INNOVATIVE CORRECTIONAL PROGRAMMING FOR MURIEL CUBAN OFFENDERS
The first public-private partnership that we developed under Delancey CIRCLE was with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the National Institute of Corrections and the Bureau of Prisons. We were asked to interview all the Mariel Cubans locked in federal custody in prisons and jails around the country and design and implement a comprehensive processing and programming plan for the Mariel Cuban population. The Mariel Cuban boatlift thrust upon INS long-term corrections responsibilities that were not part of their overall mission. Wanting to develop the most effective overall approach to the problem, INS requested a review to get an objective system overview from a corrections perspective. Working with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Bureau of Prisons, Community Relations Services, and the Public Health Services, Mimi Silbert and Delancey Street residents were able to direct needed resources and attention to a problem that had plagued these agencies for more than a decade.
Recommendations focused on restructuring the detention and the parole process including placing detainees, the timing of reviews and notifications, parole criteria; developing standard level of programming in institutions, classification, movement of more inmates from segregated housing to the general population; expanded halfway house usage for Mariel Cubans including developing substance abuse halfway house programming, and a long-term residential community-based program to provide drug-free, crime-free life skills, as well as job and academic skills for Mariel Cubans who can live in the community with supervision, at less cost than institutions; developing systems for better interagency coordination including a system to pick up parole violators, an improved halfway house interview process, more levels of sanctions, and developing institutional pre-release programs aligned with halfway house programs.
The needs assessment and the findings of the project were published in several reports:
Innovative Correctional Programming for Mariel Cuban Offenders, June 1991
Revised Mariel Cuban Review Plan, June 30, 1993
Detainer Worksheet, June 30, 1993
Cuban Review Panel Operational Guidelines, June 30, 1993
Cuban Review Panel Report, June 30, 1993
Innovative Correctional Programming for Mariel Cuban Offenders, Phase II Final Report, June 30, 1993
Contact Delancey Street at 415-512-5170 for a copy of any these documents.
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