Tri-County Second Chance Re-Entry Program

Who We Help

The Tri– County Second Chance Re–Entry Program serves Southeastern Oklahoma’s Choctaw, Pushmataha, and McCurtain Counties. The project specifically aims to offer substance use treatment services and supports for adults with substance use disorders.

Our Partnerships

Second Chance has established numerous partnerships throughout the tri–county area with a wide range of expertise in areas of substance abuse treatment, healthcare, mental and behavioral health, law enforcement and community health.

Our goal is to strengthen and expand post – release services and access within the unserved, high risk target counties to ultimately reduce the rate of recidivism in Southeastern Oklahoma.

Services We Offer

During the duration of the program Second Chance will be offering help with services such as employment, housing and education as well as the curriculum A New Direction, which has been proven to reduce recidivism by 25%.

The Second Chance Act

The Second Chance Act: Community Safety Through Recidivism Prevention 15 was signed into law in 2008 with the goal of increasing reentry programming for offenders released from state prisons and local jails.

Why this Program is Needed

The national crime rate and number of prisoners have declined over the past 5 years; however, the percentage of new crimes committed by individuals released from prison has been increasing. Recidivism has come to be known as “the revolving door” in and out of prisons. 67.8% of all released prisoners are re–arrested within three years of release.

Incarceration and recidivism most directly affect non–white and poor individuals, reflecting the “disproportionate minority contact” of the criminal justice system , and the link between poverty and criminal justice system involvement. Poor communities of color also pay the price of high recidivism, in social and economic terms, via experiencing insufficient public safety, erosion of social relationships, and pervasive intergenerational poverty.

Incarceration has a negative effect on economic mobility, with fiscal consequences not only for the formerly incarcerated but their families and communities as well.

How it Works

Second Chance will start 3–6 months pre–release with 2 one hour group classes using The New Direction curriculum which will take 90 hours to complete.

This program will be offered to all offenders who suffer from substance abuse and is a voluntary 1 year program. This program will address the lack of substance abuse treatment for offenders while incarcerated and on supervision and will offer prison–based family treatment programs for parents of minor children as well as pregnant women.