P. O. Box 10563 Harrisburg, PA 17105 www.reentrynow.org
1100 S. Cameron St. Corner of Sycamore & Cameron
Meeting Notes
(September 20, 2012 Meeting)
1. Welcome and Introductions. Chair Vladimir Beaufils () welcomed all, read the CRESC mission and vison, and asked all to introduce themselves. Present were CRESC Vice-President Bill Peterson () of the Center for Community Building, CRESC Workforce Development Committee chair Bob Garraty ()of GWI, CRESC Mentor Committee chair Larry Coleman ( ), CRESC Communications chair Barry Nazar ( ) of Temple University, CRESC Secretary Jim Cavenaugh (), Brandon Runk (737-1903) our new CRESC intern, Amber Borelli of PA Counseling Service, Matt Clause of York County Children & Youth, Kerry Kershner ( ) Director of the Wernersville Community Corrections Center, Michelle King, intern with CRAM; Stephen Scanlon of the Center for Independent Living, Donna Humphries () of HeavenGates Ministries, Megan Peacock ( )of Dauphin County Work Release Center, Michael Shrauder ( )of Dauphin County Adult Probation, Carole Petraitis () of the Clara Bell Duvall Reproductive Freedom Project, ACLU-PA, Irene Baird of PSU Harrisburg, Barb Varner of the Cumberland County Juvenile Probation Office, Marsha Sinkovits () Jim Law and John Gill of 2d Chance Ministries, Rosa Duncan ( , 717 577-0830) of York Office, PA Board of Probation and Parole (PA P&P), John Jackson Successful Exofender (712-4130 johnwjackson7@gmailcom), John Sponeybarger of Dauphin County Drug & Alcohol Treatment Services (), Janeen Christ () of PA DOC Bureau of Community Corrections, Manny Valentin of Libre, Inc., Jonathan Queen () of New Mindz, and Reggie Bass () Director of Client Aftercare at Bethesda Mission and Associate Pastor at Greater Zion Baptist church.
2. Committee Updates.
A. Workforce Development Committee Dr. Bob Garraty, Chair. Bob told us that the 12/13 emlyer breakfast has a goal of gtetting 100 emplolyers both who do and do not hire exoffenders, getting some to become mentors, and all to be more invooved. Three organiaations are supporting: crewsc, the regional chambers xxxsommittee has a subcommittee, and the p7p’s CAC, and they are aksing the county for some $$$ to support the costsof the breakfast. The event will be advertised on the website of the Harrisburg regional chamber. Mike Shrauder and Bob describredf the breakfast. There will be a panel of employers . He wants a strong committee - all those who weant towork with hime are asked to put WFD by their name on the sign-in sheet.
CRAM Workshop Juanita Grant reported tous that CRAM is rally present at the hbt CCC sharing computers wth 2d chance min and alos at Keystone Community Corrections. CRAM got a greant form the xxx foundation to develop CRAM mobile reentry program, has six laptops and mobile printer and wll serve 15 people at once. The workshops at WRC areonce amonth for four hours. Helpdeveloping emai addresses, resumes, cpplyiojg for jobs while cram sgthere. Financkial literacy program in coopration with xxx, 1 sdiffernt modues. HIV counseling in cooperation withTPFO. Her owh JWG is now a LLC arm of CRAM a few doors up from CRAM and will include an on-site attorney who will help with bankruptcy petitions chap 7 oly. She wll do nonprofit consulting. CRAM takes walkins in addion to the sites they serve. CRAM ahs a grant to offer service in york at CRispus attucs and wll start a similar one in hbt. Her nephew is an exoffender and just bilt six houses TLC workplace training program nonprofit will get referrals from CRAM and she will refer cliets to him. She will be retiring 3/31 sat sept. 22 will be training to get PA people to come together to get big federal grant at New Hope church showcasePA Servces Connect. Will connect all PA countries so samhsa can reach out on the statewide level, and CRESC members are to be in it. There are 8 counties now. Our missin is to provide servives to veterans and all underserved indiviuals. R4W gives advice oncleaning up your rap sheet, and many need help getting through the process, and CRAM canhelp them. Many pages of a rap sheet canbe cleaned off it when charges were nolle prossed
CEEED R4W Workshop Vlad told the group that the CEEED offers the R4W workshops hve bgeen evaluated and have run 6 years. 62 people haver gotten good jobs, all with a criminal background. 87/210 completed all three phases, and 62/87 have good jobs – the rest of the 210 have not all been in touch with us. Onw od rhw first R4W graduates is Abby Barnett who had done time at SCI Frackville and had never met a successful EOtillhe metVB – he did not know there was such a think as a successful EO. His goal is to own his own mcds and he will be the closing speaker at the 10/13 breakfast. BN asked the diff between CEEED andCareerLink. They are both ‘one stop’ and VB has worked at both. Careerlkink has the WIB behind it and HACC helpkng. The CEEED at 13th and Derry. does the personal touch and CareerLink at 100 n Cameron street has maybae one staff for maybe fifty peoplewho need help.
Work Release Center Workshop in Matt Miller’s absence Ms Road cap told us that the ETT does a lot to help residents get jobs, and also refers to the CEEED and to CareerLink.
B. Mentoring Committee Chaplain Coleman, Chairspoke of his report that was on the regtistration table.the clmmmeets the 1st thrursday monthly at dodge city restauratnt 8am. The clllegte of mentoring meets the first Friday each month at Temple Strawberry Square, and the next date is Oct 5+6, Frday eve and Saturday.
· Successful Ex-offender Mentoring Group
· College of Mentors
· His task force on the duplicatin process has eight members, and they will be defining each phase and step so the York group can use it. He reminded us that the SEMG needs resources for the two groups, and asked people present to sign a sheet that they might present 5-10 minutes at a mentoring session. A working partnership is what makes this thing work, and he hopes to have a resource person present each month.
VB noted that for the 12/13 breakfast there will be sponsorship opportunities at various levelsgldsilver bronz and contributor
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C. Communication Committee new committee Barry Nazar, Chair had eight people sign up at the last meeting and bob G hopes to have a similar reponse. Jim Law is already on the committee, and Bob will work with members. Task will be to update the resource directory via a survey sent to the 300 people on our CRESC maillist.
Upcoming Newsletter & Updated Directory
He wants his committee to set up a ‘spider wb’ to capture info about what is going on of interst to the re entry comitteee
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3. Treasurers Update Jeff Woodyard was absent – his report was at the registratrin table, showing …..two new members and a closing balance of
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PRESENTER
4. Carol Petraitis, Director Clara Bell Duvall Reproductive
Freedom Project, ACLU of Pennsylvania
Carol Patraitis distributed handouts “Reproductive Health: Locked Up”. She works at the ACLU which has been primarily on Voter ID which has been a major concern of late. She works exclusivally with women and Clara Bell duval’s daughter founded her organkzation. Their work in the jail population was in Philadalphia a working group began planning toget a bill passed 7-2010 with a unanimous vote to ban shackling, and she thinks a BBC tv crew coming to town featuring a video that got wide press coverage and the Gawas embarrassed. In anticipation of the legislation failing a bunch of lawyers gathered policies of all jails in PA on pregnant women, and there are 57. The published report addresses allphases, which came from the wealth of info they had gathered. Just like here, people are focused on their community with minimal knowledge of what is anywhere else. /the biggest finding is that the policies vary hugely around the state. Esp Prime Care Medical proides servifces in 25 of the jail included DCP. Women in general and pg women in particular are a growing part of the prison population in PA and elsewhere, generally tied tosubstance abuse and the war on drugs. The report was published inJanuary and was sent to every warden, prison board solicitor and xxxxx, what they expected was people tocall and scream at her, and the opposite happened, the media praised the report, and they wrote to counties telling three areas where they fell short
One rural county’s commissioner asked them about women having a rght to anabortion and improved nutrition for the women – is there conflict? She explained how there was not a conflict. They shrared stories of children-out-of wedlock and other children who were motherless and they listened to each other. He saw that elk county has a policy and thought he would go to them and if theres was not enough he would come toher.
Why is this relevant to CRESC? We do at DCP test for STDs and treat, not all counties test. The prenatal care policy at dcp is very complete, pg testing at intake is routine. She would like any inmate to be able to be tested on request. Re contraception she cited a study of women in prison. Two counties allow women to he on contraception in wr, the study showed that women who begin contraception injail are more likely to be using contracepton six months later. So her interest in reproductive health meets CRESC support of exofenders. The medical director of health care services in phila prisons is on board,and connection with the title x clinics will yield much lower privces for contractptioves for women. Now why are women still being shackled? The law bans any kind of restraint including shackling,but she recently went to a suburban phila hospital and women are being restrained during prenatal visits to the hospital. Doctors wonder if a person is violent ? women coming from a prison are less likely to be high during childbirth, as was recently the case wth a non-prisoner who had no armed guards. They are going to do a series of publications to follow this report, one for doctors, one for women inmates re choices, including a form for child custody arrangements. They are teaming with a prof at duquesne univ to survey all doctors about experience with shacklig and other restraints,asking if doctors have experienced violence and if there is fear. IB added that a guard from DCP alsways accompanies a women to the hospital and is present in the deliverfy room.
Sothey will continue on. Almost all counties have policies on abortion that arenot correct as the law exists. They just spoke at a PA conference of county solicitors to apprise them on the actual law in this regard. PrimeCare is the most standardized and the most complete. Bob asked if we might see the letter that went to DCP and perhaps advocate on behalf of the inmates. She clarified that DCP polkcy is that the prison will not pay for an abortion which is contrary to law. BN asked if this could bhe generalized to other health matters or across genders, like testing for STDs. VB noted that Marsha Banks was shackled in one of her deliveries, and so can speak from personal experience. Carol P suggested that if a guard is present the guard should tell the medical staff if extra restraint is needed why that is the case. The law was SB 1074 pn1776 session of 2009. Chair VB thanked her on behalf of CRESC
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5. New Business Chair VB
· Introduction of Intern Brandon Runk who will be working on updating theCRESC membership directory and updating our membership rolls, working with prof bary nazar.
· Need Chair for Finance/Fundraising Committee
· The November meeting will feature electing any new board members and then the board will elect new officers..
6. Announcements & Sharing of Info/Networking
a. banquet coming up tickets are selling fast ex-pa lifer will be the speaker
alliedassociates arethe facilitators for American hotelassociation certificatin program and will be at crispus attucks center certifying for openings that will occur as Gettysburg celebrates the 150th alliedassocmgp.com
Johnathan Queen spoke of a summit opening in Yourk this coming Saturday and he will be speaking at freedomgate ministries also newparentingclasses wll be starting for those who are mandated .
IB has been using his book in her group inside DCP because the messge is wonderful.
Vb told us of a big job fair coming up mon 9/24 by a group of local radio stations at the BWPremier
7. Next Meeting – Third Thursday of the Month (Thursday, October 18, 2012)
8. Adjourn 4:35pm
Vision Statement: We believe that every ex-offender should have access to the services and
resources necessary to maintain a productive, crime-free life.
Mission Statement: Positively affecting recidivism by educating and strengthening the community
through coordination of services that the ex-offender needs for a successful reentry.
CRESC Board of Directors
Vladimir Beaufils – Chair, William Peterson – Vice Chair, James Cavenaugh – Secretary, Jeff Woodyard – Treasurer, Committee’s –Bob Garraty – Workforce Development, Barry Nazar – Communication, Larry Coleman - Mentoring