Those people we afraid of because they will hurt someone or properly secured but program did not forgotten in those people that we are just mad at and dont have any other alternatives, we build alternatives in the community to deal with those folks. Intervention in little. It has not been used as much, but we want to expand the opportunity. We want to give the judge an opportunity. Forget about mandatory sentences. Opposingnkly, we are almost all mandatory sentences. We have judges to make decisions for lets not high their hands and say they have to send someone to prison. A person comes in and the judge says i want to be helped, or the judge convinces them and much like the drug courts we have talked about, or veterans courts or Mental Health courts, they enter into a program of diversion and they talk about with the judge what they need to do and they set specific times and goals and if they do it, one of the greatest things judges are great positive influences on people. If they know they are going to have to see the judge every couple of weeks or every month, and either time they do something good or bad, if they know that, they are more compliant. They understand the plan. If they complete the program, their felony conviction is erased. Even know we need to ban the box universally, i think, that becomes a moot issue. We are proposing an extensive expansion of that. We used results that said all jurisdictions that increased theft levels saw no increase in that behavior. Ohio as a 1000 threshold for felony theft. Wink rosen increase we propose an increase to 2500. That is important because of this. Folks, if people get into trouble and continue to need to be worked with, probation can continue, but it doesnt necessarily mean that it is a felony prison commitment. Judicial discretion we talked about and priority one treatment. It is a controversial piece. We were an early adopter. Was the greatest opportunity to make a positive difference. Most of my years, i believe that completing a program had to be done inside a prison. I was a warden. If they did not have enough time to complete the program, you did not put them in it. Our drug folks coming in after some realtime credit and a short sentence, we had thousands and thousands of people. We release 8400 people that do less than a year. Those people were not being touched. Those people had the highest rate of addiction and Mental Health because historically we were not smart enough to understand that we have got to get these folks started. Medicaid expansion. We increase the number of people in Addiction Treatment by 50 inside of prisons. We have spent the money to have five regional contracts to continue drug treatment in a consistent way like they have done in treatment. The linchpin is our Electronic Health records. They sign a waiver in that persons treatment continues immediately. We are touching people now that we had given up on before. I was walking through the reception block at our free no prison, and i love the program. There is a harmony program. We are skiving songs the hospital in africa with children that are dying and they are singing. All of this stuff is so lifting. I walk into the reception block and see female inmates that look like my granddaughter. Some cases, doing two or three months because of a six months sentence of jail time in getting a life sentence, literally. Historically we have done nothing with those folks. We are now. In terms of this, and the federal systems have for a long time. In july 1, the Legislature Said i trust your recidivism rate of 27. 5 . I trust the fact that if you looked at the national average, you would be returning 4300 more people to prison, but you want. 81 of the 88 counties have full functioning reentry coalition. What we are going to do is this. Were going to say that there is a pocket of people, i think maybe 2100 people, that come into a highway. They are nonviolent folks. If you can get them ready for treatment, you can release them without a discussion from the judge. Move them into a Halfway House until they report it. We are starting what a treatment transit program. We are moving them to a different setting that is totally focused by themselves on treatment readiness, putting them through a minimum of 46 weeks of treatment readiness, and moving them out into the Community Even if they have a year sentence. That is good and i am proud of this. Haveproud of the fact that Immigration Units were we expect inmates to work eight or 10 hours a day. We are working in animal shelters and food pantries and busing them back. They are out in the community all the time. We are so proud of that. I am proud of the recidivism rate. We have got to stop the mass incarceration and we have to use some logic about our sentencing. Likeve to look at research what was done at the Washington State policy center that take an adequate an analytical prison programs and what they deliver. Communitybased program are twice as effective at one third the cost of sending someone to prison. , you know, it say is an honor and privilege to be here, and it seems to me, and im not sure you would expect an old risen warden to say this, but it seems to me that judges should not be the primary referral of people to get treatment for their addiction or mental illness. When we have a rotator cuff issue, like ive got, we go to a doctor. The doctor refers us to a surgeon. The surgeon takes care of it. There is no stigma attached. Think about your families. Think about the people you talk about. Is it clear to all of our thatnities in this country a parent knows they can take a child someplace and get treatment . And if they can, what kind of stigma is attached . We have to recognize that these darned drugs, in this current generation, are so strong and addictive that it is a different world. The old saying is just say no, right . That was are saying for a decade or more. It is awfully tough with this strain of drugs. With Creative Community support, and i could not agree more, weve got to think about this. My Mission Besides hopefully turning folks around and making their lifes better, i want to get rid of my budget. I want to get rid of this 1. 6 billion budget. I want to invest in people earlier in their lives. There were a lot of directional directors who wanted to focus on this. Dont settle for tinkering. I was pounding on the podium. I said i am sick and tired of tinkering. It takes too long. We have got evidence out there to use. Lets use it. It just takes too long. I know that my fellow correctional directors feel the same way. The unfortunate thing is i was telling the story earlier this morning. We have 20 state correctional directors that have less than 18 months in their job. It is very difficult for them to lead when they are just trying to find and figure out a way to manage that system. All of us have to be leaders and go out and tell a message that there is a better way, and we know that. We have seen that. Evidence produced its. We have got enough caring people to really carry this out. Let uset this gathering just feel good, like i did three weeks ago and at church. Talent and insight of the people in this room, lets carry this message outside his walls. Its not the walls down let us not the walls down because people do not know the truth. When people know the truth, they change their minds. Thank you. [applause] are there a remaining questions . If there are, i will try to stumble through them. We talkeddered about the state system. Did you [inaudible] can you just touch on how this is flowing to the federal system , as much as you know, what is working, not working. Mr. Moore i think we heard the question of the flow we have a Great Organization of the a state association of correctional administrators. We gather three or four times the year. We need that environment. The focus of those two or three days is to pass on best practices. I believe the issue of cityivism started in this at the end of 2011 at a asca meeting were 50 directors attended and i changed the mission to change recidivism and on those we touch. I think there is a consistent movement. That includes the federal bureau of prisons that are at the meetings. I think we are seeing a fuller of best or picture practices as we need. I have seen it. As we look at the attorney generals comments and public statements about restrictive housing, there is a lot of things consistent with restricting housing as there is with mass incarceration and treatment. I think you are seeing that everywhere. I think there is a groundswell. I cannot think of a single director in the United States of america that is not aligned with this philosophy from walking too many people of. We will do the best we can with those we have. We are. We will do our best. We will also, once we get our feet on the ground, need to be out, telling this story to the public. American Civil Liberties union in my office talking about restrictive housing and i have a great relationship with them and i said i am sick and tired of the old warden being publicized all the time about this mass incarceration thing. I need some help out there. And they certainly are willing to do that and i think we will see a ground movement. System, you going to see moving in the same direction, the same system, and do it a little different. If we do it different, we will learn even more. Yes . I appreciated what you were saying about the sixmonth being more like a license for a lot of folks, but when i was prosecuting, a lot of dispositions were at the county level and they would involve detention at a county facility and not a state one. I wonder if the statistics you have been sharing take into account things at the county level as well. Rateoore the recidivism is not, but there is a major effort in medicaid signups even in county jails and judges looking for opportunities to put people in community settings. Were seeing that more for the misdemeanor settings. The recidivism rate is not include locals. I have to leave. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you very much, director moore. I would like to introduce our next panel. Isding this panel Rebecca Vallas of the center of American Progress and families, and she will be joined by graduates of affected communities and families to talk about their experience. Just before we start, we are looking for attorney general sam owens. If he is here, please come backstage. Ms. Vallas can you hear me, is my mic on . Fantastic. My name is Rebecca Vallas. I am the managing director of the poverty to prosperity program. Im incredibly honored to be part of this conversation. I think everyone in this audience is more familiar than they would like to be with certain statistics and figures. The United States has 5 of the worlds population, but 25 of the worlds prison population. I think we are familiar with 2. 3 million americans being behind bars and we are probably more increasingly familiar with fact that one in three americans now has some type of criminal record. Tot of why i am so excited be part of this conversation is while those statistics are incredibly important, they only tell part of the story. For us to really get a sense of what the impact of mass incarceration and over criminalization has been in this country, we need to talk to the people who are impacted by those policies. It is not just the individuals who have been sentenced to a crime. It is also their families and their communities. I am incredibly excited to introduce the panel that is going to be speaking today. Before i do that, i wanted to note one striking, if staggering statistic that the center for American Progress brought to light. In addition to the numbers i rattled off, it helps to shine a light on the impact on families and how we have reached a tipping point. That is that we are now at a point where nearly half of children in this country have a parent with a criminal record. I will let that settle in. About that as the legacy of our experiment with mass incarceration. I am pleased to introduce annemarie alward. Secretary assistant of corrections at the Washington Department of corrections. She has been a leader at Washington States when it comes to alternative scenting. We also bring into the conversation jerry garrison. He is from washington and he was incarcerated for a nonviolent offense that took him from his family and his daughter,. Ennedy, join me in thanking this fantastic panel. [applause] annemarie, i want to start with you. Tell us about the work you have been leading in Washington State sentencing. S to 4 washingto Washington State is ms. Alward at the same time, in 2010, we had increasing populations and significant issues with money in state government. We have started looking at pathways to figure out different alternatives to lessen the prison population. We have 10 of our population in the community in lieu of carson ration lieu of incarceration. We looked at legislation we can use to have a judicial option, where a judge can sentence someone that meets the criteria of family to community prison,ion in the will or being able to look at folks with eligibility and release them up to a year early with supervision and with resources into the community and hopefully really try to impact those connections with family. We wanted to decrease the prison population and increase the amount of of efficiencies that we could work with in collaboration with other state government, particularly social services, by decreasing the number of redundant seas, the number of appointments that what family members at odds with each as to the number of classes they would have to comply with. By becoming more efficient and streamlined, we were really able to increase the efficiencies and alignment of other social agencies in the department of corrections. With that, the best way to really talk about it to talk to somebody like jared and kennedy, who have lived through the experience. While we started the program in Washington State for family offender sentencing alternative, we begin in 2010. We had 450 completers through the program. It is a conservative, small program. Jared is one of our happy participants in the family offender sentencing alternative. I dont know if you want to talk jared i want to thank the Aleph Institute for having this special occasion today. I heard a lot of terms i was really familiar with when i was incarcerated. In the last year, i have not heard any of those terms at all. I dont have to deal with any of that no more because what i do every day is i just go to work and im successful. I got a house, i got my daughter living with me fulltime. Recidivism and all that stuff im never going to do it again. [applause] program, what i really think is key and i have talked to people about it, is the time leading up to applying if you program, you know have any infractions, minor or major, youre eliminated from the program. If you have, say, 100 people who know about the program that want to interview for it, think of the infractions you dont have to deal with because even if only two people are finally approved at the end of it, think of all the stuff you are not going to have to deal with prison wise. The fights, the tobacco. T leading the two years the two years leading up to it, i did everything i did. I went to school, went to college and i graduated. I worked with a group where we built offices for the state agencies. All of those tools i put in my toolbox so when i left and out on the streets, it was normal to go back to work everyday which i do everyday. I get up at 5 a. M. Six days a week. That is from all the tools i have learned from the program. Kennedy, we would like to hear from you as well. What was it like being apart from your dad and what is it like to have him back in your life now . Kennedy it is kind of hard because not having a father figure at all. Yeah. Is it good to have him home . Kennedy education wise and reallya stable house is beneficial. It is really helpful and i think that is him getting up earlier is really helpful for that. We are glad to see him home with you. Im glad to see you smiling. Erad, do you want to talk a little bit how the program not just prepared you for release, but maybe some of the things you will people in this room will take away why it was so successful for you. Program, i would works is you can be released up to a year. They would release you on house arrest to a house. You are still under supervision so you have to submit a schedule of where you are going to be. It was a really good safety blanket because a lot of people do their time in prison, get out and they are right back to what they were doing or want to go celebrate the release. For me, my transition was guaranteed to be a Successful Transition because of the program. I still have to check in every morning on the phone and i still see some buddy once a week. Body once a week. It was a good time to get my ducks in a row so when i was done with them, i could transition to a normal life right away. There was no in between time, no i have to get a job. The ball was in motion. Talk to us about the nuts and bolts. How does it work . I really want to emphasize in jerads case, there is no Community Supervision for a number of nonviolent offenders. So, in the situation where a case comes through, the wonderful management and the program and the staff, when i take a look at it to look at those persons, many will have. Supervision i supervision. I cannot imagine having to transition into a Community Without any assistance or safety net. Through the family offender sentencing alternative, especially for those folks who are not going to have supervision period, they can have that safety net. I think that really did benefit the transition of jerad and many other people. What we look for is almost any offender, although we do have some limitations with some violent offenses that are not eligible. Theyreply, interviewed, there is a Multidisciplinary Group that goes over we really teamed up with early child learning. A number of stakeholders, victim advocates that are very interested