Mission Statement Texas HOPE Literacy, Inc. Texas HOPE Literacy is an existing initiative that has served as the leading volunteer peer-driven literacy program in Texas prisons. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice salutes HOPE as the premier volunteer initiative that has provided our offenders with outstanding services to assist in their transition back into the community. The mission of Texas HOPE Literacy is to transform offenders through the HOPE Community Reintegration Models using peer driven education within an evidence-based framework in order for them to re-enter society as productive and contributing members of their communities. What We Do Texas HOPE Literacy (HOPE) provides inmate reintegration programs in both jails and prisons. The HOPE reintegration models create safe communities where inmates can live, learn and grow together. These models are specifically designed to target recidivism, remediate the functionally illiterate prison population and provide them with the tools they need to be successful on their post-release. Training and modeling appropriate actions, attitudes, and behaviors that they practice prior to release is much more effective than warehousing 1. The integrated design of peer tutoring is unique within the jail/prison settings; even more powerful when it is in concert with facilitated life skills, education centers and spiritual development courses that employ a holistic approach. We strive to educate the whole person, not merely the mind. Transformative learning involves change a change in the points of view a person may have, the way they comprehend, perceive and believe about their world. The way they view and comprehend, perceive and believe about themselves is crucial to change. When transformation occurs on the inside first, the outside becomes healthy. All models are focused on transformation. Program Models Texas HOPE Literacy meets all descriptors of Texas Senate Bill 345, as defined in Texas Government Code 501.009 for volunteers in Texas prisons. These are as follows: Literacy and education programs Life skills programs Job skills programs Parent training programs Criminal Thinking programs
Anger Management Drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs Support group programs Arts and crafts programs Other programs determined to aid inmates in the transition between confinement and society and to decrease incidence of recidivism among inmates. History of HOPE Since 1997, HOPE has helped thousands of incarcerated men and women improve their academic levels to help them earn their GED. Many saw their reading and math earned achievement scores increase 3-6 grade levels in a matter of months. HOPE has proven the effectiveness of using offender peer educators to re-mediate functional illiteracy. As a result, Texas House Bill 28 passed in 2003 allowed state jail offenders, capable of serving as literacy tutors, to tutor functionally illiterate offenders. The ratification of this bill enabled HOPE to expand into other prisons in Texas. The overall result is that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice leads the nation in peer-driven offender programs because of Texas HOPE Literacy. HOPE began with a single Classroom Model at two facilities. In 2003, at the invitation of the warden, HOPE began providing services for women at a new facility with limited space for programming. This led to the development of a unique HOPE Community Reintegration Model for prison dorm settings and later to modify this model to fit county jail dorm environments. Literacy and life skills, all related to decreasing recidivism and enhancing re-entry, are the most meaningful, long-range measures of any real effectiveness in reducing the number of inmates who are re-incarcerated. In 2006, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice recommended Texas HOPE Literacy for its 3rd Texas Governor s Award, that of Community Capacity Builder. Prior Texas Governor s awards were 2005 Most Innovative Program, which was the HOPE Community Reintegration Model, and 2000 for Religious Volunteer of the Year awarded to its Founder, Lucy Smith. What we know about HOPE is that its models and programs work. In a 2008 random sampling, 500 former HOPE recipients were tracked to see if they had returned to prison; less than 4% had gone back. Since then, HOPE has been tracking results through social media. Our Facebook pages/groups, Google+ and Twitter provide conduits for them to stay connected. Unlike United States correctional institutions that, for the most part, recycle criminal behavior, HOPE is NOT into warehousing or recycling. Inmates can change their negative ways, but only when they are placed in highly structured positive transformative learning environments where they practice appropriate attitudes, actions and behaviors during locked up. When practiced in a multisensory systematic structured intensive model that becomes a way of life beyond the walls, then and only then can the impetus for change occur within these inmates, and it must the individual s personal choice to work towards this change.
All HOPE models encourage group cohesiveness and commitment to the growth of its members. Within the community, group loyalty develops and through growing connections inmates develop in their abilities to be mutually supportive. To accomplish this, HOPE uses evidence-based courses that focus on education and life skills. Changing thinking Communications Anger management Motivation to change HIV/health education Grief Job preparedness Basic computing, including Excel Trauma education Education Domestic violence Substance abuse Boundaries Getting out of poverty Leadership coaching CPS Parenting HOPE staff provides program oversight, orientation, coordinator training, extensive record keeping, and advocacy, is involved in helping inmates to successfully transition from non-structured environments to the highly structured environment of the HOPE Community Model. One need that is clearly evident with inmates, male and/or female, is that pathways to negotiate through the significant barriers to their ability to successfully reenter their communities, and not recidivate must be unblocked. Research by the Bureau of Justice Statistics published in 2006 2, has shown that two-thirds of offenders will be rearrested and many will be re-incarcerated within three years of their release. 2014 Texas HOPE Literacy Transition In 2013, transition occurred in the services and programs provided by Texas HOPE Literacy to incarcerated individuals in the state of Texas. In the latter part of that year, Dawson State Jail in Dallas Texas closed. Texas HOPE Literacy had been a presence in this facility for the previous 10 years. Prior to the Dawson closure, over 200 female inmates (4 dorms) were actively participating in the HOPE programs there. Unable to immediately identify another correctional unit where HOPE Dawson inmates and volunteers could be immediately accommodated, Texas HOPE Literacy began the search for a new TDCJ site, working closely with the TDCJ liaison assigned to assist HOPE in this search. Since that time, Texas HOPE Literacy has focused on its Dallas County Jail Model working with female inmates, while strategizing and planning for installation of new models within TDCJ. In February 2014, a new location with two prison sites was identified and the HOPE models will be installed spring 2014. New Reentry Office Texas HOPE Literacy opened a Reentry & Community Resource Office in Irving, Texas to assist HOPE alumni in their reentry needs after incarceration. HOPE is a family that
begins on the inside and transitions with them to help them stay free. The same principles they learned in the program during their incarceration will be supported and reinforced as they reenter their HOPE Family community post-release. Studies of County jail recidivism are few and far between. In 2003, the Montgomery County Department of Rehabilitation and Correction in the state of Maryland conducted a study to examine recidivism within a jail population. 3 This was done to determine the research needs of a county jail system, and provide recommendations about how to deal with recidivism overall. Their definition of re-arrest/re-indictment was that of an offender, who was arrested by police, and then subsequently indicted for the offense by the State Attorney. This definition may differ from other studies where only an arrest occurred, but charges were not necessarily filed. They found that after one year, 41% of males/32% of females, were re-arrested/re-indicted for other offenses. When they added violations of probation, the percentages increased to 46% for males/38% for females. In August 2007, the Crime and Justice Institute and the National Institute of Corrections published a series of whitepapers Evidence-Based Practice to Reduce Recidivism 4 designed to share information with criminal justice system stakeholders about how properly designed and evidence-based practices in corrections can significantly reduce offender recidivism. Reentry Means "Going Home to Stay" Another way of looking at it is Reentry Means Inmates are Coming Home Texas HOPE Literacy made a commitment to provide excellent programs when it accepted inmates into the HOPE Community Models on their correctional facilities. Inmates who have been in HOPE are equipped for success after release. HOPE projects that those in HOPE are better off at the time of release than at the time of their entry. Unfortunately, so often the jail/prison facility just "lets them go" without any case management or pre-release preparation. When this happens, it is very ease to fall back with old friends, old places, and negative ways. No Resources = Failure. As they release, the Texas HOPE Literacy Reentry & Community Resource Office provides opportunities for them to have knowledge and access to the necessary resources that will help them successfully connect and become productive members of society. Our Reentry Initiative is a holistic and systematic approach that seeks to reduce the likelihood of additional criminal behavior. Individualized case management begins with a needs assessment to identify and link them to services specific to their needs. Reentry calls for a broad systems approach to managing inmates returning to the community. The establishment of Reentry and community Resources Office makes it increasingly possible to successfully link to
community partners, families, justice professionals and others. When managed well, alcohol and drug treatment alone saves $7 in incarceration costs for every $1 spent. When education and reentry life skills are includes, the savings is greater. In addition to case management assistance, the office plans to offer a schedule of appropriate classes to assist in decreasing recidivism. Already, professional volunteers have expressed an interest in teaching at the Reentry Office, having already seen the results of working with HOPE inmates and can attest to the fact that reentry must begin during lockup. It is too late to wait until they release. Services must await them when they walk free. The office will make available support groups based on identified needs. Projections are that those inmates with the ability to pay will be enrolled on a sliding scale. Those with no ability to pay will be eligible for a scholarship if funds are available. Our goal for 2014 is that Texas HOPE Literacy, with its past history of excellence, current and planned comprehensive programs and re-entry support both in and out of the jail/prison, will continue to be recognized within the criminal justice system as an effective partner that reduces recidivism. It is our intent to live up to the reputation given to us by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, that of the premier volunteer initiative that has provided our offenders with outstanding services to assist in their transition back into the community. Specific Measurable As we continue with the plans mentioned above, data will be collected from the many processes to ensure that Texas HOPE Literacy is providing SMART programs. Achievable Relevant Time-lined. References: 1 Literacy Behind Bars: Results From the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Prison Survey. National Center for Education Statistics, US Department of Education. May 2007. 2 http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=1536 3 A Collaborative Report of Justice & Security Strategies, Inc. and the Montgomery County Pre-Release and Re-Entry Services Division, Department of Correction and Rehabilitation, November 2009 4 Warren, R., and Crime and Justice Institute. 2007. Evidence-Based Practice to Reduce Recidivism: Implications for State Judiciaries. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Corrections. 5
Texas HOPE Literacy - Reentry & Community Resource Office, P.O. Box 171203 Irving, TX 75017. Ph 817-591-4538. www.texashopeliteracy.com