Carbon County officials are working with a Lehigh Valley based company to continue and expand a program that will help incarcerated female offenders as they re-enter society.

On Thursday, the county commissioners approved a memorandum of agreement with Pinebrook Family Answers of Allentown for the Second Chance Act Community-Based Adult Reentry grant program to support a jail-based project for effective re-entry programs and practices in three counties.

According to the agreement, “Leaving Jail: A Comprehensive Regional Re-entry Program for Women in Rural Communities,” covers correctional facilities in Carbon, Lehigh and Northampton counties and is overseen and funded through Pinebrook.

“The program is designed to support a reentry process for women that begins during incarceration and ends when they have successfully reintegrated back into the community as law-abiding citizens and responsible mothers,” the agreement states.

Incarcerated women who are at moderate to high risk of recidivating would be eligible to improve their chances at successful parenting and reintegrating into society after release.

Carbon County has worked with Pinebrook on this initiative since 2017 when Pinebrook submitted an application for the $1 million federal grant for the program on behalf of the three counties.

At that time, the prison had been seeing an increase in the number of women being incarcerated.

In a related matter, the county approved applying for a $40,371 grant for the Intermediate Punishment Treatment program in adult probation.

The grant offsets the salary of one officer and provides funds to Carbon-Monroe-Pike Drug and Alcohol for treatment for any individual who is not eligible for medical assistance or does not have private insurance.