Sheriff DeMarco's Prisoner Re-Entry Efforts Lauded

Suffolk County Sherriff Vincent DeMarco met with government employees, non-profits and educators earlier this morning to highlight the work being done to smooth prisoners reentry into mainstream society upon leaving the Suffolk County correction system.

Members of law enforcement, concerned citizens and social service organizations gathered at the W.H. Rogers Legislature Building at 725 Veterans Memorial Highway in Smithtown.

Sheriff DeMarco, and members of the Youth Reentry Initiative were honored by County Legislators for their successful community-wide collaboration mainstreaming young people who have been incarcerated into the general population.

Sheriff DeMarco has been at the forefront of a national trend towards developing effective inmate rehabilitation programs and coordinating community-based services for individuals reentering our communities after spending time in jail. Due in part to these efforts, there has been a significant decrease in the county jail population since he first took office. In 2005, the daily jail population averaged close to 2000 inmates, and now that figure is less than 1400.

In 2011, Sheriff DeMarco launched the Youth Tier and Youth Reentry Task Force Initiative to improve outcomes for incarcerated youth in the county jails, and the award-winning program has become a national model in the field of corrections. The Sheriff’s Youth Reentry Task Force, which has grown to more than 40 members from the fields of mental health, education, government and corrections, has played an integral role in the program’s success.