Name of Report: Rhode Island Family Life Center Annual Report
Organizational Affiliation: Rhode Island Family Life Center
Author: N/A
Contact Information: www.ri.familylifecenter.org 841 Broad St., Providence, RI 02907 Phone (401) 781-5808 Fax (401) 781-5361
Date: May 2004
Pages: 5
Content Summary
The report begins with a letter from the executive director of the Family Life Center, Sol Rodriquez. The letter states the mission of the organization, which is to provide support and advocacy to ex-offenders. The director also discusses how the organization has been able to positively impact people in Providence that had previously been incarcerated. The remainder of the report is divided into three sections. The first section is titled Supporting Ex-Offenders and Families, Inside Out. This segment discusses the importance of giving critical support to ex-offenders. Emphasis is placed on the need for counseling and programs that will provide assistance for ex-offenders as a result of many of their privileges being taken away. The report includes the success stories of individuals whom utilized the services of the Family Life Center and ultimately were able to get the help that they needed. The second part of the report is titled Removing Barriers to Reentry: A Policy Update. This sector discusses how legal and bureaucratic barriers make it difficult for ex-offenders to stay out of prison. Many of these barriers are a result of federal and state laws that limit an ex-offender's access to assistance such as welfare and food stamps benefits. As a result of the impact of the policy, staff from the Center worked to publish a comprehensive policy brief for elected officials and the public. The Family Life Center has also designed the Justice Action Center, a web-based service that allows Rhode Islanders access to quickly and effectively send letters to state representatives pertaining to certain legislations. Finally, the third section of the report is titled Mapping the Impact of Incarceration and Prison Reentry. This component of the report talks about how the Family Life Center has collaborated with the Providence Plan and the RI Department of Corrections in an attempt to map the impact of incarceration and reentry in neighborhoods in Providence.
Major Findings
An estimate of 38% of the over 3,000 inmates being released from Rhode Island prisons are expected to be returning to Providence. A key finding of the report is the effect that limits to federal assistance have on ex-offenders. By looking at the Family Life Center clients solely, 36% are banned for life from welfare and food stamp benefits. The final component looked at is the amounts of males in Providence on probation and parole. Accordingly, of adult males aged 18-64, more than 1 in 4 males living in Upper South Providence are on probation or parole. In the Lower South Providence, the number is nearly 1 in every four. As a recipient of the Serious and Violent Offender Federal Reentry Initiative (SVORI) grant, also know as COMPASS, the organization has been able to currently serve over 130 clients in the prison facilities as well as in the community.
Unaddressed Issues and Concerns
Considering that the report is quite short, much of the information provided is very brief and concise. The report merely outlines the major goals and accomplishments of the newly formulated organization. While the report itself is not very informative when addressing racial/ethnic disparities, it serves as a starting point in understanding the issues that the Family Life Center is working around. Moreover, the report does include different links that provide more information pertaining to the topic of interest.
One of the key issues that this report mentions is the negative impact that state and federal restrictions have on individuals trying to re-integrate and succeed in society. While the report only briefly touches upon this issue, it is very important that more critical discussions take place that address significant concerns such as the inaccessibility and limits of welfare programs especially for the people that they are primarily expected to help; poor and low income families of color. In an article titled "The State of Welfare", Tony Platt offers a discourse on the ineffectiveness and restrictiveness of current welfare policies. He points out that welfare programs often ignore the needs of unemployed men. Moreover, welfare initiatives often act as a means of creating conflict between men and women. This tactic ultimately upsets family structures rather than keep them intact. Finally, Platt also discusses the extent to which welfare and imprisonment are interrelated. "Today's welfare and criminal justice policies represent a division of labor between different managerial agencies, with jails and prisons primarily containing unemployed men, and welfare agencies primarily regulating unemployed women and their children" (Platt 17).
Reference List
Platt, Tony. "The State of Welfare" Monthly Review: An Independent Socialist Magazine 55.5 (2003): 13-27
How to Access Report
http://www.ri-familylifecenter.org/