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Reentry providers and advocates urge more prerelease programs, say programming affects parole outcomes
Summary
Reentry and parole advocates told the commission that prerelease and community-based services lower recidivism and speed successful reintegration; advocates asked the commission to consider mandating prerelease participation and to address delays between parole grants and lower-security transfers.
Community providers and parole advocates told the commission that prerelease beds and prerelease participation materially affect reentry outcomes and discretionary parole decisions.
Deb O'Brien, president and CEO of Community Resources for Justice, described CRJ's residential prerelease operations and urged the commission to require prerelease participation in the last four to six months of sentences so people leave custody with housing and employment connections. "Between all five programs, we have 166 beds... In FY25 we served 311 individuals, 74% secured housing," she said.
Mara Vukitas of the Committee for Public Counsel Services said parole boards weigh whether an individual has addressed the causal factors of the crime; she warned that people with untreated substance use disorders or those denied program access are less likely to secure discretionary parole. Vukitas also flagged a recurring implementation problem: people who win parole sometimes wait months for required transfers to lower-security placements, which postpones release after the parole board has voted in favor.
Advocates and providers urged the commission to: (1) expand prerelease capacity and referral protocols, (2) streamline the hand-off from prisons to minimum-security or community settings after a favorable parole decision, and (3) ensure equitable access to medical and substance-use programming inside facilities so parole determinations reflect treatment progress rather than logistical gaps.
The commission asked staff to document prerelease bed counts and referral rates and to map the length of time between a positive parole vote and actual transfer to lower-security placements.
