|
Since 1975 Eastern Suffolk BOCES has been instrumental in the development and implementation of innovative Educational, Counseling, Vocational, Art, Motivational, Parenting, Civics and Transitional Programs for persons incarcerated in Suffolk County Correctional Facilities and for persons attending Suffolk County's Day Reporting Center.
The Jail Education, Day Reporting & Transitional Programs are a result of a cooperative working relationship with Suffolk County Community College, Suffolk County Department of Labor, Suffolk County Cooperative Extension, Suffolk County Probation and the Suffolk County Sheriff.
These cooperative Jail Education and Day Reporting programs are represented by:
- The In Jail Adult Education services which include: Remedial Education, High School Equivalency, Consumer Economics, English as a Second Language, Art, Vocational Training and Career/Life Planning. These services are provided for at least six hours per week for persons above the age of 21. Approximately 50 persons attend daily.
- The services provided by the Incarcerated Youth and Adults which include: Tutoring, Remedial Education, High School Equivalency, Consumer Economics, English as a Second Language, Art, Vocational Training and Career/Life Planning. These services are provided for at least 15 hours per week for persons below the age of twenty-one. Approximately 145 persons attend daily.
- The Day Reporting Center which provides non-violent offenders Physical and Mental Health Care Services, Substance Abuse Counseling, Tutoring, Remedial Education, High School Equivalency, Consumer Economics, English as a Second Language, Art, Vocational Training and Career/Life Planning. Criminal offenders are assigned to the center as an alternative to incarceration in one of Suffolk County's four other jails.
Participants assigned to the Day Reporting/Incarceration Center must attend approximately seven hours per day, five days per week. Some are under "house arrest" and are electronically monitored during those hours they are not at the center. More than 60 persons attend daily. Because a non-violent offender assigned to the Day Reporting/Incarceration Center must attend substance abuse counseling and educational classes at the Center, that offender has a far better chance of not repeating his or her criminal behavior than his or her counterpart assigned to the Medium or Maximum Security Facilities.
Transitional Programs including the following significantly enhance the Jail Education and Day Reporting Programs:
- Suffolk County Re-Rout consists of a collection of integrated education and counseling programs designed to facilitate the successful re-entry of ex-offenders into society. Re-Rout strives to reduce the recidivism rate of criminal offenders who have completed a period of incarceration and/or probation in Suffolk County, New York.
Probation Officers and Correction Officers inform probationers and prisoners about the Re-Rout Program during the initial orientation sessions. In-Jail Re-Rout counselors and Re-Rout counselors working inside the Probation Department immediately help interested clients develop career/life/education plans.
Upon release from the correctional facility and/or probation obligations, the ex-offender is invited to report to the Re-Rout office at Suffolk Community College in Selden. There, the ex-offender is introduced to the Re-Rout "Outside" counseling staff. In the weeks that follow, this staff provides the needed services, referrals and support to aid their client's reintegration into society.
- The PREFACE Program, Suffolk County Re-Rout supplements the education of incarcerated youth and adults for whom English is a second language. By establishing a supplemental instructional program with an emphasis on Civics Education, Suffolk County Re-Rout believes that the PREFACE Program will lead not only to a reduced recidivism rate, but also to help the targeted population attain a more productive relationship with the surrounding community.
The goals of the PREFACE Program are:
- to increase participants' proficiency and literacy in English;
- to impart a greater awareness of the rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship;
- to provide an overview of the naturalization process in the United States; and
- to assist participants in taking appropriate steps toward becoming citizens.
There are three components to Suffolk County Re-Rout's PREFACE Program, all of which are working toward the same goals:
- the first component works with youthful offenders (age 16-21) outside of the school day;
- the second component serves adult offenders (over the age of 21); and
- the third component serves both the youths and adults after their release from the Suffolk County Correctional Facility and/or Day Reporting Center.
The goals for each participant will be individually designed, based on current immigration/documentation status, and level of English proficiency.
- The Even Start Program, Suffolk County Re-Rout is a Partnership among Eastern Suffolk BOCES, the Suffolk County Sheriff and the Probation Department.
The Program addresses low literacy, academic success and parenting issues with the goals of raising family literacy levels by integrating the following core components: early childhood education; adult basic skills education or English as a second language education; parental education; parent-child literacy activities. Family literacy programs, are defined by federal statute as "services that are of sufficient intensity in terms of hours and of significant duration to make sustainable changes in a family and that integrate the following activities:
- Interactive literacy between parents and their children.
- Training for parents regarding how to be the primary teacher for their children and full partners in the education of their children.
- Parent literacy training that leads to economic self-sufficiency.
- An age appropriate education to prepare children for success in school and life experiences.
- Home Visits (twice per month, performed by the PO) which reinforce center activities.
The Re-Rout Even Start Program provides these services within the correctional facilities to incarcerated parents and at an outside center - the Adult Center at Central Islip - to the non-incarcerated parent or caregiver and children, birth through age seven, and parents who have been released from the correctional facilities or who are on probation.
|
|
|
