A big boost in funding is coming down the pike to expand and grow a recidivism and violence prevention program in New Haven.
The program for re-integration, engagement, safety and support, or “P.R.E.S.S.” for short, was awarded a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice bureau of justice assistance.
“I want to call it a safety net for folks who are coming out of being incarcerated who have a history of violence, with guns, gangs, things like that,” said Dijonee Talley with New Haven’s Department of Community Resilience.
The program seeks to provide people re-entering the New Haven community with opportunities to secure housing, jobs and services that keep them from re-offending and allow them to avoid violence in the community.
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Talley said it starts with an open conversation.
“We usually bring the programs to them so we meet them in a home or in a room and say 'look, we don’t want this for you, and we believe you can do better,'" Talley said.
The program was launched in March of 2022, and has so far boasted success in preventing people from going back to prison. The state average for recidivism is just about 30%.
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Since March of 2022, individuals engaged in the “P.R.E.S.S.” program experience only a 14% recidivism rate - less than half of the state average for the roughly 150 people that have gone through programming.
“I think we should be a second chance society, when someone has served their time they deserve an opportunity to succeed,” New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said.
He is hopeful that with the boost in funding from the federal government, the program will continue to grow, helping more individuals in the New Haven community and dropping the rate of gun violence, too.
“The importance of doing so much work to help people who are really struggling is so vital or otherwise we will continue to see this cycle of people coming out of prison and going right back to prison,” Elicker said.
New Haven police are one of the groups involved in the programming for formerly incarcerated individuals. On Monday, they were applauding the work the initiative has done so far.
“They are working very close together, not to arrest people, but to save lives, and that’s what this is all about,” Police Chief Karl Jacobson said.
Jacobson went on to explain that before the program, many connections to services were often found through them, but since it has rolled out, they feel less and less involved, which to them, is a good thing.
“Police need help, we can’t do it all alone, especially the work of people returning to society, especially even stopping people from doing violence,” Jacobson said.
City and program leaders said the goal is bringing the recidivism rate down to nothing and continuing to drop the gun violence rate, too.
They believe this program is a step in the right direction, starting with a human-centered approach.
“We can prevent that by just providing resources and letting folks know they have someone in their corner,” Talley said.
