A program designed to help ex-convicts reintegrate into the community may be on it’s way to Macon. The Macon Reentry Coalition started in 2008, to look at how to reach offenders before they go back to a life of crime. Story reported by 13WMAZ.

In 2009, the Georgia prison system released 404 inmates who call Bibb County home.

Now, more than fifteen organizations are on board to get a reentry program started in Macon, including the city, the county, and the Department of Corrections. Derrell Dean loves a good game of dominos at the Macon Rescue Mission. It’s a big change from the activities that used to occupy his life.

Dean says, “I’ve been dealing with drugs for a long time, and drugs kinda had me super messed up, and I couldn’t seem to shake it, I didn’t have any tools to work with, I had no knowledge about addiction or any of that.”

He adds, “that’s what I lived to do and what I did to live, was get high. But today I don’t have to do that anymore.”

Dean wanted a fresh start. He says, “I was tired of prisons, tired of jails, tired of living like an animal.” So he came to the River Edge Behavioral Health Care Center and enrolled in substance abuse counseling.

“I think that’s a wonderful thing because, had I not gotten involved with this place here, and the Rescue Mission and other places that help people like me, I would have been either on my way back to prison or dead.”

It’s just one part of a Community Impact Program to help people like Dean when they get out of prison. Macon’s Chief Probation Officer Stacy Rivera says her office, the police department and agencies like River Edge all see many of the same clients.

Rivera says, “we’re all kind of off doing our own thing, doing what we do best, but we need to communicate more, we need to bring it all under one roof, all to one table so we are addressing the crime problem the way it needs to be addressed. The solution is not always to just lock someone up.”

That’s why she says the Macon Reentry Coalition wants to show high risk offenders where to go to get help.

Rivera says, “if you’re releasing them and you’re not servicing them, what are they going to do? They are going to create more victims, so we just think we are being smarter about it, with reentry.”

Demetra Butler runs the Savannah Impact Program, a model for other cities like Macon. They offer services for high risk offenders on probation and parole, and others who maxed out their sentence, much like Macon hopes to do.

Butler says, “why set the person up to fail? Why set them up to go back to doing what they are accustomed to doing–selling drugs, prostitution, breaking into homes, whatever it is, that drives up our crime.”

Butler says since 2005, 409 offenders came to the program for help voluntarily. Of those 409, she says only 10 have gone back to prison on new felony convictions.

She says, “these people need to be positively reintegrated into the community, and to give them that, not hand-out but hand-up to say we have these resources that are going to be available for you.”

Butler says the people in the program are proof that it works, like Randy Brown, who joined the Savannah Impact Program three years ago after spending 17 years in and out of prison. Now Brown works at the site as a maintenance supervisor.

He says, “I told them I had a past history with drugs, and just put all my cards on the table and said I need help, will you help me? And I got all the help I needed right here at Savannah Impact, and it’s a miracle because this is the longest I’ve ever had a job or anything.”

Brown says he never wants to go back to life on the streets. Now, he drives his own car and pays his own bills. He says just years ago, he was living in an abandoned home.

He says, “this is the longest I’ve ever been out without getting into trouble, none at all, so this is an accomplishment for me.” Brown says now he lives for his children, and nothing could take him away from them.

Demetra Butler says officers with the program go and talk to offenders before they get out of prison, to tell them about the program and the resources that are available.

She says, “often times before that person gets home, we have that plan in place as to where they are going to stay, whether it’s with a family member, we have appointments and schedules set up for them, we even have the necessary social services set up, IDs, so when this person comes home, we’ve got a plan set so the anxiety is not so overwhelming.”

She says, “for those who really want the assistance, they appreciate the assistance, they appreciate the help that they have been given.”

Most people are in the program for about six to twelve months, but she says some stay for much longer, and continue to call and check in with program officials.

The program offers clients a varitey of classes on site, some of those include moral recognition therapy, anger management, and courses to help them get a GED so they can find employment, and reintegrate into everyday life.

The program also provides a savings to taxpayers. It costs $55 a day to house an inmate in the Bibb County Jail. But the cost for intensive probation supervision is only about $3.86.

Stacy Rivera says, “we’re being smarter about crime, and number one we want to keep the community safe, that’s the whole goal of this.”

Derrell Dean says he’s proud of where he is today, and hopes a program like reentry can offer assistance to others like him who need it most.

He says, “a lot of addicts, they don’t know that help is available, because I didn’t know, as many times as I’ve been in and out of jail I never really got an education about drugs, and I didn’t know why I kept doing what I was doing.”

But he says he knows now that a game of dominos is the best way to spend his time. Dean says, “I cry alot because I have real sincere feelings about where I am today.”

The Macon Reentry Coalition still has a few obstacles, the major one is funding. Stacy Rivera says the Department of Corrections fully supports Macon’s plans to establish a Community Impact Program, but have not committed funding yet.

They are also still working on which agency will lead the effort. In Savannah, it’s an extension of the police department, with funding coming from the city.

The Macon Police Department says as of now, they plan to devote a captain, sergeant and two officers to reentry.

Coalition members also continue looking into a location for the program here in Macon. They hope to have something up and running by the end of the year.

janchavarie GA Bibb County, Georgia, Inmate Programs, Re-Entry

Iowa’s prisons have serious problems that are delaying release of inmates into rehabilitation programs and potentially costing taxpayers millions of extra dollars, the state’s ombudsman told lawmakers Wednesday. Report from the Des Moines Register.

Among the problems:
- A work-release program that costs taxpayers less than daily prison fees has a waiting list of 800 inmates. In one inmate’s case alone, the additional cost to taxpayers was $25,000.

• Some prison officials have improperly held inmates’ earnings instead of applying them to victim restitution or court reimbursements.

• A gradual release program has been revamped so dramatically that some offenders are unable to do what is required to qualify for early release.

“We can’t continue to keep people in prison when they would be better placed in a less restrictive environment at a significantly reduced cost,” Iowa Ombudsman William Angrick said.

Lawmakers agreed the issues and likely extra costs are vital at a time when the state is discussing cuts to key services, such as education and health programs for low-income families.

Rep. Wayne Ford, a member of the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee, expressed anger at the findings and told committee members they would be violating their duties as lawmakers if they fail to immediately look more closely at the issue, despite a shortened legislative session.

Ford, D-Des Moines, has worked with prisoners through his social agency, Urban Dreams. Failures in rehabilitation programs not only cost taxpayers money but also increase the likelihood of recidivism, he said.

“Our No. 1 job as a Legislature is the public safety of this state,” Ford said, noting Angrick’s report. “Somebody is going to kill somebody, saying they’re mad as hell because these things are against me.

“This blood is on our hands.”
Fred Scaletta, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Corrections, said the administrators who could speak about the programs were unavailable for comment Wednesday.

However, Scaletta pointed to November board notes in which Director John Baldwin thanked Angrick for his comments about prisoner payments and said that a final resolution would be handled when the attorney general issues a ruling.

The attorney general has not issued any opinions or advice on the matter, Bob Brammer, a spokesman for the office, said Wednesday.

About 800 inmates are on a waiting list for placement in a residential facility as required for work-release programs, according to Angrick’s report. The programs save taxpayers $19.08 a day compared with prison costs.

He said one unidentified inmate was held in prison 351 days longer than anticipated. If the work-release program had been immediately available, the prisoner would have been eligible for lesser levels of imprisonment, such as day reporting and eventually parole, which costs about $3.75 a day. Angrick estimated the extra costs to taxpayers at about $25,000.

A September state audit of the corrections department verified Angrick’s findings about prisoner payments. Inmates at the North Central Correctional Facility in Webster County, by labor law, should have been paid about $7.80 an hour to pull tarps over harvested grain at two local elevators. Instead, they were paid about $6.15, the audit showed.

The disparities are important because much of the earnings from prisoners are turned over for court or victim reimbursements. However, according to Angrick’s findings, some of that money was not being properly distributed.

In another finding, Angrick noted that some prisoners through no fault of their own have lost the ability to meet the Iowa Board of Parole’s requirements to receive early release.

The problems stem from a policy change made a year ago that no longer allows inmates to live and work outside the secured perimeter of the prisons, the report said.

“If the Board of Parole requires an offender to work outside the fence as a prerequisite for release, but the Department of Corrections’ policy prevents the offender from doing so, one can safely draw the conclusion that the releases of many offenders will be delayed,” Angrick said. “That will undoubtedly increase incarceration costs for the state of Iowa.”

The Oversight Committee will attempt to organize a public meeting with the corrections department, said Rep. Vicki Lensing, D-Iowa City, co-chairwoman of the committee.

janchavarie Early Release, Inmate Programs, Iowa

The city’s high-risk parolees may soon be subject to additional oversight and receive job training and other assistance intended to prevent them from returning to prison. Story in the San Bernardino Sun.

The new programs, however, would probably not be offered to inmates now being set free early under legislation intended to ease pressure on California’s strained budgets.

“The low-end offenders are being cut loose,” said Kent Paxton, an aide to San Bernardino Mayor Pat Morris.

In San Bernardino County, the Sheriff’s Department has thus far released 404 inmates from its four jails, spokeswoman Arden Wiltshire said. The department has also ended the commitments of 244 offenders who were sentenced to work release or subjected to electronic monitoring.

In addition, some 6,500 state prisoners may be released without being subjected to standard parole requirements.

The Morris administration, working with Cal State San Bernardino personnel and California prison officials, have sought during the past few years to create new programs focused on preventing ex-convicts from re-offending.

The basic idea behind the proposals is that former inmates, who typically leave prison with $200 and a host of personal problems, require various services such as schooling, job training and substance-abuse care to make the jump from felon to reformed citizen.

The ideas have languished, however, because of a lack of money from Sacramento. That could change within the next few months, but prisoners set free under the current early-release push are not likely to be eligible for the new programs. Nonviolent offenders will not be subject to same parole requirements as more dangerous inmates.

What that means is low-risk offenders are being released from jail at a time when it’s difficult enough for those without criminal records to find jobs. In San Bernardino, unemployment is around 19 percent, Paxton said.

Paxton said city officials have met with San Bernardino Employment and Training Agency personnel to discuss how $200,000 in federal funding could be used to keep ex-inmates out of the ranks of unemployed.

“They’re actually going to be using those funds to find employers who would be willing to help hire or train those guys,” Paxton said. “They’ve got parolees coming into their office every day.”

“Not many employers are ready to take a chance on people who admit to a conviction on their job applications,” said Kim Carter, the director of the nonprofit Time for Change Foundation. “You can see time and time again when we’ve had employment fairs for people who are coming home from prison, trying to find a job, the employer participation is very low.”

The new programs that could soon be enacted to deal with high-risk parolees are built around Day Reporting Centers.

Cal State San Bernardino and the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation are on the brink of a $1.2 million deal to create such a facility in San Bernardino, said Carolyn Eggleston, director of the campus’ Center for the Study of Correctional Education.

The Day Reporting Center, Eggleston and Paxton said, is intended to serve only ex-inmates who lived in San Bernardino before being incarcerated.

A location has not been established, but Paxton said the plan is to put the facility in an industrial area away from homes. He said the center will enhance safety because parolees required to report there will not be on the streets for part of the day.

Paxton is also working on an application for a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.

The grant proposal is likely to be presented to the City Council on March 1. The government makes the grants available for programs such as job placement, substance abuse treatment and mental health care. And even more help could be on the way.

State Sen. Gloria Negrete- McLeod, D-Montclair, introduced a bill Monday to create a re-entry program in San Bernardino County.

Cal State San Bernardino is expected to factor heavily into such a program if McLeod’s bill becomes law and the Legislature provides funding. Eggleston and her colleagues are seeking state funds for a program called Crest – Community Reentry Education/ Employment Services and Training Center – which they envision as a comprehensive effort to aid ex-prisoners.

janchavarie CA San Bernardino County, Inmate Programs, Parole

A board that oversees vocational training and work programs in California prisons has voted to stop allowing undocumented immigrant inmates set for deportation to participate. News reported in the Sacramento Bee.

California Prisons Industry Authority spokesman Tom Collins said the aim of the Prison Industry Board action Thursday is to “ensure that the effective vocational training that CalPIA provides is first applied to inmates who will return to California’s communities following their parole, rather than training individuals who will not.”

The certification program, established in its current form in 1982, provides training and jobs in the manufacturing and agricultural industries for inmates in 22 prisons across the state.

Approximately 427 of the 5,700 inmates now participating are under an Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold and will be deported once their sentence is completed. Fifty-two of the 727 inmate workers enrolled in certification programs are also under an ICE hold, according to a staff report recommending the change.

Collins said he did not know why inmates with ICE holds were not previously deemed ineligible for the program but that the recommendation for the change came up as the board was exploring options for lowering costs and improving the effectiveness of the program.

Recidivism rates for inmates who participated in the program are significantly lower than inmates who do not – 12 percent of certification program participants paroled in fiscal 2007-2008 reoffend, compared with 42 percent of the general prison population paroled during that time, according to the report.

The report also estimated that limiting the program to inmates eligible for parole in California could translate to fewer inmates reoffending and a savings of $784,000 a year in corrections costs.

“The Board’s action allows CalPIA to focus on what is best for the taxpayers of California,” Collins wrote in an e-mail.

“CalPIA would welcome funds from any government, foreign or otherwise as allowed by law to pay for vocational training of inmates who will subsequently be deported.”

The change takes effect March 1, though undocumented inmate workers now enrolled will be allowed to complete the program.

janchavarie California, Illegal Aliens, Inmate Programs

While re-entry and skill-building programs offered by the New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJDOC) at its 11 prisons are heavily used and generally viewed favorably by inmates, many anticipate a difficult return to society due to their underlying health conditions and concerns about finances and support systems. Story reported in the R&D Magazine.

To improve their chances for success in the community, a Rutgers researcher recommends that NJDOC adopt a policy of universal re-entry preparedness during each inmate’s mandatory minimum term and a reallocation of funding to increase skill-building capacity on-site rather than in ultimately more costly halfway house programs.

Rutgers Professor Nancy Wolff, director of the Center for Behavioral Health Services and Criminal Justice Research, reaches those conclusions in a new study, Re-entry Readiness of Men and Women Leaving New Jersey Prisons. “Approximately 10,000 men and women leave New Jersey prisons each year. Many of them return to jail and prison for parole violations or new convictions within days, months or years post-release,” Wolff observed. She added that the criminal justice system’s current emphasis to “stop the revolving prison door” is on re-entry preparedness, with special funding under the federal Second Chance Act set aside to improve re-entry services around the country.

“While re-entry-related funding is flowing into states, its target efficiency and ultimate effectiveness in terms of public safety depend on whether it goes to the right people in the right places and in the right ways,” Wolff explained. “For this, it is critical to know the population – its needs, strengths and resources.”

Wolff conducted a Re-entry Readiness Survey from June through August 2009 of 4,000 men and women in the state’s prisons due for release within 24 months. Among the findings:

• “A sizable minority” of soon-to-be-released respondents had chronic health and/or mental health problems or chronic pain that would require follow-up treatment.
• A majority would be released with drug-related convictions that will constrain their ability to receive cash assistance, food stamps and public housing.
• More than one-third had no one helping them find housing or a job.
• More than one-quarter reported their ability to manage money, work for a living, be a responsible adult and control drug or alcohol problems as fair or poor.

Despite these impediments to success upon release, many respondents viewed favorably and utilized NJDOC re-entry and skill-building programs:

• Nearly 70 percent reported receiving needed behavioral health services.
• Nearly 70 percent knew about the STARS (Successful Transition and Re-entry Series) program; 80 percent of STARS enrollees or graduates rated the experience good or higher and would encourage a peer to enroll.
• More than 80 percent admitted to social functioning skill programs rated instruction and materials good or higher.
• More than 87 percent of participants in educational and vocational programs rated instruction and materials good or higher.

To meet the twin goals of effectively preparing soon-to-be-released prisoners to “make good” and to protect the public, the department must re-examine how it spends limited funds dedicated to re-entry-related services, Wolff said. The report recommends that the skill-preparedness of inmates be maximized during their mandatory minimum terms.

Currently, NJDOC provides less than half the functioning, educational and vocational skill-building services needed by the soon-to-be-released population. To reduce recidivism and chances of compromising public safety, Wolff recommends creating a Re-entry Preparedness Checklist at all prisons that would measure key skills and resources expected upon release and monitor the progress of individual inmates toward these goals. Results would be posted on the department’s website.

She also advocates for increased funding and skill-building capacity within NJDOC to the scale of need of prisoners during their mandatory minimum sentence, and to establish re-entry preparedness standards to determine if an inmate is eligible for parole consideration upon completion of his or her mandatory minimum term.

The research also finds that by keeping more re-entry-related services on site, rather than outsourced to halfway houses that provide community-based residential treatment for a minority of released inmates, NJDOC can accrue considerable savings. The FY 2009 budget allocated about $61 million for residential services that support an average daily halfway house population of more than 2,600 people.

“While it is often argued that a community-based halfway house bed is cheaper than a prison bed, this is true only if the services provided by the halfway house could not be provided by the Corrections Department while the inmate was serving the mandatory minimum term,” Wolff said. “Adding off-site re-entry preparedness costs to the back end of a mandatory minimum sentence term adds $23,000 per year per inmate.”

Wolff added that reduced reliance on residential service providers will free up additional funds for on-site re-entry preparedness programming and pay for a Re-entry Preparedness Performance Monitoring System. She also called for a Community Service Vouchering program that will enable parolees to buy residential, vocational and treatment services as needed in the communities to which they are returning.

“Contracting for residential rehabilitation services has resulted in a concentration of services in such urban areas as Camden, Newark and Trenton,” Wolff said. “A vouchering system is consistent with community reinvestment strategies and goals to distribute service capacity more evenly across the state.”

janchavarie Inmate Programs, New Jersey, Re-Entry

In what could be claimed an innovative approach to rehabilitation, an Indian prison is offering its inmates commutation of sentences for completing a three-month yoga course. Reported by the Xinhua News Agency.

According to the prison authorities, more than 400 inmates have enrolled themselves for the yoga course introduced by the Gwalior Jail in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, the successful completion of which will see their prison terms reduced by 36 days, and some 68 are set for early release.

“We are running yoga classes in many jails. The basic objective to practice yoga in jails is to help the inmates to master the art, bust the stress, anger management and to keep them fit,” Sanjay Mani, Inspector-General of Prisons in Madhya Pradesh, told the media in state capital Bhopal.

“We offer remission of sentence to prisoners who admit themselves for educational courses and yoga will be covered in the remission,” he added.

Yoga exponents have welcomed the move.

“Yoga helps to control the mind, create self-awareness and in the process helps you to achieve mental and emotional well being in addition to physical fitness. It encompasses within its purview factors that contribute to good health and vitality,” said Romen Roy Chowdhury, a foremost recession yoga exponent who teaches in Delhi and Mumbai.

“Yoga inculcates discipline in temperament, soothes the turbulent mind through meditation, and helps you to focus and channelise our lives,” he added.

In fact, Gwalior Jail is not the only one which has introduced the yoga course. The Tihar Jail in the national capital last year introduced yoga to cut stress levels inside prison.

Tihar authorities have made an hour-long yoga session in the open gardens mandatory for inmates and the policemen, under the supervision of a trainer.

“The yoga session will be held between 07:00 a.m. and 08:00 a.m. . The inmates are more excited than we are. Earlier, they were holding yoga sessions on their own. After we saw their enthusiasm, we decided to make more formal arrangements,” Tihar Jail official Sunil Gupta had said.

janchavarie Early Release, India, Inmate Programs

California’s recidivism rate is second to none (60 percent for adult inmates). At the forefront of preventing recently released inmates from becoming just another statistic is San Francisco-based PHATT Chance Reentry Program, a place where last February, Thomas Christian underwent a process that he assures turned his life around. Story from New America Media.

Christian, 45, had been incarcerated for drug-related crimes on more than one occasion. But in October 2008, after having been released from a Nevada State prison, he made his way back to his hometown of San Francisco in hopes of a fresh start.

He soon found that the transition from captivity to free-living encompassed numerous ups and downs.

“At first, you appreciate your liberties a lot more, but one of the main downsides to this transition is adjusting to not having a built-in structure instilled upon you in prison. I was being told what to do all the time,” recounted Christian.

According to a 2008 Report from the California Department of Corrections, throughout a three-year span, 60 percent of adult inmates in California re-engaged in criminal activity and were returned to prison. That same year, more than half of its inmate population arrived after violating their parole. Two years ago, Christian was among those re-incarcerated.

Once in San Francisco, a parole officer recommended Christian to the Northern California Service League – a non-profit organization that works inside and outside jails and prisons – which then referred him to PHATT Chance Reentry Program.

“It’s been a constant blessing ever since,” affirmed Christian who has been a client of the rehabilitation and housing center for more than a year.

Providing a way out
In 2004 Armando Martinez, 56, and George Turner joined forces to create PHATT Chance Reentry Program, a secondary treatment program for individuals struggling to reintegrate themselves into society. “We reach out and try to cover all the bases so the person has the best chance to turn their life around,” explained Martinez, deputy program director of the agency.

PHATT Chance works in collaboration with several organizations to provide housing, food, drug rehabilitation, anger management classes, recovery meetings, job training and education for those undergoing personal struggles. Christian underwent a 90-day drug rehabilitation program as an outpatient while living at a PHATT Chance house.

Clients are housed across three transition homes-two in San Francisco and one in Oakland-operated by a staff of eight. There are approximately 40 people currently living in the transition homes.

Most clients are referred to PHATT Chance by other similar organizations, or find their way to the agency through the penal system, county jails and word-of-mouth recommendations.

“We get letters from guys in prison who want to join us,” said Martinez. “And if they’re serious, we bring them in.”

Approximately 90 percent of PHATT Chance’s clients were recently released from a correctional facility. The rest are students seeking assistance.

Among those students is Mike (whose last name was witheld for confidentiality), a 28-year-old Native American male who spent four years at one of the San Francisco houses after being referred by Friendship House, a non-profit that provides housing and substance-abuse treatment to Native Americans.

He turned to PHATT Chance for guidance and was offered a place to live as long as he attended school and maintained his grades. The organization is a fierce advocate of education.

A 2005 report released by the Institute for Higher Education Policy found a direct correlation between educational attainment and recidivism rates. Results suggest that after being released from prison, the higher the inmate’s education, the less likely they will be to relapse into criminal behavior.

The young man who once arrived with a rather bleak future was transformed into the reflection of the program’s vision. In the spring of 2010, Mike will begin his first semester at UC Berkeley.

“We were going to get him into Stanford, but he changed his mind. He already moved out of the house and is on his way to becoming a lawyer for his native tribe,” said Marti-nez with a jubilant tone.

“When he came to realize his vision, he never waivered. He stuck to it, persevered and stayed the course. A lot of guys crumble when they are put under pressure. He didn’t do that,” he added.

Birds of a feather
Martinez’ background is similar to the individuals he helps. At the age of 13, he was homeless on the streets of San Francisco; an episode that led him to severe drug use and impending self-destruction.

Years later, he was brought to the now defunct Narcotics Education League, a center that once helped former Latino ex-convicts re-enter society.

“When I was a kid growing up, I had no guidance: there was no one there for me,” Martinez said. “I don’t want people to make the same mistakes I made. That is why I got into this business. Because when I was in my addiction I didn’t know a way out. But someone saw something in me that I couldn’t see in myself.” Like Christian, Martinez was incarcerated for the sale of narcotics.

Christian was first incarcerated in 2005 for possession and sale of drugs. He was then released and re-incarcerated in 2007, serving 14 months in the California state prison system under the same charge. “Being hooked on drugs is a self-imposed prison,” Martinez explained. “It takes work to stay out of jail.”

In 2008 the CDCR reported that, 18.2 percent of incarcerated adults in California are there due to drug-related offenses. Drug related crimes also made up 32 percent of offenses by felons first released to parole “We get a lot of people right out of jail who have nowhere to go. But they have five months to show effort and commitment to change,” said Martinez.

For those who qualify, the Northern California Service League funds a five month probationary period at PHATT Chance Reentry Program, where clients are encouraged to create a life plan for themselves and stick to it. If they manage to remain clean, sober, and productive, they are permitted to stay beyond the initial period.

“If they’re making something of themselves and doing good things, they can stay,” Martinez added. “If they are serious about their recovery and moving forward with their life, our doors are open for them. We’ll help them go forward. (But) If they’re just not doing anything, then they have to go and make a spot for somebody who is serious about changing their life.”

As soon a client arrives, they undergo an intense evaluation to determine what their needs are: mentoring, job training, education, etc. Unlike other similar transitional programs, at PHATT Chance, people leave when they are ready.

He believes programs within incarceration facilities-as well as those that commence once released-monitor individuals to the point where they are simply unable to make life decisions for themselves.

“You really don’t have to think or take responsibility for yourself. So when you get back out into society, you’re lost all over again,” he said.

But at PHATT Chance, individuals are taught responsibility while being given significant room for individual growth. Christian added, “Back then, I was doing it more for them. Now, I’m doing this for me.”

Christian explained, “This program gives you the time and space to do you. Other programs try to do so many things to you, but this one helps bring out the best of what is in you.”

Because this is a fairly new organization, their success rate still remains to be accurately determined, but in the big picture-according to Martinez-more than 50 percent of individuals leave the program prepared to reintegrate themselves back into society.

“When they leave here, they’re either in school or working,” he added.

A population underserved
Of the 171,161 inmates in California’s correctional facilities, approximately 17,000 or 10 percent are in counties surrounding the Bay Area. The combined total inmate population for San Francisco and Alameda counties-the area in which PHATT Chance operates-is 6,133 or 3.5 percent of California’s total inmate population.

According to the CDCR, in 2006 there were about 2,200 individuals on parole in San Francisco alone. Of that total, nearly 20 percent entered treatment centers, leaving the remaining 80 percent with limited support while transitioning to free living.

A chance to give back

By September of 2009, Christian was asked to join the organization’s staff. Like Martinez, he also wants to devote his life to helping others move forward.

“(In) some of these guys, I see a part of myself at the time of my recovery. It helps me look at things from a whole different window. It helps me deal with the same population I’ve dealt with all of my life, just from a different perspective: giving instead of taking. And it really feels good to be a part of that,” said Christian.

Christian acknowledges that helping run PHATT Chance may often present a challenge. This is where the collision between the forces of inner-conflict, institutionalization, and a new set of principles occurs. PHATT Chance is the nexus of that transition. They are the first to deal with individuals’ emotional hurdles and the habits accumulated while locked up in prison.

Christian hopes to continue growing along with PHATT Chance. He describes his new lifestyle with renewed enthusiasm: “I go out there and walk the streets. I see the police and I’m not trippin,’ I see all the street guys and they don’t know me! You know what I mean? It feels good!”

janchavarie CA San Francisco, Inmate Programs, Re-Entry

Anticipation for Mt. Vernon’s first re-entry program is building as the date of the event inches closer. “I’m excited,” said Paul Carlson, District 5 parole superintendent for the Illinois Department of Corrections. “This is going to be a really good thing for the offenders and the city of Mt. Vernon.” Reoirted in the Register-News.

The Mt. Vernon Southern Illinois Re-Entry Summit is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 9 at the Rolland W. Lewis Community Building at Veteran’s Memorial Park.

The event, the first of its kind in the King City area, is restricted to current state or federal detainees and certain citizens on parole or probation, Carlson said.

“This is a community expo of the necessary services to guide and assist the people of your community who never want to return to prison,” information states.

The event will be patrolled by parole officers and other officials in the building and parking lot to keep it secure, Carlson said.

Participants will be walked through a series of tables with volunteers from Southern Illinois University, he said. The detainees, parolees and others will have the opportunity to have an HIV test taken, speak with counselors about the issues they are facing or will be facing once they leave jail or prison.

“They’ll sit at a table with an SIU student and fill out a questionnaire about what they want, what they need,” Carlson said.

The participants will also get the opportunity to practice interview and resume skills, Carlson said.

Terri DeNeal, representative of UCAN of Southern Illinois, said the participants will also have an opportunity to get a state ID from the Secretary of State’s Office’s mobile unit. She said UCAN is funding the opportunity.

“The most important thing at this point is you can’t have any gaps,” DeNeal told participants at a planning meeting earlier this week. “I’m so tired of seeing people slip through the cracks. You know about something in this community that I don’t know about. All the puzzle pieces are in this community, and it just hasn’t been put together.”

DeNeal said the reason Mt. Vernon had been picked for the upcoming summit was because business owners and prominent members of the community had contacted her, and it was where she felt it needed to happen.

“I can’t say how important this is,” she said. “This is about public safety. Everyone who is in prison, this is probably not their first offense. That means there are multiple victims. We have to stop that. It’s about getting them on the right track.”

Carlson cited the example of a young person he met through his job who he saw later after the person had gotten out of prison.

“He was studying at SIU,” Carlson said. “When he saw me, he said, ‘The things you say are true. I got a job. I’m participating in school. I have never, ever felt this way about myself.’”

Summit organizers are still looking for businesses and services to participate in the event, especially community churches. To help, call Terri DeNeal at the UCAN office at 618-942-4710 or e-mail sirgmtvernon@aol.com.

janchavarie IL Jefferson County, Inmate Programs, Re-Entry

Sure, they’d rather be fishing.But that’s not an option when you’re locked up 24/7. Instead, inmates serving time for sexual assault have to be content making fishing rods. There aren’t many trout streams in prison. Story, with additional photos, in the Colorado Springs Gazette.

Rods start at $80, but many of the custom bass-fly-spin-salmon-crank rods sell for $600 to $1,200 through the shop at Arrowhead Correctional Center, a minimum-security prison in Fremont County.

“It’s a coveted job,” inmate Mark Iverson said.

And time-consuming. It takes 80 to 100 hours to make some rods. The shop makes about 100 composite and 10 bamboo poles a year. The inmates also repair rods and tie flies.

For the prison, it’s cheap labor. For the inmates, who earn a basic pay of about 60 cents a day, it’s a chance to learn a skill — and to dream.

The rod shop started three years ago at the suggestion of an Arrowhead inmate. It is one of 55 work programs managed by Colorado Correctional Industries, or CCI, a self-funded division of the Colorado Department of Corrections.

About 1,700 inmates are employed in CCI programs. Inmates make credenzas, dorm furniture, file cabinets, conference tables, clothes, linens, trash bags and car tags. Some milk cows, train dogs and tame wild horses.

The programs have the double benefit of making money and reducing inmate idleness. “It’s to teach inmates and work inmates,” Arrowhead greenhouse manager Dave Block said.

“It is a management tool; they like working for us,” CCI director Steve Smith said. And taxpayers should like it, too.

“Last year, we generated $65 million in revenue,” Smith said. “It amounts to saving taxpayers about $7.5 million a year in supervision and programming costs.”

Last year’s revenue produced a profit of $250,000, which was reinvested in CCI programs.

“We are always looking for new ideas,” Smith said. “The more inmates working, the better the department likes it. We could easily employ another 2,000 if we had the programs.”

At Arrowhead, about 115 inmates work in greenhouse programs that include raising tilapia fish and running a flower shop. About 10 inmates work in the rod shop.

“Everything is top-of-the-line and handmade,” Block said. “From fiddleback maple to canary wood, there are about 25-plus different kinds of wood. We have over 1,000 different styles of tapers.”

Most of the rods are sold via mail-order from the prison Web site. But they also can be found in some unlikely places, such as the gift shop at St. Thomas More Hospital in Canon City.

“The last thing I ever figured was they would sell fishing poles at a hospital,” Block said. “We sold 10 so far in the last three months.”

Fishing is a new trade for Jack Serbis, 50, a cowboy serving 10 years to life. “They had to teach me from scratch. They have high standards. I spend a lot of time redoing things,” he said. “It’s a productive way to spend your time. It gives you time to think.”

David Farber, 38, was a construction worker before locked up on a 21-year sentence. “I like the freedom to be creative. I’m learning a trade I can take out of here,” he said. “I can’t wait to get out of here. I’m very ashamed for what I did.”

Before he moved to Colorado and was incarcerated, Iverson did a lot of fishing in the Seattle area. “Even though I can’t be there, I can still be part of it, too,” he said.

janchavarie Inmate Programs

More than 2 million people are incarcerated in the United States, largely because half, or more, of them return to prison after they get out. Educating prisoners, preparing them for re-entry into society, is one of the best ways to reduce the prison population and the enormous economic and social costs associated with it. Opinions offered by Shannon Ladel Keys, 38, and Everett Rocklin Jackson, 44, are serving life sentences at Ryan Correctional Facility in Detroit (in the Detroit Free Press).

In Michigan, prisons consume $2 billion of the state’s annual general fund. Each prisoner costs $35,000 a year to incarcerate. There’s that much less money for health care, schools and the building and maintenance of our infrastructure. Recidivism also creates more crime victims at the hands of non-rehabilitated repeat offenders.

More than 95% of the state’s nearly 50,000 inmates will eventually get out. Too many — if not taught skills and new ways of thinking — will continue to find a way out through the blur of a crack sack or down the barrel of a gun.

Currently, state and federal efforts to educate prisoners are inadequate. Before 1994, prisoners could use federal Pell grants to pay for college classes. But Congress and the Clinton administration prohibited inmates from receiving the grants, even though prisoners received less than 1% of them.

In Michigan, prisoners are allowed to earn a GED and a certificate in one trade class. These classes create a thirst for higher learning and give many prisoners their first real sense of accomplishment. Unfortunately, their progress wanes when they find the doors to higher learning slammed in their faces.

A few of us have been fortunate to attend a college sociology class at Ryan Correctional Facility through the University of Michigan-Dearborn’s Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. The Department of Corrections prohibits the use of state money to pay for post-secondary education, but Inside-Out doesn’t cost taxpayers a dime. Comerica and other private donors cover the costs of textbooks and materials. College programs like this not only provide information, but also foster new ways of thinking and promote personal development. The state should provide them as part of its investment in prisoner re-entry.

As Malcolm X said, education is a passport to the future. National studies show that college classes cut recidivism by 30% or more. That would make a pretty good investment for state taxpayers. Are we a nation that rehabilitates and rebuilds those who make mistakes, or are we a nation that believes in revenge above redemption?

janchavarie Inmate Education, Inmate Programs, Michigan

Jerome Derricks says he heard God’s call early. He only wishes he’d answered sooner. By the time he did, he was serving a life sentence for murder in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly known as Angola. Reported by the Associated Press in The New York Times.

”I ran from my calling all my life,” said Derricks, 44. ”But I like to put it like this: God finds people wherever they go.”

At Angola, God has been finding men regularly. So far about 150 of them have earned Bachelor of Arts degrees from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and another 100 are on track to graduate. Derricks was a member of the first group of graduates, getting his degree in 2005.

”It was an idea that just grew and has kept on growing,” said Norris C. Grubbs, the seminary professor that oversees the Angola program. ”It’s not easy. They’re taking the same program our students at the seminary take: 126 hours and the requirements for passing are the same.”

Since starting the program at Angola, the Baptist seminary has begun similar ones in the Mississippi and Georgia prisons. Angola and seminary officials believe they are the only full-time, college-accredited programs for ministers in the nation’s prisons.

Such programs are not tracked overall in state prisons. Federal prisons have nothing comparable, a spokeswoman said.

There are about 5,200 men at Angola, an 18,000-acre former plantation. About 90 percent of them will die there because of the length of their sentences, and many will be buried in the bleak Point Lookout Cemetery on the grounds. It’s the price Louisiana extracts for its most violent crimes, like murder, rape, kidnapping and armed robberies.

For years Angola was the bloodiest prison in the country. In 1951, to protest the brutal conditions, 31 prisoners sliced their Achilles tendons so they couldn’t be sent to work.

In 1995 — the year Burl Cain became the warden — there were 799 reported inmate attacks, and another 192 attacks on guards.

”It was bad,” Cain said. ”We had murders, we had attacks, we had suicides, and it was all because of a lack of hope.”

The dire fate of some of the prison’s inmates is highlighted by Gerald Bordelon, who was scheduled to be executed Thursday for killing his 12-year-old stepdaughter. The execution would be Louisiana’s first since 2002.

Looking for ways to restore hope for men who had little to look forward to, Cain instituted a number of programs and clubs — there are art clubs, a Dale Carnegie self-improvement program, crafts clubs — aimed at helping the prisoners develop skills and interests.

But Cain, a man of strong religious beliefs, believed faith-based programs and what he calls moral rehabilitation were the best answer. When a federal Pell Grant that funded a previous general education program ended, the prison reached out to the Baptist seminary.

At Angola, everyone has a job. For some it’s working in the fields or in the prison hospice program. For those enrolled in the seminary, it’s going to school.

Every weekday, the students crowd into classrooms to study toward a college degree that is accredited the same as any four-year university.

”It is not easy,” said Charles Varnado, 65, who has been at Angola for 37 years for murder. ”You have math, and languages and science and you have to work and learn them or else.”

Prisoners for the course are selected on a number of criteria, prison officials said. Religious affiliation is not one of them, Cain said. He points out that a Muslim prisoner completed the course and received his degree.

The American Civil Liberties Union has gone to court several times over religious matters at Angola, but the seminary program is not one of them.

”We are certainly not opposed to the offering of educational opportunities,”’ said Marjorie Esman, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana. ”The problem is if it is limited to a specific group.”

Graduates of the seminary now officiate at the prison’s 18 inmate churches and also do one-on-one ministry and grief counseling.

The prison has 23 graduates of the seminary who act as missionaries in eight satellite prisons in Louisiana.

Derricks’ church is at the prison reception center, where new prisoners are first held, and he ministers to the 98 men on death row.

”Not every preacher that comes here knows how to reach men here,” Derricks said, referring to a minister who told death row inmates that they ‘’should get right with God before they got the bug juice squirted in their veins.”

”When I talk to them, they know I’m for real because of what I went through to reach this point,” he said.

The program costs about $50,000 a year, Cain said. It is financed by the seminary, the Louisiana Baptist Convention and private donations.

At Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, Miss., there 75 students enrolled and 35 have already graduated from the associate degree program.

At Georgia State Prison the first associate degrees were awarded in December.

”We made mistakes and we ended up here,” said Paul Will, 36, a New Jersey man serving a life sentence at Angola for aggravated kidnapping. ”But our lives haven’t ended. We can still do some good in this world.”

janchavarie Inmate Programs, Louisiana, Religious Issues

For the past 10 years, Randy Bland has held a job that might make some people nervous.He oversees the mill and cabinetry class at Sierra Conservation Center, a program that teaches inmates the basics of the cabinet-making trade. News reported by the Union Democrat.

That’s 27 felons bearing power tools. “I love it,” Bland, 51, said, standing in the kitchen that his wife, Susan, designed and he created in their Sonora home. “It’s a satisfying thing. I’d do it until I retired.”

However, deep cuts in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation budget mean that this, a graphic design class and a print shop all will be axed from the SCC curriculum by the end of January.

The Department of Corrections saw a $1.2 billion budget cut in 2009, forcing the department to pick certain programs to be reworked or discarded, according to spokeswoman Peggy Bengs.

Adult programs and rehabilitation programs took the brunt of it, as two-thirds of their budgets disappeared. Cutting certain classes, like mill and cabinetry, on a statewide scale saves the department $250 million, Bengs said.

“The state is emphasizing programs that reduce recidivism,” Bengs said. “We’re looking at vocational programs linked to job market demands that take 12 months to complete. Those reduce recidivism by 9 percent.”

The programs that survived budget cuts tended to be those that provide certification on top of satisfying the job market in the area where prisoners spend their parole periods.

The state prioritizes programs that can provide those certificates, Bengs said. Those include the automotive or welding programs, among others.

In Bland’s view, the mill and cabinetry program provides his students not only skills that can be used in a number of areas, but also valuable life skills that prepare people who haven’t had normal social interaction for the workplace.

“It can be tough,” he said. “You have a small shop and a lot of people. Personalities can clash.”

And part of the training is learning to work with people of different races, personality types and backgrounds. Learning a trade teaches them confidence, he said, a commodity a person doesn’t have a lot of when they are released with the stigma of having served time.

Bland created the class using state-mandated curriculum and textbooks, but put a heavy dash of his own hands-on style in to make sure his students learned. Students who had been around longer were put in charge of projects and given a team of less-experienced students to encourage peer teaching, Bland said.

He was there to supervise, answer questions and solve problems, both with the cabinets and between the inmates. He also made sure the shop had what it needed to be a good learning environment.

At this point, he said, the shop is state-of-the-art.

“It’s a wonderful shop, the state has been kind to me,” Bland said. “They put you in there and you make it what it is. You decide what to buy, what kind of machinery and how you run it.”

To get some of the supplies, Bland wrote grants and lobbied for resources.

The happy beneficiaries of the program include not just prisoners, but also budget-weary state and local agencies that need the services the program provides but can’t afford — like the Mi-Wuk-Sugar Pine Fire Protection District.

Fire Chief Randy Miller had a problem. The department needed a new firehouse, but it had a $20,000 budget to create a multi-purpose 1,300-square-foot building.

“You pay for stuff and then you blink your eyes and that budget is gone,” Miller said.

By using Bland’s shop, the fire department only had to pay for the materials needed to make the cabinets for the kitchen, saving a hefty sum of money for quality work, Miller said.

“For what it cost us, there is no way I could get this stuff, no way,” he said. “We had them put a cabinet in that we’ll put a counter top on. When it came back, we had to nudge that thing in there. It fit perfectly.”

Now that the program is ending, Bland is already getting calls for cabinet work in the county. He owned a business, Precision Woodworking, in the area from 1982 to 2000 when he quit to work in the prisons. But he’s not sure if he wants to launch a new business at this point in his life.

He doesn’t have a shop, and the shop at the prison will be dismantled. Equipment that can’t be used by the Education Department as a result of reductions will be given away to other institutions that request the equipment, Bengs said.

“If I’m laid off, I’m going to have to do something,” Bland said. “It’ll be low key.”

janchavarie Budgets, California, Inmate Programs

CONS are being ordered to clear snow and ice off Scotland’s roads and pavements instead of being sent to jail. News reported in the Daily Record.

The move was revealed as Scotland struggled back to work through the big freeze yesterday.

Desperate councils, who are under intense pressure because of the weather, have drafted in gangs of criminals as part of their efforts.

Last night, the Scottish government said offenders on council-run community service schemes had been involved in the clear-up since the festive period.

A spokesman said: “Here offenders are doing something necessary, rather than sitting in prison, giving nothing back to the peo ple they have harmed.”

Harriet Dempster, president of the Association of Directors of Social Work, said: “It’s a time for all hands to the pump and it’s a time where community service squads can, under supervision, make a positive payback: reducing risks of older people falling and enabling people to get out and about and back to normal .”

The government were unable to say how many offenders were involved or where t hey were at work. But justice secretary Kenny MacAskill confirmed he would be visiting one of the schemes in Dunfermline tomorrow.

Confirmation of the move came after a call from former Scots Tory leader David McLetchie earlier yesterday. He said: “It would make sense for those criminals who have been sentenced to repay their debt to society through community service to be put to work in clearing the snow and ice.”

A Scottish g overnment spokesman said: “People on communit y service orders have been out clearing the streets for the past few weeks.

“This type of work demonstrates clearly the potential for work by offenders in the community to make Scotland safer.”

janchavarie Inmate Programs, Scotland, Work Release

Sister Amy Amadeus McKenna stood outside of St. Gabriel’s Roman Catholic Church greeting parishioners as they arrived for Sunday morning Mass. But before the last arrived, she was northbound on the Saw Mill River Parkway, headed for another service held about an hour away at the women’s maximum security prison in Bedford Hills, N.Y. Story from the Riverdale Press.

Accompanied by church parishioners Helen Jansson and Pat O’Malley, Sister Amy, as she’s known, made her way through a metal detector and several checkpoints. They arrived at the prison chapel a few moments before about 30 prison “residents” — as the sister prefers to call them — sat down for a service smaller and less ornate than St. Gabe’s.

The visit was part of St. Gabriel’s prison ministry, a program formed in 2002 by the church’s then-pastor, Msgr. Thomas Kelly. After about a year of research to pick a facility, the church settled on Bedford Hills, the state’s only maximum security prison for women. Since then, about 15 members of the congregation have taken turns attending the prison’s Sunday services. They also make additional monthly visits to spend time talking with the inmates.

“I didn’t think of people in prison as worth visiting,” said Ms. Jansson, one of the three who made the trip, adding that being in the program has changed that view. The smiles and warm greetings exchanged between the free and imprisoned were easy evidence of the bonds that have been made.

“Our hope, our goal is to … be a source of encouragement, a source of support,” Sister Amy said, when asked how she thought the prisoners benefited from the visits. “[To know] that there are people outside the prison who really care about them. Who give of their time and their person to be with them, to share two or three hours on a Sunday.”

janchavarie Inmate Programs, NY New York City, Religious Issues

N.J. prisons are teaching inmates job skills to avoid return to life of crime. Story reported by the NJ News.

Leaning back in a chair with his arms crossed, Javier Herrera watched his classmates practice fade haircuts with electric clippers as he described his big plans for a men’s salon in Newark. He’ll offer manicures and stylish haircuts but also provide masculine touches, maybe even a cigar lounge. “A lot of guys are going metro now,” he said. “It’s big.”

For Herrera, 28, opening the salon is not just a business plan, it’s also a lifestyle change. The last time he paid the bills, he did so by selling cocaine — which landed him at Garden State Youth Correctional Facility in Yardville for drug, weapons and resisting arrest offenses.

With more than three years to go until he’s eligible for parole, Herrera is working in the prison barbershop to earn his cosmetology license. “Hair’s always going to grow,” he said. “It’s something you can always make money off of.”

Prison workshops are more than a diversion from the monotony of life behind bars. They can give inmates a head start on one of their biggest and most important challenges: finding jobs after their release.

“That’s what’s going to decide whether you’re going to stay out there or come back in here,” Herrera said.

With 65 percent of New Jersey’s inmates back in jail within five years of their release, state officials are emphasizing job training because employment is a crucial indicator of whether former prisoners will return to a life of crime. The Department of Corrections is spending $26 million on prison education this year, and some legislators are pushing for more funding.
About one-fifth of the state’s inmates, 5,237 men and women, are enrolled in vocational classes, according to department statistics. Another 2,068 are on waiting lists.

But finding work is more difficult than ever, and the state has shed 101,400 private-sector jobs in the last year as it slogs through the recession. In November, just over half of the 13,257 ex-offenders who were under parole supervision and considered viable for employment had jobs.

And always, lurking in the background, is the lure of easy money from selling drugs, a job that doesn’t require a resume or a background check.

That’s what enticed Marquise Allen, 23, when he was released from prison in August of last year. Within a month, he was arrested on drug charges. “There weren’t any jobs calling me back,” he said. “At the end of the day, you gotta do what you gotta do.”

Extra-Curricular Activities
The section of Garden State prison for classrooms is reminiscent of a high school hallway, and colorful signs advertise classes like graphic arts, computers and electronics. Popular ones like Herrera’s cosmetology course can take a year to get into, inmates said.

On a recent weekday, David Fontanez, 29, was one of several students trimming classmates’ hair. “You learn everything. You learn how to curl, perm,” he said. “It’s important to learn something in here and take it out there.”

Fontanez has been locked up three years — his second stint in state prison, this time for burglary and drug possession — and has less than a year left before he can be paroled. “I’m trying not to be 40 and coming back in here,” he said.

Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Mercer) is leading efforts to pump millions of dollars into prison education through legislation intended to reduce recidivism. She says the state will save money in the long run by putting former inmates to work.

Although her bills would cost less than 1 percent of the department’s approximately $1 billion budget, Corrections says that’s cash the department doesn’t have right now. “We recognize that there is always room for improvement,” legislative liaison Michelle Hammel told an Assembly committee on Dec. 3. “We just simply do not have the money to do that.”

Inmates who worked or received training in prison are more likely to find a job when released, according to a 2008 study from the Urban Institute, a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C.

Also, ex-offenders earning at least $10 an hour were half as likely to be re-incarcerated as those making less than $7 an hour, according to the same study, which was conducted in Illinois, Ohio and Texas.

Hunting For Work
There are about 25,500 state inmates in New Jersey, and 14,400 are released each year. Once they hit the streets, it can be a race against time to find them jobs.

“Most inmates come out wanting to do the right thing. When they obtain employment, they fulfill that hope,” said Parole Board Lt. Paul McIntyre, who oversees the agency’s employment efforts. “If after a few months they don’t find employment, that optimism they came out with starts to disappear.”

Without legal work, it becomes more likely an ex-offender will return to crime. “They don’t have any money,” said Vernon Long, who works with former inmates to find jobs. “And the first person that’s going to give them any money is someone they used to do crime with.”

Long runs Opportunities for All in Hamilton, one of 11 day-reporting centers for New Jersey’s parolees. His organization’s database lists 333 companies with job openings, mostly for entry-level positions at car washes, retail stores and factories unhurt by the recession. Long said big retailers like Target and Wal-Mart have programs for hiring ex-offenders, which can earn companies tax credits.

Still, the struggling economy has taken its toll. Some ex-offenders were trained to weatherize homes and then joined a union. But there wasn’t enough work to go around, and they remain unemployed.

Playing Catch-Up
State officials have claimed some success. About 1,500 inmates were enrolled in the Another Chance program, a partnership between several state agencies that provides ex-offenders with job coaches and other services. Officials said participants are 20 percent less likely to be re-arrested within six months of release.

“We’re working with people who don’t have the basic skills to have an interview,” said Wanda Moore, who oversees efforts at the state Attorney General’s Office to re-integrate ex-offenders. “We run up against some of the same problems that contributed to them being incarcerated in the first place.”

Drug sales remain lucrative, too. Anthony Versace, 23, sold LSD despite holding part-time jobs as a cook and ski-lift operator. “I could make what I could in a month in two hours,” said Versace, now an inmate at Garden State prison.

Lenny Ward, director of community programs for the state parole board, said low-level dealers usually can be convinced to give up drugs.

“That’s not exactly a glamorous job, worrying about whether you’re going to be shot or arrested,” he said. “If we can give them a taste of legitimate employment, then we can hook them.”

janchavarie Inmate Programs, New Jersey, Re-Entry

The banal sounds of multiple televisions float down the sterile, white corridors of the Napa County Department of Corrections. Story in the Napa Valley Register.

There are no Christmas trees, lights or stockings here. For inmates, Christmas Day will be like any other day. Last week, however, the inmates received a little splash of holiday color in the form of bags filled with Christmas cards, hot chocolate and cookies donated by Butter Cream Bakery.

“No way!” one inmate exclaimed, at the receipt of a bag. “God bless you,” another called to the men delivering the bags.

Each year, parishioners from local Catholic churches — St. Apollinaris, St. John the Baptist and St. Thomas — work to fill the bags in a program called Cookies with a Prayer. A few church members distributed the 275 bags to the jail inmates and 50 to Juvenile Hall after students at St. John the Baptist School put the care packages together.

For many inmates, it may be the only holiday cheer they see, other than a menu that has some traditional holiday fare.

“It’s basically business as usual,” said Lenard Vare, director of the Napa County Department of Corrections. “Being a correctional facility, there’s not a whole lot we can do.”

Vare said inmate morale dips during the holidays, but just how much depends on the inmate. He noted that relatives of inmates also suffer when close family members are behind bars at a time that most families are gathering.

Jail staff members sometimes act as social workers, or for serious cases, make referrals for inmates to speak with professionals, he said.

“They understand the population they’re dealing with and try to treat them with a lot of dignity and respect,” he said.

Christine Camp, 26, is behind bars now, and said she misses decorating the tree, hanging stockings and putting cookies out for Santa.

She has a 5-year-old who will do those things without her this year, she said. “It hurts.”

Camp has been in and out of jail for much of her life and has spent three Chirstmas holidays behind bars.

For Christmas, her mom is sending her books to read in her effort to acquire her GED.

In the meantime, she was happy to accept a Cookies with a Prayer bag, covered with a drawing from one of the students at St. Apollinaris School.

Tom Kennelly, who with his wife, Susan, coordinates the Detention Ministries of St. John the Baptist and St. Apollinaris parishes, was a federal prosecutor for 10 years and also worked as a defense attorney.

His successful efforts as a prosecutor and unsuccessful work as a defense attorney landed many people in jail, he said.

“I figured it is time to do something positive for these people as a Christian,” he said. “Jesus said that when you visit someone in prison you have visited me.”

Kennelly, who was among those delivering the bags, called the efforts a “corporal work of mercy.”

“These are generally the forgotten people,” he said.

St. John’s also gathers gifts to give inmates’ children. Volunteers delivered those items Saturday and Sunday.

Inmates can mail the Christmas cards included in their bags to their families with postage the jail provides.

DJ Johnson, assistant director of corrections, said the inmates appreciate the effort at a time of year when incarceration can be even more unpleasant than usual.

“Anytime you’re away from your family during the holidays, certainly that’s stressful,” he said.

Suicides and suicide attempts within jails and prisons often rise during the holiday season, he said.

“Showing that someone cares might make a difference,” he said.

Jeffery Main, 28, of Napa, was grateful for the gift. He has spent many Christmases since 2000 in jail, or in the case of last year, prison. “This is kinda getting old,” he said.

He said charges against him have been dismissed and he expects to be paroled in a couple of weeks. But it will be too late for Christmas.

The hardest part of being in jail at the holidays is not being able to see his family or children, he said. “Nobody likes to be away from their loved ones,” Main said.

Jason Slusher, 28, was convicted of assault and will be in jail until March. He’d rather be with family, but as for the holiday plans in jail, he said, “We watch TV and wait for our court dates.”

One bright spot in the monotony is recent news that his girlfriend is pregnant with his child. It’s enough of a incentive to keep him from coming back to jail, he said.

“Hopefully, next Christmas will be different.”

janchavarie CA Napa County, Inmate Programs

Jail, “so far, has been pretty much what I make it,” said Jon, a Nacogdoches County jail inmate, who is among the many who will be spending Christmas this year behind bars. News from the Daily Sentinel.

“I try to keep a good attitude,” he said of his confinement, but added that it’s been hard to accept the realization that he’s going to be there for Christmas. “I saw my mom the other day, and she is going to celebrate Christmas without me. But, she said she’ll keep the tree up for me when I get back. So, that’s good. Hopefully, I’ll keep the positive attitude through (Christmas).”

Scott, another inmate who has previously spent Christmas behind bars but anticipates getting out in time for the holiday this year, recalled his past experiences of the day as a time of “self-resolution” and “change.”

“It’s hard to be away from your family and friends, especially when there ain’t nothing to surround you but iron and steel,” he said. “But, if you have to be here, you’re hopefully in a place like this, where you’re not treated bad.”

While the jail is limited in how it lends itself to the holiday spirit, jail administrator Molly Brown said there are two areas that the jail staff can decorate.

The first is the booking room, which greets staff and inmates with strands of colorful lights and a miniature Christmas tree. The room is used to process inmates and is the location where bonds are made. The other festive area of the county jail is the control room, where the secured doors of the jail are opened and closed. Similar to the booking area, the room is filled with colorful lights and also has a small holiday arrangement on one side as a visible reminder of the approaching holiday.

Nacogdoches County Sheriff Thomas Kerss said in addition to the holiday decor — which is only in places where jail standards will allow it — inmates at the county jail this year will also be able to enjoy a special holiday meal.

Busy at work on the Thursday afternoon lunch, several of the female inmates who will be making this year’s holiday meal said they’ve already begun the prep work.

April Powers, a female inmate who has spent several Christmases in jail, said the jail has been saving and freezing extra corn bread for the past few weeks that will be used for Christmas Day dressing. She said Brown ordered all of the food, and she and the other cooks will start to make the holiday meal for an estimated 180 individuals early Christmas morning. She said she anticipates Brown will help in the kitchen that day, as she did on Thanksgiving.

The Christmas Day menu, which must be approved by the state for nutritional purposes, will include turkey, ham, green beans, corn bread stuffing, yams and gravy.

Powers, whose visiting days are Saturday and Monday, said she will not be able to see her family this Christmas, but she feels like the other women in the kitchen are her family, too, and she’ll be able to spend the day with them.

She said after the meal is prepared and served, she’ll likely go back to her dormitory and play some cards, watch a little TV and participate in a prayer session before she turns in for the night.

“Despite where we are, we’re still blessed,” she said.

Powers and Gwen Wade, another female inmate who works in the kitchen, said a typical day for them starts at 3 a.m. They said they work in the kitchen from 3 a.m. until after lunch and then get to bed by 5:30 or 6 p.m.

Powers said some of the inmates, like herself, are working toward obtaining their GED, but school is out for now, until January.

Kerss said on Christmas Day the TVs stay on a bit longer than usual and there are often a number of local church groups who bring special treats for the inmates, but that is about the extent of anything special the jail is able to do for the inmates.

“A lot of times it may be cookies and thing of that nature that we can distribute to inmates that is a little out of the ordinary from what they experience day to day,” he said. “Other than that, there’s not a whole lot more in the jail setting that you can do.”

janchavarie Inmate Programs, TX Nacogdoches County

Donald Disharoon knows the importance of hope to the inmates of Sussex Correctional Institution as the holidays approach. The Ocean View man spent seven Christmases behind bars and has spent the last 18 years helping those still inside. Story from the Delmarva Now.

“It can be a depressing and lonely time, or it can be a joyful one,” Disharoon said. “It’s your choice.”With Christmas less than a week away, Disharoon is helping volunteers from Gideons International and The Salvation Army distribute Bibles, cookies and other presents to the facility’s 1,150 inmates. “It’s special,” he said. “This is the one day of the entire year they get something good to eat.”

In past years, the prison has hosted a number of different groups that provide outreach programs or perform plays. Chaplain Larry Lilly said much of that did not materialize this season due to the economy. “This is probably the hardest time of the year to be incarcerated,” he said.

But the residents — Lilly does not like to use words like prisoner or inmate — appreciate anything that makes their holidays easier.”Even these little gestures, by The Salvation Army and the Gideons, are meaningful,” he said.

Behind The Walls
Inmate Eric Amaro, who hauls the donations into the prison on a loading truck, said they are proof that he hasn’t been forgotten.”It allows you to realize that people really do care,” he said. “It makes you want to return the favor in the future.”

Now approaching his fourth Christmas behind the walls of SCI, Alfred Simmons said he has settled into a routine.

Together with the inmates he’s grown close with inside, he will cook a “booner” meal. “It’s 50-cent soup, tuna, chips, basically whatever the commissary sells,” Simmons said. Afterward, some share cards or wrap candy bars as presents.

Jackie Ray Lovett plans to get together with some of the prisoners for a Bible reading on Christmas Day. “Even though I’ve been in here a long time, I’m still free in spirit,” said the 61-year-old, who is spending his 27th Christmas behind bars.

Envoy Chas Engel of the Sussex County chapter of The Salvation Army said the prison outreach is important because it looks after people who are easily forgotten.”If you can reach just one of these guys, turn their life around, you may not see them there anymore,” he said. “That’s why we do it.” Engel said it’s important not to push an agenda with the prisoners and to try to uplift them regardless of what they’ve done or what they believe.

“The reason we’re still up for the task is that we don’t push ourselves on anybody,” he said. “We have a good reputation of meeting people where they are; they don’t have to think the way we do to receive our help.”

Every prisoner is a human and has a family, Engel said. They deserve support, like any other.

Not Totally Written Off
Because a 15-minute phone call to his home in Salisbury costs $19, Lovett writes letters to his four children and seven grandchildren. “I keep in regular contact with them, especially this time of year,” he said.

But he doesn’t expect to see them on visitation days. “They just don’t like it here,” he said. “It’s harder on them; it’s like they’re doing time in here with us.”

This Christmas is special for Simmons because it is the first in four years in which he’s able to communicate with his 23-year-old son and two grandchildren. “He grew up while I was in here and it was difficult staying in touch,” he said. “He just kind of went his way.”

The holidays are difficult for Amaro, who has two children at home, but it gives him an opportunity to teach them an important lesson, he said.

“I’m real straightforward with them,” he said. “I tell them that your actions have consequences. This, not being there, is a result of that. It can’t get no plainer than that.”

That there are people willing to help prisoners is proof that forgiveness is possible, Amaro said.”It’s good to know you’re not totally written off,” he said.

janchavarie DE Sussex County, Inmate Programs

It’s a bothersome Christmas song for a prisoner. All that crooning about troubles being miles away. The troubles are everywhere in this room, between the windowless cinder-block walls and under the large, boxy security camera perched near the high ceiling. News reported in The Washington Post.

Inmate No. A0145400 plunks out the song on a 61-key electric piano. He’s a tall, goateed man with glasses who once toured in “Camelot” with Robert Goulet. His voice is strident, clean, an operatic tenor barely contained by the cold quarters of the Alexandria Detention Center.

“Have yourself a merry little Christmas,” sings No. A0145400. “Let your heart be light. From now on our troubles will be out of sight.”

Inmate No. A0058694 starts strumming a guitar he borrowed from a deputy. Six other prisoners join in for the refrain, swaying in their green button-up jumpsuits, for once not thinking How did I wind up here? but rather How did I wind up in a ragtag choir of prisoners that has less than 24 hours to refine a half-dozen holiday standards for a Christmas revue in the jail’s gym for a potentially difficult and uninterested audience?

They practice slowing the tempo to dramatically finish the song, then move on to “This Christmas,” an R&B tune they tackle in the spirit of Boyz II Men. Gentle oohs and aahs underscore the sweet, soulful solo of Darrell Farley, Inmate No. A0123667, who grew up singing in the District chapter of the Gospel Music Workshop of America and used to be an artist and repertoire director for a now-defunct talent firm in Detroit.

Then came troubles. He tried unsuccessfully to raise funds for a business venture, began to forge checks, and has served six months in the Alexandria Detention Center for his latest conviction (bank fraud). And now it’s Christmastime in jail.

“This Christmas will be, a very special Christmas, for me,” he sings, closing out the song to the applause of his fellow singers.

“Ooh, we’re like the Temptations,” says Shawn Street, 35, an Alexandria native who’s in for two-to-three years for drug possession with intent to distribute.

“I guess it’s official,” says Farley, 43. “We’re a group.”

* * *

The group is unlikely. Farley and Street honed their chops in church, belting gospel music by age 5. Henos Fisseha, the 22-year-old with the swagger and frizzy braids, immigrated from Ethiopia at age 5. Six-foot-four Alexandria native Kendrick Mealing, 40, played basketball and installed cable. Five-foot-four José Carbajal, 55, moved from his native Peru to Arlington 33 years ago and cooked in a restaurant to support his family. John Henderson, 35, was a special-education student and became a newspaper sales manager and portrait artist who dabbled in stand-up comedy. The guitarist, Curtis Hillman, 38, experienced the culture shock of moving to the city from southwest Virginia when he was 13 and worked in commercial roofing and architectural design. And the inmate with the operatic tenor, Jeff Dye, was a leading man in regional and community theater, playing the title role in “Sweeney Todd” in Atlanta and touring in “Camelot” in 1998.

Refrain: Then came troubles.

Hillman says he had a rough childhood and got hooked on heroin (he’s in for grand larceny). Carbajal says he resorted to robbery and counterfeiting to help cover the cost of his four daughters’ education. Dye got into meth out of sheer stupidity, he says, and stumbled his way to a drug-trafficking conviction and conspiracy charges.

“I never thought of myself as a person who could be addicted, but I proved myself wrong,” says Dye, 46, who’s originally from Ohio and studied at the Musical Arts Center in Cincinnati. “I don’t know how to explain it. It’s been the most humiliating experience of my entire life.”

Each man’s rap sheet is a different length, trailing different failures and broken relationships. Each man says this moment, in this jail, is a turning point in his life.

Farley has 40 days left in his sentence. Dye has 15 years. They couldn’t be more different on the surface — a bald black man with an ear for R&B and a tall white man with 25 years of hairdressing experience and a heldentenor voice — but their paths crossed when they answered a call for an inmate talent show, which morphed into a Christmas revue with the six other inmates. (”During the holidays it’s a little depressed around here,” says Sheriff Dana Lawhorne. “It’s important to make sure that even though they are locked up, the Christmas spirit isn’t locked out.”)

They had a week to put something together, which is hard to do when everyone’s jailed in different units. Deputies printed sheet music from the Internet. They got to work, running songs when they could align their schedules. They sang and joked and connected in the cell-like activity room with a poster of the word “DREAM” on the wall.

In the music industry, “we’d refer to these guys as raw talent,” Farley muses Thursday morning before their show. “If there’s a desire and raw talent, then there’s the possibility of taking it to the next level.”

* * *

In the gym, their warm-up routine clashes with the hiss of fluorescent lights and the echo of walkie-talkie alerts. Dozens of inmates — each with “PRISONER” stamped in white letters on the back of his jumpsuit — file in, sit down and make a racket. The group settled on a name that morning: Voices of Change.

They sing of silent nights and joyful worlds and the crowd grows quiet. Farley solos on “This Christmas,” drawing shouts of “C’mon boy!” and “That’s right!” from female inmates. A proud smile tugs at the edge of Farley’s mouth, as though he’s back in a Detroit recording studio. No one in the room is ready for Dye to hit the high G in “O Holy Night,” but he’s been preparing himself for this moment, one way or another, all his life.

“Ohhh niiight deee-VIIIIINE!”

The room erupts into a standing ovation before he finishes the note. Dye bows, as he used to do in 5,000-seat concert halls.

The group closes with “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” eight men making a warped Nativity of convicted and alleged drug dealers, thieves and batterers, examples of lives lived selfishly, recklessly, out of balance. But for one moment, this moment: harmony. Troubles out of sight.

janchavarie Inmate Programs, Virginia

This Christmas thousands of inmates will spend the holiday’s behind bars. But a Marathon County program is making sure the inmate’s kids don’t suffer for something they didn’t do. Story, with pictures and video, from WAOW TV9.

Pearl LaBarge is a mother of three but this year she won’t be spending the holidays with her children. Instead she’ll wake up Christmas morning in the Marathon County Jail.

LaBarge says, “It’s not so much that if affects me. It affects them because they look forward to Christmas and presents and me being home so it’s hard.”

Still, her three children will have toys to open this Christmas. It’s all thanks to the program Kids Kount and these volunteers at Greater Wausau Christian Services.

GWCS staff member Sally Scinto-Reinertson says, ”We’re so privileged in our society. We are very privileged, even the poorest people. We should always share our wealth. It says in Hebrew, ‘God is pleased when we share and make sacrifices.’

Kids Kount has been helping the children of Marathon County inmates for twelve years. Just $25 will buy a child 3 to 4 presents, a warm hat and mittens. It’s a small gesture that make a big difference for the kids, the inmates and anyone in the community who can relate to what they’re going through this time of year.

Scinto-Reinertson says, “Every year we have someone coming down to the office and hand us a check and saying when I was a kid 70 years ago, my father was in jail at Christmas and nobody stepped up to the plate to help us. That evokes powerful memories for people and every year someone comes down here and says I’m thrilled to hear about what you’re doing for these kids because I experienced the same thing.”

While Pearl will be here through the first of January, her kids will still feel a small part of their mom Christmas morning.

LaBarge says, ”It helps me because I know they’ll get something from me. If it weren’t for this program I wouldn’t be able to get them anything. They’re getting presents from my mom and other family members, but to get something from me, means a lot to them.”

There are 45 kids this year that will receive gifts. That’s down from 70 last year. Despite the tough economic times, they’ve collected enough money to make sure each child has something to open. They’re wrapping Thursday and will deliver the presents on Saturday.

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