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Date: 12/5/2023
HOLYOKE — Recidivism and release data specific to Holyoke was presented by a representative from the Sheriff’s Department to the Public Safety Committee during its Nov. 29 meeting after an order filed by At-Large City Councilor Israel Rivera.
Assistant Superintendent and Head of Research for the Hampden Country Sheriff’s Department Sally Johnson Van Wright joined the committee to break down the data. Rivera said he filed the order so the committee and anyone viewing the discussion could get a better understanding of how many people are impacted on an annual basis.
Van Wright went over some highlights of Holyoke’s data and started by sharing how many people are presently in custody of Hampden County Sheriff’s Office who list Holyoke as their home address. In total, there are 32 men and three women who are sentenced, as well as 61 men and three women who are pre-trial.
When looking at releases Van Wright explained it is annualized figure and in 2022, 367 men and 46 women with Holyoke addresses were released.
Additionally, Van Wright shared 308 people were released who were pretrial and their matter was in the Holyoke District Court. For sentenced persons, Van Wright said the sentence population went down with courts slowing due to the coronavirus pandemic and there were just 69 from Holyoke in 2022.
Van Wright also discussed how the office works with incarcerated individuals to help start the process of reforming back into society and life after a sentence.
“The way we see it and relative to concerns I know that we have in common, reentry starts in day one. The moment you get booked, we start talking with the individual about where would you go and if that’s nowhere, what kinds of plans would you like to talk with us about if you don’t have a good place to go? Or do you have second thoughts about staying at a place which is either not your most healthy environment or coach surfing? All these kinds of things get sorted out,” Van Wright said.
It is an important step in reducing recidivism, Van Wright explained. Outlined in the report’s one-page synopsis, the sheriff’s office tracks three forms of recidivism: new arraignments, reconvictions and reincarceration.
“It’s really important. We do not want jails and prisons in the state of Massachusetts to be turnstiles or revolving doors. What we do know is that we can measure based on sentence releases how often people are coming back,” Van Wright explained. “The most important feature is because its most disruptive to families, disruptive to individuals, it might put someone at risk of losing their job or losing housing, and it takes an individual out of a sort of state of play with family.”
Van Wright explained of all Hampden Country releases in one year, 13.4% are reincarcerated, which means they were arraigned, convicted and sentenced on a charge. Over two years the number increases to 16.6%, which she explained shows the importance of the first year out.
“Most recidivistic events begin to happen within the first year and in fact, within the first eight months. That’s why we feel reentry is so important,” Van Wright said.
The three year recidivism rate is at 22.2% and Van Wright added if you look at all counties outside of Hampden that number is 33.4%.
“A way to look at it is that about one in four people in Hampden County are back in custody on a new sentence charge in a three-year period, and it’s one in three across the state,” Van Wright said. “We always want to get better, and yet we know that we must be doing something right because our numbers by every measure whether it’s re-arraignment, reconviction, reincarceration, Hampden County beats the all-county average in every way and at each point in time.”
Ward 4 City Councilor Kocayne Givner asked Van Wright if she had specifics she could add as to what exactly people come back to through reentry and what is helping them stay out of prison once they are out.
All Inclusive Support Services, or AISS, is an agency through the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office that helps in the process of helping individuals through a reentry process to get back on their feet. Van Wright was a head of the program before taking this new position.
“On the day of release, what we hope and aim to have happen is that you have already connected with your behavioral health counselor, maybe a mentor from our volunteer mentorship program, we’ve got a job search team and the regional employment board,” Van Wright explained. “The idea is that the person then goes out and makes potentially a better set of connections for prosocial living than they had before they left. The reality is that many people say they’re going to do this and then humans being as we are, try it their own way.”
Rivera appreciated the information and added if you looked at these specific numbers over the last 10-20 years, they are probably a lot higher. Van Wright confirmed the hunch and said many of them are “three to four times as high.” Rivera, who had been incarcerated over a decade and a half ago, said AISS was a good program and he wished to bring something like it to Holyoke.
“AISS is a good place to start. I’m thinking of ways to mimic something similar in Holyoke so that way people don’t have to necessarily travel to Springfield. This is a large disconnect for some people and I know that was for me. I didn’t want to take three buses to go to AISS. That was part of the issue for me and a lot of other people that I know in the community. So, we’re trying to get something similar in office here, that would be totally great. It’s part of the reason why presenting the numbers and showing how many people are impacted in the community so that when it’s asked, there’s a justification for trying to improve public safety in the community in a preventative way.”
Van Wright added it is a challenge for those fresh out of prison to not fall back into habits or decisions that lead them there in the first place, another reason for the importance of the work done by AISS.
“The way we see it is that the support system for the person getting themselves to jail is still intact, it’s a race. We’ve got to get that positive support system put into place and have dialogue with the individual so that they’ll make choices that bring them to where they want to be,” Van Wright said.
Givner asked if the clients AISS works with choose to start new in a different community coming out. Van Wright explained that while people do make that decision, it is more likely folks return to the same zip code they were in before. Still, the AISS team does help people go elsewhere, but they do not try and influence the decision.
The full discussion from the Nov. 29 Public Safety Committee meeting can be viewed at Holyokemedia.org.