The fact that our prisons are overcrowded is not news. But how do we help formerly incarcerated people re-enter society and prevent them from becoming repeat offenders?
One solution could be taking place at the Allegheny County probation office day reporting centers. They focus on medium, and high risk offenders in order to identify services and supervision that can be most helpful.
Ron Seyko is the probation office director for Allegheny County. He said the job of the probation office is to motivate individuals to get training and life skills that will help them become contributing members of society.
When it comes to the day centers, he says there’s a body of research supporting their efforts. When compared with probation offices that don’t have reporting centers the numbers are compelling.
“For the high risk offenders, those who went through the day reporting center programs had a 7% recidivism rate,” said Seyko. “Those who were not exposed to programming in the day reporting centers had a 29% recidivism rate. For the medium risk offenders, there was a 12% re-arrest rate, which was 10% lower than those who did not have reporting center programs.”
Locations for the Allegheny County Probation Office day reporting centers can be found here, hours are from noon to 8pm.
