Focus/Advisory Group Working Session

This session will focus on creating a platform for community-based and faith-based organizations to present their housing initiatives and projects. The organizations will discuss how their housing solutions play a vital role in supporting reentry housing for individuals who transition back into society after a period of confinement. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage with these organizations and ask questions to deepen their understanding of the innovative housing solutions being implemented.

To strengthen our relationship with U.S. territories, I reached out to the U.S. Virgin Islands' State Administering Agency (SAA), the Law Enforcement Planning Commission (LEPC), to explore their training and technical assistance (TTA) needs. With LEPC under new leadership, this outreach provided an excellent opportunity to assess island-wide TTA requirements and support their strategic planning goals.

Led MSP Wellness Work Group through a wellness activity and reviewed importance of communications. CJI staff led the group through a communication discussion identifying important communication methods for different audiences, focused mainly on the upcoming wellness questionnaire.

Arranged for the chief over programming to provide updates on the purchase of a new program for the Step-down and plan for tablets. With the MSP team, drafted a structure for Classification Review Committee meetings, decided on a recommendation for a new restraint policy for the levels in Step-down, and continued designing the daily behavior log.

The Hate Crimes TTA team held a kickoff call with the Urban League of Broward County (ULBC). The purpose of the call was to build rapport with site representatives, learn about ULBC’s Community-based Approaches to Prevent and Address Hate crimes project activities, identify any challenges and emerging issues, and begin to scope out the site’s TTA needs.

Assisted subgroup to discuss programming with MDOC's Programming Service Manager and documented MSP's general population incentive program because it is expected to contribute to the reduction of restrictive housing referrals.

Reviewed draft correspondence to staff and incarcerated individuals about the changes coming in the revised step-down referral criteria and process. Set a target date of April 1, 2025 for Step-down improvements, and continued designing Step-down changes.

Collaborated with MSP compliance manager to pull a new dataset to resolve an issue with a missing field needed for defining restrictive housing populations.

Presented an overview of effective case planning and reviewed the use of tablets for the Step-down program and programming needs.

Reviewed and finalized staff training slides for the new referral criteria and process. Faciliated discussion on meaningful incentives and sanctions for the Step-down