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 The
Young Offenders Program (YOP) was established to identify and screen
individuals in the criminal justice system both felony and
misdemeanor
sections in ages ranging from 17-24 (males) and 17-29
(females).
Once these individuals have been identified, the project goals are to
prevent, delay, and/or reduce crime, substance abuse, recidivism, violent
behavior, as well as associated social, emotional, behavioral, cognitive
and physical problems of substance abusing adult offenders. Other
program goals are to work with the entire nuclear family of the defendants
who reside in the household and to encourage those in high school to stay
in school, graduate and move into college. For each defendant, the
process lasts for a minimum of six months, which may include participation
in the Faith-based boot camp for six weeks, a follow-up graduate program
from YOP and monitoring for a minimum of 60 days. If a participant
is in high school, then that person is required to have a drug test,
attend a three-day retreat, maintain good grades, and graduate.
The
Young Offenders Re-entry Program is comprised of 9 agencies that not only
provide services, but act as a support system for participants. The
goal of the initiative is to build on innovative ideas that reduce
recidivism of offenders returning to their community from
correctional facilities. VBI is designed to help young offenders and
ex-prisoners successfully rejoin the community and experienced an 85%
success rate with 240 participants.
For
more information about the Young Offenders Program of the Faith-based boot
camp, please contact either Linda Tippins, Director of Weed & Seed and
Executive Vice President of SAFB, Inc. at (210) 271-7232 ext. 305, or Stan
Gofron at (210) 335-0054.
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Facts
About Prison & Prisoners |
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The
Growing Corrections System
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The
number of inmates in state and federal prisons has increased more
than six-fold from less than 200,000 to 1,381,900 by the end of
2000. An additional 621,000 are held in local jails.
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The
number of persons on probation and parole has been growing
dramatically along with institutional populations. There are
now 6.5 million Americans incarcerated or on probation, or parole,
an increase of more than 240% since 1980.
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Nearly
one in ten (9.7%) of black males age 25-29 were in prison in 2000,
as were 1 in 34 (2.9%) Hispanic males and about 1 in 100 white males
in the same age group.
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The
2000 United States' rate of incarceration of 699 inmates per 100,000
population is the highest reported in the world, now ahead of
Russia's rate of 644 per 100,000.
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| Who
is in our Prisons and Jails? |
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93%
of prison inmates are male, 7% female. |
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46%
of prison inmates in 1999 were black and 16% were Hispanic. |
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68%
of state prison inmates in 1997 had not completed high school. |
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33%
of jail inmates in 1991 were unemployed prior to entering jail. |
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32%
of jail inmates in 1991 who had been free for at least one year
prior to their arrest had annual incomes of under $5000. |
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70%
of those sentenced to state prisons in 1998 were convicted of
non-violent crimes, including 31% for drug offenses, and 26% for
property offenses. |
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60%
of jail inmates in 1996 reported they were under the influence of
alcohol or drugs at the time they committed their offense. |
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1
in 4 jail inmates in 1996 was in jail for a drug offense, compared
to 1 in 10 in 1983; drug offenders constituted 21% of 1999 state
prison inmates and 57% of 1999 federal prison inmates. |
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Black
males have a 29% chance of serving time in prison at some point in
their lives; Hispanic males have a 16% chance; white males have a 4%
chance. |
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~Bureau
of Justice Statistics & The Sentencing Project |
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