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Event Public Safety Incarceration, Prisoner Reentry

Prisoner-Reentry Reform in Maryland

16
Wednesday December 2015

Speakers

Peter Cove Founder, America Works
Stephen T. Moyer Secretary of Public Safety & Correctional Services, Maryland
Hon. Kelly M. Schulz Secretary of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation, Maryland
Hon. Christopher B. Shank Executive Office, Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention, Maryland
Howard Husock Vice President, Research & Publications, Manhattan Institute
Hon. Boyd K. Rutherford Lieutenant Governor, Maryland

Co-sponsored by Maryland Public Policy Institute.

America faces a criminal recidivism crisis: two-thirds of the country’s 700,000 inmates released annually will be arrested for a new offense within three years. The extra resources devoted to the criminal-justice system represent public money not spent on parks, libraries, and schools.

While many prisoner-reentry efforts have demonstrated potential, among them job training and counseling, one approach has proven especially promising—”rapid attachment to work,” which swiftly places ex-prisoners into jobs and is rooted in the idea that the dignity of a steady job and paycheck is the surest path to a stable life. Crime-plagued cities, such as Baltimore, stand to benefit most from successful reentry programs.

The Manhattan Institute is one of a number of organizations involved in the implementation of rapid attachment to work programs. During 2008–12, MI partnered with former Newark mayor Cory Booker on a pilot project to design and implement a model prisoner-reentry program for that city.

On December 16, 2015, the Manhattan Institute was joined by the Maryland Public Policy Institute, and hosted a discussion with public- and private-sector experts on the merits of work-based reentry programs and shared best practices for implementation—with a special focus on the Old Line State.

 

communications@manhattan-institute.org