News  A Grand Re-Opening of the Bristol Community Justice Support Centers brings much needed services to the area

The event will feature remarks by Taunton Mayor Shauna O’Connell and State Representative Carol Doherty who are scheduled to attend. Massachusetts Trial Court Chief Justice Jeffrey Locke; Court Administrator John Bello; and Probation Commissioner Edward Dolan will also speak at the event.

One of 17 centers currently open across the state, the Taunton Center will offer clients counseling, drug testing, and the opportunity to study for the Hi-Set exam, the high school equivalency degree. The center also supports Probation as a venue for thousands of visits per year by probationers and for check-ins during evening hours, and pretrial services. There are also grand re-openings scheduled to take place at sites in Springfield, Northampton, Lawrence, Brockton, and Plymouth throughout the fall.

The Office of Community Corrections, a division of the Massachusetts Probation Service, manages the centers. A recent study on the centers, conducted by the University of Pennsylvania's Crime and Justice Policy (CJP) Lab, shows that an added emphasis in evidence-based practices such as cognitive behavioral therapy, fidelity monitoring and performance measurement--have been successful in dramatically reducing recidivism rates by up to 36 percent among probationers who attend the centers. This success was measured by the reduction in arraignments for clients within one year of them being referred or sentenced to a center.

Vincent Lorenti, OCC Director, who oversees the statewide centers, said of the grand re-opening, “The Community Justice Support Centers are about making the community stronger. This center will make a difference in Taunton by giving people that come before the court—because of bad decision making and struggles with substance abuse disorder—the opportunity to change their lives through treatment, education, employment, and accountability.”