TRENTON – Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman announced on Monday she will convene hearings throughout New Jersey on how services for inmates and their families can be improved to help released prisoners avoid returning to crime.

Watson Coleman said the “Second Chance Hearings” will hear from experts and citizens on how the state can overhaul programs to prevent recidivism and save taxpayer money.
New Jersey spends $30,000 to $40,000 per year per inmate, about twice as much as the per-pupil cost to educate a child.

“From a fiscal and a social perspective, it makes more sense to focus on keeping people out of jail,” Watson Coleman said.

Coleman said about 18,000 inmates are released from prison annually in New Jersey, often times into communities with limited jobs, housing and social services. The Majority Leader said the hearings will build consensus, understanding and support for more effective policies.

“Once a prisoner has served their time and paid their debt, we cannot shove them aside forever,” Watson Coleman said. “Many individuals who returned to a life of crime did so
because they felt they had no other choice. They would gladly take the opportunity to better their lives, but our system too often makes that impossible.”

The following hearings, all from 3 to 8 p.m., have been scheduled:

· Friday, Nov. 21 at First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens at 771 Somerset
St. in Somerset, where the Rev. DeForest "Buster" Soaries, a former secretary of state, is pastor.

· Monday Dec. 8 at Shiloh Baptist Church at 340 Rev. S. Howard Woodson Jr. Way (Calhoun Street) in Trenton.

· Thursday Dec. 11 at the Paul Robeson Campus Center at Rutgers Newark at
350 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Watson Coleman spent about two months preparing for the hearings with a group that
included service providers, advocates and families of ex-offenders, including the New Jersey
Institute for Social Justice, Families Against Mandatory Minimums, the American Civil Liberties
Union and about 40 others.

Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer (D-Essex/Union) and Assemblymen Albert Coutinho
(D-Essex/Union) and Joseph Cryan (D-Union) have been instrumental in organizing the
hearings.

“We need to address New Jersey’s lack of a substantive and strategic rehab plan for
exiting prison and the lack of flexibility in the system,” Watson Coleman said. “And it’s
important to remember that services cannot simply start when inmates are released. To give them the best chance at starting the ir lives anew, services must be available – and accessible – fromthe first day a person enters the prison system.”

The hearings will focus on, among other areas, the need for continuing education, literacy
services and trade school and substance abuse treatment programs behind bars, along with
finding ways to provide viable job training, employment and housing after being released.

“In fact, there’s no reason why someone shouldn’t be required to take courses while behind bars as part of their sentence or as a requirement of parole eligibility,” Watson Coleman said. “But a top component in my mind is the role of family. No better support group exists than family, and we should do everything in our power as legislators and policymakers to ensure that family plays a central role in the life of each individual. ”