About

Coalition

The Franklin County Reentry Coalition was established in 2009 to address the dramatic rise in the number of ex-offenders returning to the Franklin County community, and to overcome the fragmentation of services and lack of coordination between service providers and a lack of a leadership entity to coordinate the various services that assist ex-offenders.

Why Our Work is Important

• Ex-offenders will return to our communities and neighborhoods whether we have a plan for them to successfully reintegrate or not.
• Nationally, 1600 men and women are released from prison each day.
• Ohio alone releases more than 28,000 offenders each year.
• The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation & Correction released 2,500 men and women from prison in 2016
• Franklin County has the third highest population of ex-offenders being released from incarceration in the state.
• 30,089 offenders were released from the Franklin County Jail into the communities and surrounding neighborhoods of Franklin County in 2013.
• 34,379 offenders were released from the Franklin County Jail into the communities and surrounding neighborhoods of Franklin County in 2009.
• Offenders are at the highest risk of committing a new crime or violating probation or parole immediately (within the first 3 months) following release from incarceration.
• The Bureau of Justice Statistics found that within the first six months of release, almost 30% were rearrested and the rate increases to 44% within the first year.
• Creating successful reentry programming is enhancing public safety.
• Public safety is enhanced when ex-offenders are held accountable for their behavior, receive structured supervision, monitoring and treatment within their community.
• Reentry is a component of the Smart on Crime policies that increase public safety, reduce cost and improve lives.

Please read more about our Mission, Vision, and Guiding Principles below.

Current members of the Coalition include:

Organization	Representative	Alternate
Board of Commissioners *	Commissioner Marilyn Brown	Mike Hochron
Job & Family Services	Joy Bivens	Johnna Sawyers
Child Support Enforcement Agency	Christina Nichols	William Peltcs
Justice Policy & Programs *	Michael Daniels	Melissa Pierson
Court of Common Pleas *	Judge Stephen McIntosh	Judge Charles Schneider
Domestic & Juvenile Court	Judge Elizabeth Gill	Judge Terri Jamison
Homeland Security & Regional Communications	Kathy Crandall
Municipal Court - Specialty Dockets	Judge Ted Barrows
Court of Common Pleas - Probation *	Lori Francescon	Dan Wunderlich
Municipal Court - Probation	Molly Gauntner	Rick Tudor
Domestic & Juvenile Court - Corrections	Judge Terri Jamison
Prosecutor - Criminal Division	Prosecutor Ron O'Brien
Public Defender *	Public Defender Yeura Venters	Marla Dolchin
Sheriff - Corrections	Chief Geoff Stobart	Chief Geoff Stobart
Veteran's Administration **	Mary Gillette	Elizabeth Gump
ODRC Adult Parole	Lisa Morgan
Franklin County CBCF	Jacki Dickinson	Dominique Paige
City of Columbus	Mitch Brown	Cathy Collins
Columbus City Attorney - Criminal Division	City Attorney Richard Pfeiffer	Laura Baker-Morrish
Columbus Police Department	Chief Kimberly Jacobs	Mike Woods
Columbus Public Health	Rebecca Nelson	Gene Bailey
Alvis House *	Denise Robinson	Phil Nunes
IMPACT Community Action	Bo Chilton	Marcia White
Columbus Urban League	Oleatha Waugh	Joey H. Green
Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority	Charles Hillman	Sonja Nelson-Jones
Corporation of Supportive Housing	Terri Power
ADAMH	Kythryn Carr-Hurd	Jennifer Martinez
Ohio Means Jobs - Columbus/Franklin County	Nadir Abdi	Scott Johnson
Legal Aid Society	Kathi Schear	N/A
Community Representative - male	TBD	N/A
Community Representative - female	TBD	N/A
Department of Youth Services	Larry Mallory

* Denotes executive committee members
** Denotes non-voting members

Overarching Goal and Rationale

The overarching goal of the Franklin County Reentry Coalition is to reduce the recidivism rate in Franklin County by 50% over 5 years. The rationale for this is clear - from a public safety standpoint, reduced recidivism means less crime and fewer offenders; from a social justice standpoint, reduced recidivism means more self-sufficiency, more intact families, and a broken cycle of violence and incarceration; and from a purely financial standpoint, reducing recidivism in Franklin County alone by a mere 1% results in a direct savings of over $1.13 MILLION in incarceration costs, not to mention the societal savings in reduced loss of life, property, and sense of security.

Mission, Purpose, Vision, and Guiding Principles

Mission
Our new Mission is to promote and support a network of community services and program to effectively and efficiently transition formerly incarcerated individuals back into the community to lead crime-free, productive lives.

Purpose
The Franklin County Reentry Coalition will provide research, planning, training, service delivery coordination, oversight and guidance concerning grants to internal and external partners working in the offender reentry field. This guidance includes, but is not limited to: organizing, planning, training, collaboration, and funding options as they apply for Federal, State, and Local grant opportunities. The RTF will establish strategic goals to influence services throughout the county and/or designated regions.

Vision
Creating Safer Neighborhoods and Productive Residents by increasing the success rates of ex-offenders transitioning from correctional and rehabilitative institutions back into the community.

Guiding Principles
The Franklin County Reentry Coalition will be guided by principles designed to foster a comprehensive, integrated and regional continuum of services for ex-offenders re-entering Franklin County. This approach will be:

1. Outcome Driven. Promote outcomes relative to safety, health and welfare of the community and its returning residents. Evidence-based, best practices should be implemented whenever practical.
2. Multi-disciplinary. Utilize a common oversight body that is multi-disciplinary and responsive to the holistic nature of reentry.
3. Maximize Resources. Develop a collaborative regional application and funding approach to maximize funding and reduce duplication of services. Pool existing resources and align support services to increase and improve outcomes for ex-offenders.
4. Promote Collaboration as essential to quality and effective reentry practices.
5. Data Driven. Reliable information equals effective decision making.
6. Accountable. Public Safety is enhanced by quality reentry approaches that foster greater accountability of agency outcomes and individual responsibility.
7. Transparent. Increase transparency within the reentry process for those in need of assistance and services.

Meetings Schedule

Time
General Meeting - 2pm (unless otherwise indicated via this site or notified by e-mail)

2018 Dates:

• Wednesday, January 17th
• Wednesday, April 18th
• Wednesday July 18th
• Wednesday, October 17th
  • Franklin County Hall of Justice, 369 S. High Street, Room 3