On February 21st, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Linda I. Gibbs and Department of Correction Commissioner Dora B. Schriro announced a new jail-based community reentry program called the Individualized Correction Achievement Network (I-CAN). The program advances the commitment of the Young Men's Initiative - a Mayor’s Office initiative launched in 2012 - to reduce disparities among young black and Latino men who are involved with the criminal justice system.
Since 2001 the city's incarceration rate has been reduced by 32 percent, even as the rest of the country increased by five percent. I-CAN aims to reduce recidivism by an additional 10 percent among inmates at highest risk of recidivism.
The program takes a common-sense, but unusual, approach. For the first time, the City will pay community-based providers (CBOs) based on their success achieve critical milestones to successful re-entry, including in helping offenders get jobs, earn GED certificates and stay sober. This is a significant change from the former metric of reporting based on appointments.
I-CAN, will first be launched in four facilities - the Otis Bantam Correction Center, the Anna M. Kross Center, the Eric M. Taylor Center, and the Rose M. Singer Center - and expanded to the entire jail system by year's end.
