BIRMINGHAM – U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance will meet with federal, state and local law enforcement, corrections officials and community group leaders to begin formulating a comprehensive strategy for reducing new crimes committed by people leaving prison and encouraging them to successfully re-enter society.

Each year the State of Alabama releases more than 10,000 ex-offenders into our communities. Within three years, more than a third of them are re-incarcerated, Department of Justice and Alabama Department of Corrections statistics show. The best chance to break this destructive cycle is a collaborative approach designed to provide ex-offenders with adequate tools to become productive, law-abiding citizens, further protecting our communities and more effectively and efficiently managing public resources, Vance said. Reducing new crimes by ex-offenders also creates significant cost savings for communities, she said.

For the past year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama has worked with state and federal law enforcement and corrections agencies exploring opportunities to reduce recidivism, or a return to prison, through re-entry programming. On Tuesday, Dec. 13, at 2 p.m., the office is hosting a meeting at the Jefferson County Courthouse to bring together those agencies with community organizations and social service providers to develop a comprehensive program of re-entry services across the 31 counties in the Northern District.

The meeting will organize working groups to assess and address issues critical to successful re-entry into the community, including issues of housing, education, transportation, job access and training, health and rehabilitation, and community reintegration and support, Vance said. The working groups will analyze existing re-entry services and gaps in order to formulate policy proposals and form collaborative partnerships, she said.

The meeting will be held in the Jury Assembly Room of the Jefferson County Courthouse, 716 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. N., in downtown Birmingham.

The meeting is open to the media. Contact Jeremy Sherer, (205) 244-2019 or Jeremy.Sherer@usdoj.gov, or Peggy Sanford, (205) 244-2020 or Peggy.Sanford@usdoj.gov.

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