Public Safety committee  This was incredible. Thank you.

Public Safety committee  We have a very small recidivism rate, 11%, which is—

Public Safety committee  Actually, the U.S. Department of Justice pushed us right out there in 2006. We had just started in 2005, and the buzzword was “Let's go after non-violent offenders.” This is only from my experience, but what we have found is that non-violent offenders are involved in drug addic

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Van Popta. What I can add to that conversation, to help with some insight, is that we are a faith-based organization, or we started as a faith-based organization. To then step into government entities and collaborate, 17 years ago, was new to us. There is separati

Public Safety committee  If I can add one more thing, in Texas it costs $65 a day to incarcerate. It costs the T.O.R.I. program less than $4 a day to rehabilitate. As I mentioned earlier, one in 32 Americans is involved in the criminal justice system, so granted that Canada has a 35% recidivism rate, we

Public Safety committee  I believe when we looked it up it was federal. Mr. Bragdon, could you...?

Public Safety committee  Yes. We did do a study here in Dallas with a research institution. We found that it took 18 case management sessions before we saw a trend up. That's a trend toward retention in employment, housing stability and self-sufficiency. We can share those documents with you if that woul

Public Safety committee  I believe that the cross-sector relationship is what's important. I think that in order for us to get our arms around these issues, it doesn't just take social workers; it takes the different departments that make up the criminal justice system. I believe that you have to take in

Public Safety committee  Sure. I think what we have found over the years is that the collaboration between law enforcement and social services is where we find a common thread. Both of us have a motivation to reduce recidivism, but we have different approaches, so we find that common thread between both

Public Safety committee  Good afternoon, Chairman and Mr. Bragdon. Thank you, members of the committee, for inviting us to be a part of this. My name is Tina Naidoo, and I am the executive director of the Texas Offenders Reentry Initiative, also known as “T.O.R.I.” We have been in operation for 17 year