This is historical material “frozen in time”. The website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work.

Search form

Faith & Neighborhood Partnership Office Joins Attorney General Eric Holder For Inaugural Cabinet-Level Reentry Council

Summary: 
Joshua DuBois joins Cabinet officials to discuss re-entry issues at the Inaugural Reentry Council on January 5, 2011.
Reentry Group Photo

Attorney General Eric Holder (center) convened the inaugural meeting of the Cabinet-level “Reentry Council” to identify and to advance effective public safety and prisoner reentry strategies. (left to right: Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education; Jacqueline Berrien, Chair, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; Eric Shinseki, Secretary of Veterans Affairs; Shaun Donovan, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; Eric Holder, U.S. Attorney General; Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services; Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor; R. Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy; Kimberly Thorsen, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Department of Interior.) Photo credit: U.S. Department of Justice.

On January 5, 2011, I was privileged to participate in the inaugural meeting of the Cabinet-level Re-Entry Council convened by Attorney General Eric Holder.  As someone who has dedicated my career to Re-Entry issues it was wonderful to see so many Cabinet Level secretaries and other senior officials in the same room discussing what their agencies have done and are doing to increase public safety, reduce recidivism, and in doing so save taxpayer dollars.  Joshua DuBois the Executive Director of the WH Office of Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships helped to lead the discussion and focused on the large role that faith- and community-based organizations play in prisoner re-entry efforts.

"Reentry provides a major opportunity to reduce recidivism, save taxpayer dollars and make our communities safer," Attorney General Holder said at the meeting.  "More than two million people are behind bars, and 95 percent of them will be released back into their communities.  By developing effective, evidence-based reentry programs, we can improve public safety and community well-being."

More information about reentry issues is at nationalreentryresourcecenter.org/

Eugene Schneeberg is the Director of the Center for Faith-based and Community Initiatives at the Department of Justice.