NDOC is committed to providing pre-release planning assistance and transitional services to our inmates as they return to their home communities. Going Home Prepared (GHP) was our response to the federal government’s Serious and Violent Offender Re-entry Initiative (SVORI) grant. NDOC has put together a coalition of more than 70 government agencies, non-profits and community providers who are jointly assisting inmates in planning their release and accessing services in the Las Vegas area. .

Our grant program is intended to enable NDOC to set the template for all of our facilities to provide similar re-integration referrals and assistance statewide. As we apply for grants and other funding, we are requesting monies to get identification and work documents for all inmates leaving prison so they can immediately return to work. Our Programs staff and caseworkers have been charged with monitoring inmates’ prison activities to ensure that by the time they leave prison, they have completed their secondary education (either through obtaining a GED or High School Diploma) and acquired the treatment, programming and work skills to enable them to join the ranks of productive citizens and taxpayers in Nevada.

NDOC has developed a comprehensive “street readiness” program that teaches job seeking, time and money management, and other life skills. It brings in community speakers to provide departing inmates with information on community services, parole requirements, health management, and aftercare resources. New Beginnings has been piloted at our northern prisons and is now being established in all our major prisons and some camps, to better prepare inmates for their return home.

Casa Grande is NDOC’s Southern Nevada Re-entry Transition Center in the industrial section of Las Vegas, west of Interstate 15. It opens in December 2005 and will house up to 400 non-violent offenders (no sex offenders) in a dorm-like setting, during their last four to six months of incarceration, enabling them to live in the community and get jobs and take other steps to set up their release. Assistance in employment, family counseling, educational goals and other services will be provided at Casa Grande.

Currently, we have the Northern Nevada Restitution Center (NNRC) in Reno, which provides up to 100 inmates the opportunity to work in the community during their last 18 months of incarceration and earn money to pay back their victims. In NDOC’s long-range planning, a Re-entry Transition Center is envisioned for Northern Nevada that would expand NNRC and provide programming and other re-entry assistance for northern inmates, too. NDOC’s future plans include eventually building a re-entry facility for women in Southern Nevada someday, as well.