• Need-to-Know News: Sept. 30, 2011

    September 30, 2011

    Updates from Us

    • Thanks to all of you who made the National H.I.R.E. Network’s Sixth Annual NYS Reentry Policy Conference a huge success! Follow this link for our full story. (At right, P. David Lopez, general counsel at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, delivered the keynote address.)
    • Save the date for the National Call-In Day to support the National Criminal Justice Act: Oct. 5, 2011. With your help, we can urge Congress to pass this legislation, which would create a bipartisan panel to review national policies and make recommendations for reform. Follow this link for our full alert.

    Headlines on Our Issues

    State

    • Commissioner Arlene González-Sánchez of the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) announced that the state had received a five-year, $8.3 million federal grant to provide screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment for substance use disorders.
    • Governor Andrew Cuomo's plan for 3,500 layoffs in the wake of a rejected labor contract is expected to hit hardest in the Office of Mental Health, with 643 layoffs, and the Department of Correctional Services, with 446.
    • Mayor Bloomberg announced a new initiative this week to address the increasing rates of mental illness in the city's jails.
    • A study of New York City's drastic drop in crime in the last two decades finds more evidence against the belief that incarceration is a key factor in the change.
    National

    • In an unexpected move, the Obama administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court this week to hear a case on the 2010 health care overhaul law. A ruling is expected by June, with both sides of the debate expressing support for a fast decision.
    • In other healthcare reform news, the number of young adults covered by health insurance has grown by about a million under the new law.
    • Mental health courts created in Georgia in the past decade have reduced recidivism, encouraging the state to increase mental health funding.
    • An ATI program in Minette, Ala., has been put on hold after a challenge from the ACLU, which is questioning the legality of the plan to offer people convicted of first-time misdemeanors a choice between jail and a "menu" of alternatives that includes church.
    • As California begins to reduce its prison population by more than 30,000 -- as ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court in May -- a Time magazine article examines the possibilities.
    • In Texas, a state audit has found that in nearly one-fourth of arrests in 2009, the courts have failed to submit disposition records, rendering background checks inaccurate.
    • At the second meeting of the federal Reentry Council this week, the attorney general announced 131 grants, totaling $83 million, for Second Chance Act and other reentry programs. The council also addressed its Mythbusters factsheets, which cite LAC's report "After Prison: Roadblocks to Reentry" and our work on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
    • In another ban-the-box victory, the City of Cleveland announced this week that it would support fair hiring by removing question about whether an applicant has a felony conviction from its job and civil service testing applications.

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