An Outcome Evaluation of Minnesota Circles of Support and Accountability (MnCoSA)

from the study by the Minnesota Department of Corrections:

....The use of the COSA model with high-risk sex offenders began in a small Mennonite community in Canada in the early 1990s. Grounded in the tenets of the restorative justice philosophy, the COSA model attempts to help sex offenders successfully reenter http://www.doc.state.mn.us/publications/documents/9-12MnCOSAResearchinBrief.pdfthe community and, thus, increase public safety, by providing them with social support as they try to meet their employment, housing, treatment, and other social needs. Each COSA consists of anywhere between four and six community volunteers, one of whom is a primary volunteer, who meet with the offender on a regular basis. The results from several evaluations of the Canadian COSA model suggest it significantly reduces sex offender recidivism....

May 10, 2013 Case:Abuse, Offender, Reentry, Practice, Community, Region: North America and Caribbean, Case:Sexual, Policy, Circle, Country:USA

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Circles for sex offenders first in the South

from the article by Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan in the Herald-Sun:

Durham is starting the first Circles of Safety and Accountability in the South for sex offenders getting out of prison. COSA will match recently released sex offenders in Durham with a circle of people who will meet with them weekly to hold them accountable and support them in re-entering the community.

Durham County is home to about 300 convicted sex offenders.

Apr 12, 2012 Case:Abuse, Practice, Region: North America and Caribbean, Case:Sexual, Policy, Circle, Country:USA

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