Welcome to the Montana Reentry Initiative Website!
About 1,200 inmates leave prison in Montana annually and within three years almost four out of every 10 return to prison. Montana corrections officials think that recidivism rate can be lowered through a more focused effort on enhancing reentry programs for offenders.
Reentry services begin when an offender enters prison and continue through their community supervision, with a single goal of helping offenders succeed when they return to their communities.
Success for offenders means having stable housing and employment, effective treatment, positive personal relationships, family support and appropriate supervision that allows them to build productive, law-abiding lives. Success means fewer future victims, less crime and a safer Montana.
But reentry is not the responsibility of just corrections professionals. It requires a collaborative effort by all Montanans – government officials, community leaders, civic organizations, faith-based groups, families, educators, employers and landlords. The more offenders benefit from this initiative, the better life in Montana will be for every citizen.
Mission
The mission of the Montana Offender Re-entry Plan is to reduce crime and enhance public safety by implementing a seamless plan of services and supervision developed with each offender - delivered through state and local collaboration - from the time of his or her entry to custody through transition, reintegration, and aftercare in the community.
Vision
The vision of the Montana Offender Re-entry Plan is that every offender released from a facility will have the tools needed to succeed in the community.
Goals
- Promote public safety by reducing by 10 percentage points during the next three years the recidivism rate among inmates leaving prison while less than 25 years old or while living in higher-custody housing units.
- Create individualized offender reentry plans utilizing risk/needs assessment tools that include offender input, court requirements, treatment issues and case management by prison and community corrections staff that follows an inmate through all phases of correctional placement.
- Educate Montana employers on the benefits of hiring offenders, increase offenders’ employability and improve offenders’ ability to find and maintain employment.
- Promote adequate housing opportunities that will increase offender success by reducing the number of offenders that return to custody.
- Form an effective public-private agency partnership that promotes appropriate, healthy relationships between offenders and their families through education and improved access to state, tribal and community resources.
- Create an offender reentry plan through collaboration among communities, and prison and community corrections staffs.
Montana Reentry Initiative Task Force
- Chairman Sam Casey, DOC Reentry Coordinator
- Mike Batista, DOC director
- VACANT, warden, Montana Women’s Prison
- Becky Bey, Center for Children and Families
- Pam Bunke, administrator, Adult Community Corrections Division, DOC
- John Daugherty, administrator, Information Technology Division, DOC
- Sherri Downing, president, Montana Council on Homelessness
- Lesa Evers, state director of Indian affairs
- Ed Foley, institutional probation and parole officer, Montana State Prison
- Tanner Gentry, regional administrator, probation and parole, Missoula
- Sally Hilander, victim programs manager, DOC
- Gayle Lambert, administrator, Montana Correctional Enterprises, DOC
- Cindy McKenzie, administrator, Youth Services Division, DOC
- Beth McLaughlin, court administrator, Montana Supreme Court
- David Morey, chief, 21st Century Workforce Technology, Apprenticeship and Training Bureau, Department of Labor and Industry
- Steve Olson, regional director, Job Service Operations Bureau, Department of Labor and Industry
- Fern Osler Johnson, executive director, Board of Pardons and Parole
- Rhonda Schaffer, administrator, Administrative and Financial Services Division, DOC
- Marie Sewell, workforce consultant, Montana Department of Labor and Industry
- Adrianne Slaughter, HR Specialist , DOC
- Thomas Wilson, deputy warden, Montana State Prison
- Vicki Turner, director, Prevention Resource Center, Department of Public Health and Human Services
- John Williams, regional administrator, probation and parole, Billings
- Judy Beck, communications director, DOC
Subcommittees
Risk/Needs Assessments
- Pam Bunke, chairman
- John Daugherty
- Gayle Lambert
- Cindy McKenzie
- Candyce Neubauer, chief, Technical Correctional Services Bureau, MSP
- Fern Osler Johnson
Housing
- Sam Casey, chairman
- Ron Alsbury
- Becky Bey
- Sherri Downing
- Lesa Evers
- Rhonda Schaffer
- John Williams
Employment
- Steve Olson, chairman
- Gayle Lambert
- David Morey
- Marie Sewell
Children and Family Support
- Sally Hilander, chairman
- Ron Alsbury, chief, Probation and Parole Bureau, DOC
- VACANT, American Indian liaison, DOC
- Ed Foley
- Cindy McKenzie
- Vicki Turner
Contact Us
Montana Department of Corrections Reentry Initiative
5 South Last Chance Gulch
P.O. Box 201301
Helena, MT 59620-1301
