that we had enough responses from people in those communities.” But the responses in those communities did not substantially differ from responses in other areas, Koczela said.Perhaps the most notable change Patrick discussed is a “step-down” program that has already started in five counties, including Essex County. The program, which Cabral said was believed to be the first of its kind in the country, basically transfers qualifying inmates in medium-security state prison facilities to minimum security county house of corrections facilities for the final portion of the inmate’s sentence.Cabral said this is proposed to ease the transition from incarceration to civilian life by enabling the inmate to access more “reentry services,” or local educational, health and job-training opportunities available at the house of corrections. That way, the inmate can establish a connection with local groups that will last beyond their incarceration.”When an inmate is transitioning to go back into the community, it’s useful to be able to follow up with the local substance abuse programs that you are familiar with while you are still in custody,” Cabral said, providing an example of a reentry program in which an inmate might participate.In addition to providing more inmates with access to these programs through the “step-down,” the Department of Corrections will expand these programs at the state prisons. Some administrative staff will move to a repurposed location in Milford, freeing space for classrooms and other programming space. Cabral said the cost for the changes has not been calculated nor budgeted, but predicts it will be low, as the spaces are being merely returned to their original use.”During budget cuts in the ’90s, the first things to go were the minimum security facilities, leading to a glut of inmates in medium- and maximum-security facilities,” Cabral said. “This is bringing all of those facilities back online.”But she said Essex County would not see a huge shift in facilities’ inmate populations. Of the 125 inmates statewide already participating in the step-down program, and the 300 currently eligible, Essex County can only acc