Annual Report 2001

Dear Friends of CRJ:

As we look to a new year, I am pleased to report that Community Resources for Justice is an effective, growing and fiscally sound organization. Bringing together two agencies certainly has been challenging. But as we move forward, we can begin to see and experience the synergy that comes with a solid, unified base.

On a personal note, it was particularly gratifying to participate in our Employee Recognition Day in May. The occasion was a powerful reminder of the difference our staff makes every day in the lives of troubled and disenfranchised people.

The social justice goals we share were also evident in some important efforts by individual board members:

• Mary Hawkes, a passionate advocate for women offenders, was recently honored by the Volunteers of America with its Maud Booth Award.
• Kathleen O’Toole has logged thousands of transatlantic miles in her tireless efforts on the Ireland Peacekeeping Committee.
• Joseph Carter was elected to the board of the International Association of Police Chiefs as one of its vice presidents.
• And Bob Watson’s 20 generous years of blood platelet donations have earned him recognition and the gratitude of Children's Hospital in Boston.

The Board also welcomed Michael Richards of the Massachusetts Division of Medical Assistance. And overall, while the board tended to matters of governance and resource management, some members contributed actively to our policy work, participated in public forums and wrote opinion pieces, which received wide readership in the Boston press.

Our financial foundation is strong. This is evidenced by the continued backing of the public funding agencies, which renewed support of our service programs with several multi-year contracts, including an 11-year contract with the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation.

Our financial picture is also expansive. In the last fiscal year, the agency reported a 16.75 % increase in revenues, due in large part to the acquisition of the Mentor Shelter for juveniles in Somerville, MA, and the New Hampshire Mentor program for the developmentally challenged. In addition, CRJ’s secure financial position led to the authorization of a $2.5 million credit line which enabled the Board to make critical strategic responses to service expansion opportunities, both within the state and across New England. This included the purchase of real estate as well as the necessary site preparations required to serve new clients within relatively short timeframes.

In an effort to offer additional adult offender services, we answered bids to establish pre-release sanction centers for federal prisoners in New Hampshire and Rhode Island. While these community-based facilities are sorely needed, they also faced the sadly predictable NIMBY--Not In My Backyard—reaction, which has slowed local decisions. Nonetheless, we expect to successfully implement at least one of these new federal programs in the coming year.

Finally, the Board of Directors applauds the progress made over the last year in meeting our long-term goals of consolidation and controlled growth. We look forward to continued creative collaborations over the next year with our colleagues in both the public and private sectors to achieve even more on behalf of our clients and others in need.

President

Letter from the Chief Executive Officer

Dear Friends:

As a new year begins, I hope this report conveys the breadth of our accomplishments, as well as our vision for even more comprehensive services to disenfranchised people, not only in Massachusetts but, increasingly, throughout New England.

This year, Elyse Clawson will join us to lead the century-old Crime & Justice Institute (CJI). Now entering its third year of research and policy advocacy for improved offender reintegration, CJI is creating a new dialog, a new paradigm. We anticipate extending our reach by facilitating both the design and implementation of reentry protocols in communities across the Commonwealth. The experience gained in our halfway houses has shown us the critical importance of the proper management of prisoners returning to our communities.

Innovations in offender reintegration were established through staff-designed programs as well as multi-agency collaborations. For example, with Bunker Hill Community College and other agencies, CRJ is now providing intensive educational and mentoring assistance to eligible offenders citywide.

Our program experience, along with our rapid, post-merger growth, prompted us to establish the Department of Programming and Treatment in January 2001, reaffirming the need to design and implement our own comprehensive substance abuse treatment capacity, and to ensure the coordination and quality of all our treatment and counseling models. Experience also directs us to seek creative solutions to the problem of permanent, affordable housing for discharged offenders and other disenfranchised people.

With Mentor New Hampshire joining CRJ, we have extended the reach and scope of services to the developmentally disabled and mentally retarded and doubled the number of consumers to more than 100. This important expansion brought complex challenges, but also rewards in blending the two different service models that we now offer in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Our capacity to house at-risk youth grew with the opening of Sargent House in March to serve as a transitional program for troubled youth. We also retained the leadership at our other juvenile programs and successfully renewed multi-year contracts.

We also consolidated our Corporate and CJI staff, moving into new offices in our building on Boylston Street in February. And we reached two critical administrative goals, expanding email networks for more efficient staff communication, and achieving a smooth conversion to sophisticated new fiscal software.

I am grateful to our private and public funders, as well as our friends and supporters for their continued confidence in the mission of this "new" 123-year-old organization. I look forward to continued collaborations in achieving our shared goal of social justice. The work ahead is daunting, but clear: not only must we assist the disenfranchised in creating a new, civil and satisfying life, but we must also dismantle the barriers that stand in their way.

Chief Executive Officer

2001 Financial Statement

Expenses by Program

These figures are taken from the audit performed by Carlin, Charron and Rosen LLP for the fiscal year July 1, 2000—June 30, 2001. The complete, audited financial statement is available upon request to the Development Office at 617/482-2520.

Crime and Justice Institute

For more than 100 years, the Crime and Justice Institute (CJI) has driven innovative, practical strategies for enhancing the criminal justice system. Assessing today’s thorniest criminal justice issues, the Institute focused its efforts over the last year on the burgeoning problem of offenders returning from prison to our communities. Without a new paradigm for managing this transition, communities will struggle to address the rising number of returning inmates, and ex-prisoners will fall short of achieving civil and successful reintegration. Toward that goal, the Institute took bold and creative steps through its research and publications, as well as the media, in an effort to shape better practices, influence public opinion and stimulate demand for change.

In January 2001, CJI released its report, "Returning Inmates: Closing the Public Safety Gap." The 30-page white paper gave an account of Massachusetts’ criminal justice reentry system, uncovered fundamental flaws in current processes, and offered recommendations for systemic change. This document was designed to inform and raise the level of public discourse, to motivate government leaders, and to harness the political will of their constituents.

The Institute used the report to generate statewide media attention and broaden public education. In addition to widespread print and radio coverage, The Boston Globe published two opinion pieces on its editorial pages. The report was the subject of a Special Report on WBUR, Boston’s National Public Radio station, as well as a segment on Greater Boston, the local public affairs program on Channel 2, Boston’s PBS affiliate.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino thanked CJI for its
revealing report and called for a system that "starts
thinking about reintegration at sentencing."

In April, CRJ hosted an early morning forum at Boston’s historic Old South Meeting House to extend the debate on prisoner reentry. More than 100 came to hear Mayor Thomas M. Menino deliver the keynote speech and respond to a panel discussion featuring Boston Police Commissioner Paul Evans, Parole Board Chairman Michael Pomarole and Corrections Commissioner Michael Maloney.

The services of Safety First, a CJI collaborative crime reduction program now in its sixth year, continues to provide urban law enforcement agencies and community groups with data-driven tools and new techniques for restoring public safety. CJI brings together numerous stakeholders to both develop and "own" creative, self-sustaining solutions.

For example, our work last year on domestic violence in Brockton helped police and probation officers identify and monitor the city’s 60 most dangerous repeat offenders. In Lynn, our goal is to reduce heroin overdose deaths. To that end, CJI has identified the city’s geographic "hot spots" as well as its most vulnerable citizens, and developed plans of action with police, treatment providers and citizens. We will soon add an offender reentry component to our work in Lynn, helping to address drug-involved ex-inmates’ needs for appropriate housing, employment and comprehensive health care. Finally, a pilot education program will inform seventh graders on the long-term effects of heroin use.

We have broadened the scope of our Corrections Management Program, now in its 21st year, and retitled it Standards and Quality Assurance (SQA). The program focuses on quality consistency in our growing internal operations, particularly in the areas of client assessment, operations, communications and accountability. SQA works with direct services staff to assure that our own programs meet uniform high standards for contract compliance and professional accreditation. These efforts assisted Coolidge House, our federal sanctions center in Boston, to prepare for and attain accreditation from the American Corrections Association in August 2000.

Finally, we continued to assist other jurisdictions including the Sheriff’s Departments in Suffolk and Essex Counties to strengthen accountability and improve facility operations through the accreditation process. In addition, we designed and administered promotional exams for four personnel levels—corporals, sergeants, lieutenants and captains.

Adult Offenders

The offenders who participate in Project Green, in New Haven are beneficiaries of Connecticut’s progressive approach to supervising offenders. Two dozen men reside in our facility for three-month stretches, receiving tailored counseling and treatment to deal with a range of issues, particularly substance abuse. Just as importantly, they acquire valuable skills while performing extensive community service and receiving employment assistance.

Teamwork and socialization are part of a broad learning experience as residents build playgrounds, sort goods at a food bank, and work alongside electricians and crane operators to set up and break down events such as the state’s Special Olympics. Two recent Project Green residents have completed apprenticeships--one as a bricklayer, the other as a glazier with potential hourly earnings of $25 in the trades. With unemployment and poverty still among the key indicators for criminality, this kind of preparation for release is making a lasting difference.

In Massachusetts’ Suffolk County, both men and women finishing their prison sentences were aided in their transition in two South End residences. We helped offenders face the daunting, multiple challenges of finding work and housing as they reintegrated back into families and communities.

Last year nearly 200 men stayed an average of four months at Brooke House and emerged with between $1200 and $1500 in savings from part-time jobs. As in New Haven, their case managers shaped individualized counseling and treatment programs to give them the coping skills, employability and substance abuse treatment they need to create a new life "on the outside." The staff also developed a new group counseling effort, "Higher Ground," aimed at fostering the men’s self-esteem and a positive outlook.

At McGrath House, women offenders received support last year in dealing with many of the same re-entry issues—drug and alcohol dependency, self-esteem, and limited cognitive and job skills. But they also faced added challenges. Many needed to build parenting skills, grapple with childcare and support issues, and get help in healing from the trauma of domestic violence or sexual abuse.

These women need additional support as they prepare to return to their roles as mothers, wives and daughters. Our staff facilitated group experiences to help heal strained or dysfunctional relationships. And then, there’s the issue of simple leisure time. This summer, the women at McGrath began a new type of weekly gathering called The Community Hour, aimed at nothing more than doing fun and even silly things together, to share a laugh and simply socialize.

Last May, CRJ was instrumental in launching the Offender Reentry Program, a new collaborative effort with Bunker Hill Community College, the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department, the Ella J. Baker House and The Work Place. Based at Brooke House, the training program serves offenders throughout the city. Those who are eligible receive an intensive five weeks of learning and support from educators, career specialists and mentors to assist them in achieving their life goals.

Our residential program for federal prisoners at Coolidge House serves up to 120 offenders from across New England. These men and women serve out the last three months of their sentences here and undergo counseling.

To honor one of our key strategic commitments to our clients, and in light of our growth, we established a Department of Programming and Treatment in January to coordinate and expand treatment and counseling efforts. Beginning with adult offenders, the Department Director and a new Director of Substance Abuse Treatment Services have begun working with senior program staff with an emphasis on substance abuse issues. We engaged the help of TASC of Illinois, an expert in the field, to assess the needs of our client populations. Our goal is to assess every offender, develop pre- and post-release treatment plans, and either deliver those services directly or through partners. We will extend this approach and provide comprehensive treatment to our juvenile clients, the majority of whom also face substance abuse issues. Education and employment will be additional areas of emphasis for the new Department.

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Kim

Services for the Mentally Retarded / Developmentally Disabled

Last year CRJ provided skilled and compassionate care for more than 100 individuals in Greater Boston, Central Massachusetts and New Hampshire including the addition of Mentor New Hampshire, who joined our provider group in October 2000.

Today, both programs are operated under Community Strategies, with the two staffs learning about each program’s capacities and strengths, and moving toward integration of the two different treatment models. The "cross-pollination" benefits a growing client base, and may include two more New England states within the coming year.

Through adult foster home care as well as staffed adult shared living, our staff provides a nurturing, normalized and less restrictive alternative to institutions such as nursing homes, hospitals and residential schools. We provide our residents with an awareness of their self-worth and right to self-determination. Staff is equipped to address such ongoing issues as self-advocacy and ensure that both our consumers’ human rights and civil rights are in place.

The heart of our philosophy is a belief in the therapeutic benefits of human relationships as the basis for growth and change. We challenge these individuals to become as independent as possible, and to exercise their right to take risks as well as their responsibility to actively participate in their service planning. Our challenge is to provide the right mix of supervision, treatment and freedom.

In Massachusetts last year, 45 consumers were served in 12 private shared-living residences for three or four individuals, staffed 24-hours-a-day. In New Hampshire, eight children and 50 adults were served primarily in foster care homes fully supported by professional staff based in Keene, Greenland, and Bow.

Our services encompass ongoing clinical supervision, including behavioral and nursing consultants, and offer 24-hour support and respite care. For some consumers, therapy and treatment are augmented with job development and on-the-job support.

A significant programmatic change in Massachusetts last year was bringing clinical services in-house. We now provide individual and group therapy to our residents through CRJ clinicians. The clinicians can also introduce therapeutic techniques to home-based staff, including group dynamic methods that enhance their ability to diffuse aggressive behavior.

The New Hampshire program model is exciting because it offers an alternative structure for our Massachusetts shared-living clients who can take the next step and live more independently with less comprehensive treatment. We continue to conduct consumer satisfaction surveys and plan to include input from families and guardians. We are committed to ensuring that service quality continues to grow along with program expansion.

Success comes in small steps. For example, one young woman recently began overnight visits with her mother. This had been impossible because she couldn’t control her behavior well enough to ensure her personal safety; many of her behaviors were potentially self-injurious. Remarkably, after more than a year of treatment —and without medication— she’s acquired the tools to recognize the first signs of agitation. Today her entire clinical team, as well as her family, is comfortable with weekend visits home.

In addition, two former shared living consumers are now living successfully in the less structured environment of our apartment program in the Leominster area. And today, several consumers who hadn’t been able to hold a job —even with a job coach nearby— go off to work part-time, thanks to individualized treatment plans and a dedicated, persevering staff.

We help break the chain of failures that people with developmental disabilities continually face. Although most live with chronic conditions that severely limit their ability to function independently in the community, with the right amount of support and supervision, and within certain limits, they can learn to live with more independence and confidence to pursue their personal goals.

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Lenny

Juvenile Services

CRJ cared for more than 300 youths from the Metro Boston Area last year in four residences and one day reporting center. Energetic leadership at all five programs set the tone for dedicated teams of case workers, youth workers, monitors and teachers. In turn, the staff served as role models for kids who may have known only dysfunction in their home life. Serving youth involved in the criminal courts as well as those removed from their home for abuse or neglect, our safe, structured and goal-oriented environments improved their self direction, self-esteem, self-control and emotional growth. Our approach also helped to decrease or eliminate at-risk behaviors, which, for many of these young people, include substance abuse.

In March 2001, we added another juvenile residence, securing the necessary certification to reopen Sargent House for up to 12 inner-city youth from the Department of Social Services system. Formerly a temporary shelter for homeless women and their children, Sargent House fills a void as a transitional program serving youth leaving a more secure setting, but still coping with challenging and destructive behaviors. Our experienced juvenile program directors believe that the individual attention and personalized approach at CRJ can turn around even the most hardened cases. Our one-on-one philosophy fosters individual interests and steer young people away from the many pressures that can lead to dysfunction, criminal activity or continued substance abuse.

As an established service provider to state and local public safety agencies, our juvenile programs are highly regarded. In fact, several of our three- and five-year contracts with Massachusetts Departments of Social Services and Youth Services were renewed this year. These contract renewals support full staffing at Somerville Transitional Shelter (formerly Mentor Shelter), Ambrose House and the Somerville Day Reporting Center, which enables us to better prepare these youth to either rejoin their families or begin independent adult lives that are civil, productive and satisfying.

Counseling and treatment services for youths range from clinical and educational to violence prevention, child advocacy, substance abuse, AIDS awareness, anger management, individual and group counseling, victimization, behavior management, community transition, family intervention, relapse prevention, healthy relationships and cognitive development. Each resident’s caseworker tailors a program of individual as well as group sessions.

Our only non-residential program for juveniles is the Somerville Day Reporting Center (SDRC). CRJ introduced the concept of day reporting to the U.S. as an alternative to incarceration more than a decade ago. Borrowed from the Probation Service of Great Britain, the model has proven to be a cost-effective, safe and humane option for juveniles. SDRC provided daily counseling and community service opportunities to more than 150 youths living at home and attending school, but still under the supervision of the Department of Youth Services.

In an effort to broaden the range of cultural, vocational and recreational opportunities available to the youth, we began fund raising in June for the Juvenile Enrichment Initiative. This effort is aimed at augmenting basic care with enhancements such as group and individual activities that connect these young people with the wider world to spark new interests and direct their energies toward rewarding careers or constructive new hobbies.

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Thinking of the Kids:

Contributors and Funders

* Donors to the Mary Hawkes Fund

Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this report. If we have inadvertently made an error, please notify the Development Department and accept our apology.