[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 116 (Monday, June 18, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33535-33536]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 07-2959]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR


Center for Faith-Based & Community Initiatives; Call for Papers; 
White House National Summit on Prisoner Reentry

November 27-28, 2007.
    Summary: The White House and the U.S. Departments of Labor and 
Justice issue this call for papers to evaluate whether an offender's 
sustained participation in and completion of any pre-release program in 
a correctional system or post-release service or program through faith-
based and community organizations impacts ex-offender recidivism. We 
are seeking paper concepts for recently completed papers or papers that 
will be completed prior to the conference. We encourage contributions 
by researchers from academia, state or local agencies, business 
organizations, labor associations, research consulting firms and other 
relevant organizations.
    Context: Each year more than 650,000 inmates are released from 
Federal and State prisons and return to their communities and families. 
Released prisoners face many challenges that contribute to a return to 
criminal activity, re-arrest, and re-incarceration. Joblessness among 
ex-prisoners has been linked to recidivism rates.\1\
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    \1\ According to the DOJ, almost three out of five returning 
inmates will be rearrested and charged with new crimes within three 
years of their release from prison.
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    Unemployment among ex-prisoners has been estimated at between 25 
and 40 percent.\2 \ Prisoners also demonstrate low levels of 
educational attainment. Forty percent of adult state prisoners are 
functionally illiterate and over half of state parole entrants are not 
high school graduates.\3\
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    \2\ Joan Petersilia, When Prisoners Come Home: Parole and 
Prisoner Reentry (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2003), 119 
(citing Peter Finn, Successful Job Placement for Ex-Offenders: The 
Center for Employment Opportunities. Washington, DC: National 
Institute of Justice).
    \3\ Joan Petersilia, When Prisoners Come Home: Parole and 
Prisoner Reentry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 32 (citing 
Gwen Rubinstein, Getting to Work: How TANF Can Support Ex-Offender 
Parents in the Transition to Self-Sufficiency (Washington, DC: Legal 
Action Center, 2001).
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    The White House National Summit on Prisoner Reentry will focus on 
issues related to impacts, trends, and challenges of prisoner reentry 
into society, both pre-release and post-release. In addition, this 
conference will focus on the positive outcomes that faith-based and 
community organizations and the correctional system can have on 
lowering recidivism and raising employment for ex-offenders.
    Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:
    1. The impact on recidivism,\4\ if any, of an offender's \5\ 
sustained participation in and completion of:
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    \4\ Defined most liberally as re-arrest (not necessarily re-
incarceration) for parole violation or for new offense within 36 
months after release.
    \5\ Defined as adult or juvenile, male or female incarcerated 
offender.
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     Any mentoring program involving a volunteer meeting (in 
person or by video-conference) at least monthly with an offender for at 
least the last 90 days before and/or the first 90 days after release;
     Any post-release program administered by a faith-based or 
community organization that emphasizes job training, job placement, 
mentoring, or other transitional services;
     Regular, sustained pre-release participation by inmates in 
vocational training or compensated, skilled prison industry;
     Any pre-release program in which inmates have parenting-
enrichment training and regular (at least semi-monthly) contact (in 
person or by video-conference) with one or more of their minor 
children;
     Any pre-release program in which female inmates have daily 
contact with their infant children on-site;
     Regular (at least weekly), sustained pre-release 
participation by inmates in faith-based or philosophical meetings;
     Any post-release program that includes a housing 
component;
     Any pre-release program (residential or non-residential) 
in a correctional system in which inmates pursue a curriculum on 
reintegration into their community from a faith-, character-, or 
philosophically-based perspective;
     Any post-release program of re-entry services (e.g., job 
placement, substance abuse therapy, transitional housing) in which ex-
offenders have a genuine choice of service providers, faith-based and 
secular;
     Any pre-release program in which most or all inmates apply 
and are selected to be housed in the same correctional facility wherein 
religious or cognitive behavior curriculum and intensive religious 
programming are provided or required (including ``faith-based 
prisons'');
    2. A survey of the domestic and/or international academic 
literature on any of the offender reentry programs listed as a topic 
under part 1.
    3. Other research on the impact of Faith-Based and Community 
Organizations on the ability of ex-offenders to successfully 
reintegrate into society following incarceration (with a particular 
emphasis on employment and recidivism).

Sponsoring Agencies

    The mission of the Department of Labor (DOL) Center for Faith-Based 
& Community Initiatives (CFBCI) is to empower faith-based and community 
organizations as they help their neighbors prepare for, enter, and 
thrive in the workforce. The CFBCI works to cultivate public-nonprofit-
private partnerships nationwide to make services more effective such as 
new grant opportunities and pilot projects, cost-free training for 
faith-based and

[[Page 33536]]

community organizations to effect program practices and grant writing, 
research to better understand the role nonprofits can play in social 
services, and other innovative projects.
    The Task Force for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (TFFBCI) 
of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) provides assistance to faith-
based and community organizations in identifying funding opportunities 
within the Federal government for which they are eligible to apply. DOJ 
administers programs to provide assistance to victims of crime, 
prisoners and ex-offenders, and women who suffer domestic violence. In 
addition, DOJ has initiatives to target gang violence and at-risk 
youth.
    Time and Place: The meeting will be held from on November 27-28, 
2007 in Los Angeles, CA.
    Submission of Papers: All paper concepts submitted will be reviewed 
by a panel of DOL and DOJ experts in the prisoner reentry arena and 
presenters will be notified if their papers are selected. Papers 
selected for the conference will be published as part of our White 
House National Summit on Prison Reentry Paper Series. If interested, 
please submit your paper concept in hard copy and diskette/CD (Word 
Perfect or Word) by September 30, 2007. Paper concepts should be 
doubled-spaced and single sided. You will be notified by October 26, 
2007 if your paper is selected; you will have to confirm your 
attendance by November 9, 2007. Please send your paper concept to: 
Christopher Stio, U.S. Department of Labor, Center for Faith-Based & 
Community Initiatives, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW., Room S-2235, 
Washington, DC 20210. Christopher Stio may be reached at (202) 693-
6450. We also encourage submitting abstracts for papers that have not 
yet been completed, but will be completed before the deadline for 
submission of papers. All papers submitted, including abstracts, must 
be the original work of the author(s) submitting such materials. Each 
author whose paper is selected for publication will be required to 
verify in writing that his/her submission(s) is an original work of 
authorship. In addition, the author of each submission grants to the 
U.S. Government a royalty-free, irrevocable license to reproduce, 
distribute, create derivative works from, and publicly perform and 
display such work in any form or medium, including print or electronic, 
without geographic limitation.
    Public Participation: This Conference is open to the public; there 
is no registration fee.

    Signed at Washington, DC, this 12th day of June, 2007.
Rhett Butler,
Director, U.S. Department of Labor, Center for Faith-Based and 
Community Initiatives.
[FR Doc. 07-2959 Filed 6-15-07; 8:45 am]
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