Project "No Return" Pays Off ROCHESTER,NY (WXXI) - A federally funded program to keep young Monroe County criminal offenders from going back to jail appears to be paying off as it concludes its second year.

Project No Return provides discharge planning, case management and transitional support services for selected offenders between the ages of 18 and 24 who are leaving the county jail. Of the 55 young offenders served during the program's second year, only 14 percent have re-offended according to Chris Urban. She's Associate Executive Director of the Huther Doyle Memorial Institute which runs the program.

Urban says the recidivism rate among young offenders who leave jail without this transitional support is 80 percent.

Program coordinators were unhappy in the first year with the number of participants who broke-off contact once they left the county jail. Urban says the second year saw more participants stay with Project No Return.

The federal grant for the program runs out two years from now. Organizers say Project No Return actually saves Monroe County money by reducing the number of young repeat offenders. Urban says it costs 35-thousand dollars per year to house an offender in the Monroe County Jail. She says the cost of providing transitional services that prevent young convicts from re-offending is significantly less.

Huther-Doyle will be asking the county to provide financial support to keep the program going when the current funding runs out.

Huther-Doyle received a $1.8 million dollar grant in 2005 from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to start the program.

Support services may include food, clothing, housing assistance, mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment, family counseling, job training and job placement.


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