Osborne Association, Inc.

Individuals in state prison suffer disproportionately from chronic illness: asthma rates are two times higher than that of the general population while the rates of Hepatitis C infection are nearly five times higher and HIV/AIDS four times higher. The same injustices that fuel mass incarceration–multi-generational poverty, public disinvestment, community violence, trauma, and lack of access to quality health care, education, and employment–drive high rates of infectious disease and chronic conditions among the people Osborne serves. Addressing these challenges is a necessary part of our work. Our services draw on our participants’ resilience and capacity to heal, and place disease management, healthy living, and transmission prevention in the larger context of work, family, and stability. Currently, we focus on:

Substance use disorder treatment
HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C treatment
Trauma

In 2022, we provided 2,061 referrals to health services and over 350 supportive counseling sessi

In the US, more than half of incarcerated people are the parents of minor children, leaving more than 2.7 million children with a parent behind bars. Families of color are more likely to experience this harmful separation. Visitation and family contact during incarceration decreases the likelihood that incarcerated individuals will recidivate, while increasing the likelihood that they will maintain relationships with their children, which improves socio-economic outcomes post-release.

Osborne offers support for in-person and video visits to prisons and jails, community resources for affected children and caregivers, groups for children of incarcerated parents, civic engagement and enrichment opportunities for children, and reentry services to help formerly incarcerated parents build secure, stable lives. In FY22, our services resulted in 8,779 in-person visits and nearly 500 video visits between children and incarcerated loved ones.

Osborne operates programs inside 35 New York State prisons and Rikers Island jails in order to prepare individuals for life after they return to our communities, particularly for those with long sentences. These programs provide opportunities for participants to heal and come to terms with their crimes, repair relationships with their family members, and refocus their energy and time in productive ways.

In-prison services include:

Parenting education and support for the parent-child relationship
Seminars on healthy relationships with family members and intimate partners
Family Centers that support visits between fathers and children
HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C prevention education and peer support
Cognitive behavioral therapy
Workforce training and preparation
Reentry planning

More than 1,000 parents and caregivers have completed our family courses Since inception our restorative justice program has led to parole for over 90% of our graduates who sit before a parole hearing.

Osborne’s mitigation specialists work alongside defense attorneys in all five New York City boroughs to design and propose individualized, community-based sentences whenever appropriate. Forensic social workers prepare pre-plea and pre-sentence reports, as well as reports in support of defense counsel motions to secure pretrial release. Staff also appear in court advocating for customized sentencing alternatives that allow people to stay at home while they address the consequences of a felony or misdemeanor conviction. We advocate for the restoration to community supervision of those arrested for Technical Parole Violations that violate the terms of their release but do not amount to new crimes.

When alternatives to incarceration are not possible, we advocate for reduced prison or jail terms. We seek responses to criminal charges that give individuals the tools needed to build secure and stable lives, including substance use disorder treatment, education, job training and housing.

Osborne understands that we must ensure our workforce programs are innovative and grounded in the latest labor market research and future of work data. For that reason, we launched Osborne Social Ventures (OSV), our revenue-generating social enterprise that employs formerly incarcerated people with the greatest barriers to employment (e.g., people with disabilities, substance use disorders, and young people who have been involved in gangs). Our latest OSV undertaking involves a partnership with Columbia Business School to develop a managed service provider (MSP) business to provide help desk support to nonprofits and companies that do not have their own IT departments. The goal of the MSP model is to develop career pathways in resilient industries that provide the greatest opportunities for economic mobility, ability to earn quality benefits, and prospects for earning a high income without the need for high levels of education.

In order to prevent homelessness and recidivism, Osborne works with housing providers in New York City to secure homes for our clients. In 2022, we took this a step further, opening the Marcus Garvey supportive housing program in Brownsville, Brooklyn, an 88-unit building that addresses the needs of formerly incarcerated persons in order to successfully rebuild their lives and reenter the community, including providing tech training, nutrition and wellness services, therapy and counseling, and vocational training, among others. This year, we will also open the Fulton Community Reentry Center, a 140-bed transitional housing residence to formerly incarcerated men released in New York City. The facility will offer services that address common barriers to successful reentry, including trauma, limited employment or educational histories, and inexperience with technology, with the goal of ensuring economic independence and health and wellbeing for these men within one year of release.

The Osborne Center for Justice Across Generations is dedicated to building a justice system that promotes healing, safety, accountability, and opportunities to thrive. We promote solutions that are informed but not bound by the realities of the systems we are trying to change, such as employing strategies led and informed by formerly incarcerated people and directly affected families.

We collaborate with community-based and grassroots groups to inspire civic engagement among groups that have been historically ignored or excluded from this work, and we rely on the latest research and in-house policy analysis to drive our efforts.

In 2022, the advocacy team trained 563 law enforcement officers on trauma-informed practices for handling the arrest of a parent in the presenceof a child. Trainees included leadership and officers from 14 police departments in New York State, including the Buffalo Police Department and the NYPD.