According to the New York State/New York City Mental Health-Criminal Justice Panel, mentally ill inmates account for nearly 14% of New York State's inmate population. Mentally ill inmates are more likely to have trouble transitioning back to the community with 2/3 being re-arrested within 18 months and up to ½ of these inmates being homeless upon release.

To respond to this growing problem, in July of 2009 CUCS began administering RCS to manage the access to supportive housing units in New York City for individuals being released from New York State prisons who are seriously mentally ill and who were either homeless at the time of their incarceration or will be homeless upon release. CUCS' work includes:

• providing assistance to Pre-Release Coordinators (PRCs) on completing housing applications and preparing inmates for housing interviews
• reviewing applications for housing
• sending eligible applications on to housing providers
• arranging the video-conference interviews between the inmate and housing providers
• providing referral assistance to appropriate housing programs and mental health services
• coordinating case planning meetings for inmates who have been rejected by three housing providers
• processing requests for enhanced services funding for housing providers to address any barriers in housing hard-to-place inmates
• tracking referrals and outcomes, including time frames and referrals to ancillary services
• linking inmates to needed mental health case management or ACT services in the community (beginning in August 2010)

In the past year, through RCS, CUCS made 420 housing referrals and arranged for videoconferencing for 108 inmates. Thanks to RCS, 79 inmates have already been placed into permanent housing and 38 are pending a permanent housing placement.

RCS combines CUCS' expertise on accessing supportive housing with its experience in establishing and maintaining collaboration among the various service systems engaged with mentally ill inmates at imminent risk of homelessness upon release. The project has been extremely successful thanks to CUCS' ability to bring together the diverse service systems that otherwise wouldn't necessarily provide services to these soon-to-be homeless inmates or who would otherwise not be able to provide coordinated care for these clients.

CUCS has brought together 15 state correctional facilities, 69 New York City housing programs and more than a dozen forensic case management programs to help ensure that imminently homeless, mentally ill inmates can successfully transition back to the community.

Congratulations to Sue Smith, Direct of CUCS' Housing Resource Center and her team for this recognition of their amazing work.

For further information on RCS please check out CUCS' Spring 2010 Newsletter.