Community Corrections
Community Corrections
The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department Community Corrections
Division provides a range of intermediate sanctions and programs that
enables the Department to supervise and assist carefully selected inmates
during transition from the House of Correction into the community under
conditional pre-release status. Only those inmates who present a minimum
level of risk to the community - based on their offense, criminal history,
and institutional behavior - and who are eligible by state statue and
institutional policy can be classified to community corrections.
Community corrections participants must follow a rigid post-release
plan including reporting regularly to a community corrections center,
being subject to substance use screens, improving their education and
employment skills, and staying out of trouble. Community corrections
sentences demand much from the offender. Failure to satisfy the requirements
of the sentence will have swift consequences including reincarceration.
Staff include program coordinators and administrative professionals,
uniformed officers who have been specially trained in community corrections,
and contract vendors who provide a variety of services ranging from education
and job assistance to drug testing. The staff also includes members from other
collaborating agencies.
The Division develops community partnerships with other law enforcement agencies,
government agencies and private and non-profit service providers to develop rigorous
programmatic and security protocols to ensure that inmates released to community
corrections are held accountable for their behavior and treatment.
The Sheriff's Department is continuously working on initiatives that provide corrections
officials with the flexiblity needed to be successful in integrating offenders back into
society. These include:
- McGrath House for women and Brooke House for men provides halfway house services for the
Department’s returning offenders. Inmates released to these facilities are closely
supervised as they make their return to the community. Brooke House is the site for an intensive
federally funded reintegration program that is based on a comprehensive case conference system
where offenders receive intensive services and interventions as they make their way back into society.
- The Responsible Fatherhood Initiative of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue’s Child
Support Division helps inmate fathers understand their childcare responsibilities and also assists
them in finding meaningful employment post-release.
- The Boston Re-Entry Initiative is a joint effort with the Boston Police Department and community
partners that gives returning inmates an opportunity to make positive choices about their future
behavior while holding them responsible for their behavior.
- The Common Ground Institute is a 10–week instructional
program divided into two 5–week modules. Each section is designed to enhance and fortify
employment skills that will aid our population in making a successful transition back into society
post incarceration. The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department is taking a pro–active approach
to reducing recidivism, in part, by placing an emphasis on vocational education.
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