WASHINGTON – Gov. Robert Ehrlich told Congress Thursday that it should fund state programs similar to Maryland’s RESTART, which aims to reduce high recidivism rates through better training, treatment and support for ex-offenders when they leave prison or jail.
In Maryland, almost half of all people released from prison or jail commit another crime; nationwide the rate is closer to two-thirds.
“The reason is quite simple,” Ehrlich said, “job skills and addiction, not in that order.”
Ehrlich, a former congressman, returned to Capitol Hill to support the House’s Second Chance Act of 2005 before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security.
The bill was introduced April 19 by 29 representatives including Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Baltimore; Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, R-Kennedyville; Rep. Albert Wynn, D-Largo; and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Cockeysville. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Kensington, is among the bill’s 80 total cosponsors.
“Our old buddy’s back with us,” said Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., the subcommittee’s chairman. “It’s good to have you back, Bobby.”
Ehrlich was asked to testify because his 2004 program, Re-entry Enforcement and Services Targeting Addictions, Rehabilitation and Treatment, has already taken many steps outlined in the act, putting Maryland at the forefront of efforts to change for the better the way the country deals with ex-offenders.
After years of conversations with his wife, Kendel, a former Annapolis public defender, Ehrlich said, he realized that the policies designed to reduce crime were not working and it was time to try something totally new.
Ehrlich said he developed RESTART based on “sound social science,” referring to a national study by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy, which found that good former inmate re-entry programs could reduce recidivism by 20 to 30 percent.
The program’s goals are to help former inmates become productive citizens, to increase public safety by reducing crime and to save tax dollars, Ehrlich said in written testimony.
“The annual cost of incarceration in Maryland is $24,000 per inmate,” Ehrlich said. “That is more expensive than the annual tuition at many of the best colleges in the country.”
With RESTART only beginning its second year, “I can’t tell you whether or not this has worked in Maryland yet,” Ehrlich told lawmakers. Still, “there is little downside (to trying) since the past is replete with failures.”
While the program is based on social science, Ehrlich said, “some of this is common sense; it’s intuitive.”
That hasn’t stopped RESTART from encountering political resistance.
“We’ve received some unfortunate opposition from some members of our General Assembly,” Ehrlich said. This he attributed to common resistance to change and the fact that some see the program as a strange step for a Republican governor.
Much of the opposition stemmed from state correctional officers worried that prison and community safety would be compromised by RESTART’s diversion of corrections funding to hire more psychologists, psychiatrists and counselors.
With RESTART only in its second year the verdict is still out on which side is right.
The measure of success will be the “one-, two- and three-year recidivism rates for those in the program,” Ehrlich said later. “Are people reoffending, and, if not, do they have jobs?”
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