Total Dollars Awarded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (8-1-00 to 7-31-04): $ 325,000

Grantee: The Osborne Association, Long Island City, NY

Co-funders: Van Ameringen Foundation, Rhodebeck Charitable Trust, and Royal S. Marks Foundation Fund

Primary Objective: Safe Landing is a pilot reentry project designed to improve the care and support mechanisms for prisoners with less severe mental health conditions, conditions that are often exacerbated by incarceration. Individuals reentering society who have mental health issues require services that go beyond those provided to newly released prisoners who do not struggle with such issues. Safe Landing strives to equip program participants with the ability to obtain mental health care, establish legitimate means of financial support, rebuild and strengthen family and community ties, and avoid relapse into chemical dependency and re-incarceration. The project is supported by a partnership of private funders as well as an unprecedented collaboration among several institutional agencies, including the New York State Department of Correctional Services, the Office of Mental Health and the Division of Parole.

Accomplishments: Safe Landing was officially launched at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in October 2002. As of July 2003, the project had eight active clients and two clients pending for enrollment into the program. Of the active clients, two were receiving in-prison services, while six were receiving services in the community. In addition, Safe Landing expanded to Bayview women’s prison in September 2003. In-prison services include case management, counseling sessions and discharge planning. Project staff work closely with clients while they are still incarcerated to ensure that their mental health and related health care needs as well as other needs are met once they are released from prison. Once clients are released, project staff support each client’s transition for at least a year with intensive case management, counseling and support services in the community. We are pleased that the project has already had some dramatic successes with individual clients, who have been able to establish stable lives for an extended period of time following incarceration. Indeed, one client who had a history of cycling in and out of prison, typically returning to lock-up within two weeks after being released, has been progressing well in the community and continuing to meet with Safe Landing staff since his release in January of 2003.

Challenges: One major challenge was building relationships with several institutional partners and persuading key agency representatives that the Safe Landing project would fill a gap in the services they already offered, not serve as a replacement or to suggest they were not carrying out their responsibilities. This was a time-consuming and sensitive process involving extensive negotiations with representatives from each agency to address key issues, such as referral criteria for selecting clients, project staff access to clients and the role of different institutional service providers.

Lessons Learned: By linking clients with necessary services and supports as well as identifying and addressing potential challenges prior to release, Safe Landing helps to ease the transition from prison to the community and has facilitated better outcomes for clients and their families. In addition, building and strengthening relationships with institutional partners was vital to the success of the project.

Sustainability: Media attention on prisons and jails as “mental hospitals of last resort” and the recent Brad H. decision, mandating that New York City jails offer discharge planning to mentally ill prisoners, suggest that public funds are likely to become available in the future to a proven service model such as Safe Landing. In addition, the project can provide valuable lessons on developing and maintaining partnerships with multiple institutional agencies.

Graduates 2003