Federal agencies award R.I. $4M for three programs

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Jack Reed today announced $4.05 million in federal funding to help Rhode Island improve its preparedness for public health emergencies; assist low-income residents with heat and other utility bills; and expand its prison-to-payroll programs for female offenders.
• The R.I. Department of Health will receive a grant of nearly $1.85 million to strengthen its Hospital Preparedness Program, improving the local health care system’s ability to handle epidemics and other natural and man-made disasters.
Part of that money will be used to stockpile caches of medical equipment, medicines and other supplies. The grant also will support the supply of interoperable communications equipment and technical support to Ocean State health care facilities, upgrade patient-tracking systems, conduct training drills for staff and volunteers, and develop enhanced evacuation plans.
“Our dedicated hospital workers and emergency responders are our first line of defense when disaster strikes,” said Reed, who as a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, helped obtain the funding. “This money will help bolster Rhode Island’s emergency response capabilities and ensure that health centers across the state are ready to effectively respond when we need them the most.”
• The State Energy Office will receive $1.9 million from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, part of a nationwide total of $131 million in LIHEAP contingency funds released today by the White House Office of Management and Budget.
The funding – released at the request of Reed and the 51 other senators who signed his Sept. 11 letter to the president – would have expired on Sunday. The senators also had requested the release of another $20.5 million that was not in imminent danger of expiring; that money will remain in the LIHEAP contingency fund.
LIHEAP is a federal block grant program supporting state energy-assistance programs for low-income households. In Rhode Island last year, it helped nearly 30,000 families to heat their homes or reestablish utility service by paying overdue bills.
The money released today “will provide real assistance for people who continue to struggle with soaring energy prices,” said Reed, who is chairman of the Northeast-Midwest Coalition, a bipartisan alliance of senators seeking to advance regional economic and environmental goals. “[It] should allow more families who have fallen behind on their utility bills to have their power restored before the cold winter months.”
In the first eight months of this year, utility companies in Rhode Island made more than 20,000 shutoffs for nonpayment – the highest level for that period in the past decade.
• The R.I. Department of Corrections will receive $294,084 from the U.S. Department of Justice for its Prisoner Reentry Initiative.
The federal initiative specifically targets women, providing funding to state and local governments that develop and implement programs for female offenders. “Giving these women job-skill training, substance-abuse treatment and other support services will give them the opportunity to successfully transition back into society as law-abiding citizens,” Reed said. “This is a sound investment in safeguarding our communities and reducing the chances that the ex-offenders will become re-offenders.”
The Department of Corrections will use the money to expand computer literacy and culinary arts training for female inmates; expand the use of risk-needs assessment to all sentenced women; provide gender-responsive training to all staff at the women’s prisons; implement a formal reentry policy; and hire a reentry specialist to provide discharge planning and outreach to high-risk women after their release from prison.
“Female offenders tend to re-offend at high rates,” said Ashbel T. Wall II, the department’s director, “and although their crimes are often nonviolent, they churn through the system over and over, driving up costs and creating a host of other public-safety issues. This grant gives us an opportunity to break the cycle and achieve better outcomes for offenders, their families and the community at large.”