The U.S. has 2.2 million people in prisons and jails, the world’s largest population behind bars, according to an April 30 report by the National Research Council, a group of scientists that advises the U.S. government. In Massachusetts, the state deems 4,000 men ages 17 to 24 at high risk of incarceration as they leave the juvenile justice system or probation each year. Many return to prison, staying 2.5 years on average and costing the state $291 million.
That’s the target population of Roca -- Spanish for “rock” -- a 26-year-old nonprofit whose aim is to get such men into the legitimate economy with aggressive outreach, cognitive behavioral therapy, job training and work crews. Successful participants leave the two-year program with a steady job, a plan for long-term self-sufficiency and another two years of less intensive follow-up.
Young men involved in Massachusetts’ probation and juvenile justice systems have a 55 percent likelihood, if left on their own, of being incarcerated within three years. Roca’s model cuts that to 37 percent, according to an analysis by the Social- Impact Bond Technical Assistance Lab, which is part of Harvard’s Kennedy School and which helped Massachusetts formulate the deal.
Before, Roca had 14 youth workers intensively serving some 375 young men at any given time, including Aguilar, the nonprofit says. The funds from Goldman and philanthropies that began flowing this year will boost its capacity to about 550 at a time, over seven years.
Chelsea Gangs
Rosa’s job is to persuade her “young people,” as she calls those assigned to her caseload, to join and remain in Roca’s program. Most want nothing to do with her.
Growing up in Chelsea, across the Mystic River from downtown Boston, Rosa began hanging with the Bloods street gang at 12. By 15, she said, she’d started her own chapter. She stabbed people and got stabbed, did and sold drugs, and stopped counting the number of times she got arrested after it hit double digits.
Then she met Susan Ulrich, a youth worker for Chelsea-based Roca.
“She was a stalker,” Rosa said. “She would park in front of my house for hours.”
Wake-Up Calls