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Known as the New York State Interagency Re-Entry Task Force and Transition from Prison to Community Initiative (TPCI), New York began its reentry work in 2003, and was selected to participate in NIC’s Transition from Prison to the Community Initiative (TPC) in early 2004.
The vision of the New York Task Force is “a safer New York resulting from the successful transition of offenders from prison to living law-abiding and productive lives in their communities.” To accomplish its vision, the Task Force is working to increase the number of offenders who successfully transition from prison to their communities through a coordinated statewide system that assesses and responds to offender risks and needs, supports offender accountability and reparation to victims and communities, promotes offender self-sufficiency, and encourages family and community involvement in offender success.

Team Leadership Structure

The effort in New York is guided by a state policy team consisting of Commissioners and Directors from state and local government agencies. The Team Leader is the Governor’s Criminal Justice Advisor. The Policy Team is responsible for developing a shared vision, establishing agency commitment, and assigning core staff to serve on a Steering Committee who can devote time and resources to developing a seamless reentry process. Agencies include: the Division of Criminal Justice Services; the Department of Correctional Services; the Parole Board and Division of Parole; the Division of Probation and Correctional Alternatives; the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance; the Office of Mental Health, the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services; the Division of Housing and Community Renewal; the Department of Health, Office of Medicaid Management; the Department of Labor; and the New York City Office of the Criminal Justice Coordinator.

An Advisory Council supports the work of the State Policy Team with an even broader set of stakeholders that includes other state agencies, as well as local and non-profit organizations. As a result of participating in the NIC initiative, the Interagency Task Force is now operating as a federally-recognized re-entry model aimed at reducing recidivism by promoting the most effective programs for inmates and ensuring that offenders are employed, housed, healthy, and sober upon and after release.

Early Targets of Change

New York has created a Research and Information Support Team (RIST) that is comprised of researchers from the 14 stakeholder agencies. The RIST (a) designs and conducts original statistical analyses of existing data to answer questions pertaining to re-entry issues, (b) summarizes findings from academic literature, government reports, and unpublished research previously conducted by participating agencies that are relevant to questions posed by the Task Force, (c) establishes working arrangements among partner agencies regarding how to share needed information, and (d) develops data infrastructure to facilitate efficient response to the information needs of the Task Force.

Case Planning and Management

Local communities in New York have been funded to develop a case management and planning capacity to assist offenders returning from prison to the community.

Innovative Partnerships

Grant funds have been provided by New York State from the federal Byrne Grant program to support the development of eight County Re-Entry Task Forces (CRTFs) in Erie, Monroe, Nassau, Oneida, Orange, Rensselaer, Rockland and Suffolk Counties. These task forces seek to: (1) provide coordinated services across a wide spectrum of needs to offenders returning to the community; (2) collaborate with state criminal justice and human service agencies to develop transition plans for high-risk offenders transitioning from prison back into the community; and (3) create local capacity to develop strategies to provide services and manage risk. The role of the CRTFs is to coordinate and strengthen the community response to high-risk offenders transitioning from prison back to the community with the ultimate goal of reducing the number who return to prison for new convictions.

Technical Assistance from NIC

Since New York’s participation in the TPC Initiative began, NIC has been providing technical assistance through its Cooperative Agreement Partner—the Center for Effective Public Policy. CEPP provides orientation on the TPC model, information, cross-site communication, periodic workshops for participating sites, and expert consultation from a site coordinator assigned to support the New York initiative.

:: USA.gov > U.S. Dept. of Justice > Bureau of Prisons > National Institute of Corrections > .:: Privacy & Disclaimers :: Accessibility ::.