Life Skills Project: Michael Bellotti

Journal of Correctional Education, Jun 2005 by Bellotti, Michael

The issue of recidivism among federal, state and local offenders released from custody has finally made it to the front burner of government and public policy analysts after a decade of building and filling correctional facilities. The numbers have been driven into our consciousness: three out of every five inmates released from custody, return to custody. Most American businesses would drool over a "customer loyalty" rate like that. The correctional bureaucracy and line staff (the largest single block of government workers in most states) has very little motivation to change the behavior pattern of their customer base. And yet, virtually all "reentry initiatives", whether institutionally generated or encouraged by federal demonstration grants (such as the one this narrative will discuss), are products of the correctional way of doing business. Alas, this may be a clue as to why this project, a joint effort by the Norfolk County Sheriff, Michael Bellotti in Dedham, Massachusetts, and The St. Francis House Moving Ahead Program in Boston, Massachusetts, is showing such great promise in breaking the cycle of incarceration.

In 1984, a small group of committed parishioners of St. Anthony's Shrine, a small Franciscan Church in downtown Boston, affectionately known as the "poor people's church", wanted to respond to the increasing number of homeless people accumulating in the inner cities, a direct result of statewide deinstitutionalization over the prior two decades. Juvenile justice facilities (aka reform schools), mental and public health facilities, protective custody holding cells (aka "drunk tanks") and the state-run schools for the "mentally retarded" were emptied with incredible swiftness and, with just as incredible thoughtlessness. Out of this need to serve this new population of homeless people, the friars and parishioners of St. Anthony's Shrine purchased a rundown, ten story building amidst Boston's infamous "combat zone" and St. Francis House was born.

Providing a lifeline of basic services, St. Francis House grew to serve nearly a thousand people a day with food (6 to7 hundred meals are served every day of the year); clothing (the only remaining emergency clothing program in the city, fulfilling nearly 700 requests a month); medical and dental care (providing 7500 clinical appointments a year); and an array of rehabilitation and transitional housing opportunities that, according to Dr. Howard J. Shaffer, Director of the Division of Addictions at Harvard Medical School (clinical mentor and evaluator of this project) presents "a new paradigm in the delivery of mental health and substance abuse services where, for the first time, you have in combination, the kind of social rehabilitation that evidence suggests works best and a genuine respect and love for the guests they serve".

The centerpiece of the rehabilitation services delivered at St. Francis House is the Moving Ahead Program (MAP), a 14-week, life skills and career development program designed to serve individuals with issues of homelessness, addiction, mental illness and/or post-incarceration. With six years of experience adapting the Atkins Institute of Life Coping Skills curricula and incorporating a comprehensive set of wrap-around services, MAP designed a response to the Department of Education's Life Skills for State and Local Prisoners demonstration grant RFP in 1999. MAP chose Sheriff Bellotti's Norfolk County House of Correction within the Norfolk Sheriffs Department to submit the proposal, because of its innovative and efficient management. The project was selected and commenced in the spring of 2000.

In addition to St. Francis House and Sheriff Bellotti, partners included Education Development Center, Inc. a multinational, non-profit educational think tank located in Newton, MA who, along with Dr. Shaffer of Harvard Medical School, provided qualitative and quantitative evaluations of the project. Other integral partners included the Massachusetts Parole Board, 15 treatment and transitional housing organizations in the greater Boston area, The Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, several dozen corporate and non-profit organizations that provided internship, mentorship and, ultimately, employment opportunities for the graduates.

The project served adult male offenders serving sentences of 2 years or less for offences primarily related to their drug and alcohol abuse. The age range was from 18 to 59 years and included individuals with minimum formal education and those with graduate degrees. Most were repeat offenders and had histories of homelessness and mental illness. 123 offenders were served over the course of the project.

The St. Francis House Moving Ahead Program was adapted to provide a unique "in and out" experience for the inmate population. The 14-week curriculum was divided into two, seven-week segments. The first seven weeks were delivered inside the institution using MAP staff with full cooperation from the Sheriff's office. Prospective students were selected primarily on the basis of their release dates so that the class that started together in the jail could be reunited for the completion of the second seven weeks at St. Francis House. Class sizes were limited to 10 students. Recruitment was a joint effort between jail and MAP staff and, by the end of the first year, the number of candidates far exceeded program capacity.