Philadelphia Creates a New City Office to Support People Returning from Prison
Pat Loeb - August 19, 2019
"Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney is creating a new city office to coordinate services for formerly incarcerated people who are returning to the community.
The Office of Reentry Partnerships will be led by Bianca van Heydoorn, currently at Temple University. She'll report to the Deputy Managing Director for Criminal Justice and Public Safety, Vanessa Garrett Harley.
"One big part of the violence prevention strategy is re-entry, because the majority of the shootings and homicides that are done in the city are done by people with a criminal record," Harley said. "And so, you want to get to them before they escalate nto something else."
The office will consolidate a number of separate programs to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy for assisting those returning from prison, according to Harley.
"Philadelphia has some really good programs and other things going on in the re-entry area, but it is not all coordinated, so we have an aligned continuum of services," Harley said."
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