Success Story: Connecticut

Over the last ten years, Connecticut has distinguished itself with its data-driven policies, fiscal responsibility and comprehensive strategies for promoting the reintegration of ex-offenders.  Within two years of the development and implementation of the state’s justice reinvestment initiatives, Connecticut’s prison population went from being one of the nation’s fastest-growing to one experiencing a more rapid decline than almost any other state.  Crime rates in Connecticut also dropped during this period, faster than they were falling in the nation overall.[1]

• Data-driven analyses.  State leaders engaged the Council of State Governments to examine prison admissions and releases, determine explanations for the growth of the state’s prison population and generate policy options.  Data indicated a high recidivism rate, driven in part by large numbers of parole and probation violators, and that a majority of ex-offenders were returning to a handful of communities upon their release.  Analyses showed that these neighborhoods also received a disproportionate share of the state’s unemployment insurance, TANF and food stamps.[2]  Additionally, as a member of the Reentry Mapping Network, the city of Hartford, with the Connecticut Policy and Economic Council, analyzed the challenges ex-offenders face in securing employment.  This research was used to promote the coordination of services to address ex-offenders’ multiple needs.[3]

• Justice reinvestment.  In 2004, policymakers cancelled the state’s contract with the Virginia Department of Corrections, yielding $30 million in annual savings.  The state reinvested $13 million of those savings in community-based strategies to reduce recidivism.  Two innovative programs—the Technical Violations Unit and the Probation Transition Program—were established to provide intensive services, including employment and housing assistance, to reintegrating ex-offenders.[4]  Funds were also reinvested to hire 96 new probation officers, which led to a reduction in caseloads from approximately 160 in January 2004 to approximately 100 in June 2005.[5]

• State reentry plan.  The state’s reinvestment effort was paired with legislative requirement for the state to development a comprehensive reentry plan.

• Workforce development.Connecticut’s STRIDE Program is a state-funded transitional workforce development program that serves men and women in two state correctional institutes both before and after their release.  The curriculum and post-release services are collaboratively designed by state legislators, the state’s Departments of Correction and Labor and the Department of Social Services’ Welfare to Work Initiative and Support Enforcement Services to focus on employment while considering the other challenges facing reintegrating ex-offenders.  On average, 7 percent of STRIDE participants re-offend, compared to 39 percent of ex-offenders statewide.[6]

• Lifting bars to employment.  In 2006, Connecticut HB 5846 created "provisional pardons" to remove bars to licensing and other discrimination against ex-offenders by private employers. 

•  Infoline for ex-offenders.  Ex-offenders can call 2-1-1 from any phone in Connecticut to obtain information about e-offender programs and support, employment assistance, education and literacy training, transitional housing and health and mental health care.[7]