Salt lake county (slco) proposes to implement enhancing access for reentry success pilot project (ears)

The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded a $825,000 Project Grant under the Second Chance Act Reentry Initiative (CFDA 16.812) to Salt Lake County, Utah. The grant will fund the Enhancing Access for Reentry Success (EARS) Pilot Project, which aims to reduce recidivism, increase behavior changes, and eliminate barriers to reentry for incarcerated adults with behavioral health disorders in Salt Lake County. Key project activities include: 1) providing case management, resource coordination, and post-release support for 80 participants; 2) implementing evidence-based behavioral health interventions; and 3) delivering a range of recovery support services such as housing assistance, transportation, and employment referrals. The project will build on the county's previous BJA-funded Jail Resource and Reentry Project and leverage partnerships with the criminal justice system and community providers. The project period is from October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2027.

The goal is to reduce the risk to reoffend, increase behavior changes, and eliminate barriers to reentry in the salt lake county, UT, jurisdiction. Expected outcomes include 1) reduced recidivism of the pilot population; and 2) programmatic proof of concept to gain sustained funding and scale the program to support an increased number of participants. Slco criminal justice services and slco jail will serve as the criminal justice agencies involved in the program and will include slco behavioral health services as the community care provider program. Ears will support incarcerated adults who are charged with a crime and receive a behavioral health disorder diagnosis from the slco jail and are considered housing insecure, who are the intended beneficiaries of ears. Project activities will support 80 individuals during incarceration by 1) building a case plan, coordinating resources, preparing the warm handoff, and developing individual accountability for post-release, through one case manager; 2) supporting warm handoffs and system navigation upon release from jail through two bilingual (spanish) ears peer support specialists; 3) providing follow up and tracking for at least 12 months post-release; and 4) remaining flexible to best meet the imminent needs of ears participants. Ears will implement evidence-based behavioral health tools, including effective practices in community supervision (epics), pathways to change, courage to change journaling, and brief intervention tools (bits). Ears will providerecovery support services to include resource centers, detox, transportation to the most appropriate treatment provider, homelessness resources, housing placement, short-term crisis housing, health care services, peer recovery support services, medicaid enrollment, employment referrals, food and clothing vouchers, and coordinated care through accountable care organizations. Ears will complement and leverage previous BJA funding of $1 million through FY21 innovations in reentry initiative: building system capacity & testing strategies to reduce recidivism o-BJA-2021-58003 for the highly successful jail resource and reentry project (jrrp), operating within the slco jail release area. Ears will leverage jrrps best practices, partnerships, outcomes, and identified service gaps to immediately launch and support the pilot population.