Jericho is a workforce development program which assists male ex-offenders who are returning to the community and are motivated to participate in job training and placement. Jericho is currently developing ways to expand their potential client base by providing offerings to specific neighborhoods which have high levels of need. The program serves around 400 men per year and has a successful employment rate ranging from 58% to 69%. We educate potential employers about the benefits of working with ex-offenders, such as tax credits and Federal bonding and the support of our case management staff.
Our approach is known as “rapid-attachment-to-work,” meaning that program participants are normally eligible for entry into the workforce after successfully completing all aspects of a two-week training program at Jericho. Successful reentry and the reduction of recidivism depend on many factors in the life of an ex-offender. Jericho guides the reentering man in addressing these various barriers and the formulation of plans to overcome them. We provide case management, mentoring and support to the men as well as access to those resources necessary to achieve successful re-integration back into their families and their communities.
Jericho is able to report a 10-18% recidivism rate among our participants compared to a 47.8% recidivism rate among the general ex-offender population in Maryland.
The current Jericho program is an outgrowth of ECSM’s earlier Cathedral Reentry program for re-integrating alcoholics and substance abusers in recovery back into their communities. Today, Jericho serves primarily non-violent male ex-offenders who are motivated to participate in job training and placement. (A certain portion of the population may have violent offenses, and others can have a violent conviction in their background but said offense cannot be the most recent one.) The Jericho program was established through a multi-year grant from the U.S. Department of Labor Prison Reentry Initiative.
Deconstruction Manual
This manual, funded by a grant to ECSM from the United States Department of Labor ETA, was a collaboration with Baltimore’s Safe and Sound Campaign and based on a previous publication from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. It is a training manual intended for deconstruction crews. Dennis Livingston, Community Resources; and Lowell Larseon, Greater Greenmount Community Association; worked with local contributors to research, update, and write this adaptation. This document is free for download and use. This manual is Copyright 2011, Episcopal Community Services of Maryland (ECSM), and cannot be changed or modified without express permission of ECSM.