Safe Return Re-entry Project
Lead: Pacific Institute for Studies in Environment, Development, and Security
Partners: City of Richmond, California’s Office of Neighborhood Safety; Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization; Mitchell Kapor Foundation; The California Endowment; Kaiser Permanente
Project Location: Richmond, Calif.
Contact: Eli Moore, program director, Pacific Institute, emoore@pacinst.org
Project Description:
Research shows that social and economic factors, like violent crime and unemployment, affect the overall health of a community. The Pacific Institute—in collaboration with Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization and the City of Richmond—will use its grant funding to increase employment and housing opportunities for formerly incarcerated residents in Richmond, Calif.
Richmond stands out in Contra Costa County and California as an area receiving disproportionately high numbers of people returning from prison. Upon release, former inmates grapple with a variety of urgent needs, from getting a new ID to finding a living wage job or safe, affordable housing. Despite its moderate size of 100,000 residents, Richmond regularly ranks in the top ten of U.S. cities for its violent crime rates—and the city’s recidivism rate is almost 70 percent. The goal of this project is to improve the current system for reintegrating former inmates into the Richmond community, in turn improving community health and safety.
To achieve this, the Safe Return Re-entry Project will engage in policy research and advocacy to establish a one stop referral center for people returning from prison, increase the amount of medium-term housing accessible to them, and revise the city personnel and contracting policies to level the playing field for applicants with past convictions. The campaign will focus on building and supporting the organizing and advocacy capacity of the Safe Return Team; building a broad base of active residents engaged in the campaign; researching policy proposals and developing specifics for implementation; building relationships with, educating, and holding accountable key decision-makers; and effectively communicating the issue to the public.
The Mitchell Kapor Foundation and The California Endowment will provide a cash match to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant.
