Open Door America Receives Major Grant from State of Maryland

Funded by the Maryland Justice Reinvestment Act (JRA), the grant from the Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention (GOCCP) is being used to create a scalable and replicable model for reducing recidivism rates, social dependency, and public assistance.  When the JRA became law in May 2016, Governor Larry Hogan and the Maryland General Assembly envisioned life-changing and cost-savings partnerships like this.  According to the University of Baltimore Law School Review (Nov 2016), the JRA represents "the largest and most comprehensive criminal justice reform passed in a generation."  To be part of this statewide initiative to reduce Maryland's prison population and use the savings on rehabilitation instead of incarceration is truly gratifying for everyone at Open Door America.

In addition to weekly case management and onboarding mentoring from ODA, "returning citizens" accepted into the demonstration project will be eligible for full-time, living-wage employment with benefits at The Coastal Companies of Laurel, Maryland, the preeminent resource for produce distribution, processing, and prepared foods on the East Coast.  Under the community-focused leadership of CEO John Corso, Coastal is giving 20 ex-offenders in Howard County the chance to rebuild their lives in 2020 through hard work and perseverance in their production, warehousing, and transportation departments.  Coastal will offer job training and skills certification while also providing ODA with office space to perform pre-work, lunchtime, and post-work case management meetings.