Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Faith-Based Initiatives Task Force

Overview/ Forums

• Report to the Ohio General Assembly from the Correctional Faith-Based Initiatives Task Force - November 20, 2006
• Letter of Invitation from Director Terry Collins
• Schedule of Faith-Based Task Force Forums

On June 30, 2005, then Ohio Governor Taft signed into law House Bill 66, biennial budget legislation. Included within the bill were provisions for the creation of the Correctional Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Task Force, which charged the taskforce’s 17 members to do the following:

• Study faith-based solutions to correctional system problems by focusing on programs and services for incarcerated individuals and their families, diversion programs, and faith-based/nonprofit programs and services
• Examine existing faith-based/nonprofit programs in Ohio prisons and other states and the possibility of program replication
• Develop model faith-based programs to reduce adult and juvenile recidivism, assist juveniles with incarcerated parents, juveniles held over to or in the adult penal system

Ohio is often considered to be leading the nation in terms of reentry programming and initiatives. Of the 650,000 adults leaving prison this year nationwide, 67.5 percent of them will return to prison within three years of release. Ohio’s current recidivism rate is 38 percent, a small number by comparison, but when one considers that this means approximately one of every three offenders released from Ohio’s prison system this year will return to prison, it is not as encouraging a statistic. At a cost of $24,586 per inmate per year, and our prison population growing to nearly 48,000 in 2006, it is certainly in our interest as stewards of taxpayer dollars to make efforts to reduce these numbers while improving our system and ensuring public safety.

The Departments of Rehabilitation and Correction and Youth Services have seen tremendously encouraging changes in the institutions into which they have had community and faith-based groups get involved with the education and training of offenders and reentry initiatives. While these programs have proven to be successful, more work is clearly needed to further reduce the risk of prisoners re-offending after their release.

The Task Force has spent the past year exploring ways that these programs can be expanded to all prisons and institutions in the state, and examining other avenues that could be pursued at the state level to make further improvements. The Task Force developed 16 recommendations to reach these goals, with both Departments having already begun to study ways to implement these recommendations within the current system. Additionally, Rep. White will soon be introducing legislation to establish a statutory framework for the taskforce’s recommendations.

Schedule of  Faith-Based Task Force Forums

Contact:

Mona Hobbs
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction
614-728-1903

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