Lauderdale County MI can now use a portion of the money collected from inmate telephone service for the local jail ministry program.
Gov. Haley Barbour signed a bill earlier this month that authorized use of the money. The bill took effect when Barbour signed it.
Lauderdale County’s Good News Jail and Prison Ministry provides volunteers and a full time chaplain to participate in non-denominational worship with inmates. It has been funded by local donations. The bill allows the county to use up to $25,000 from the inmate phone service for the jail ministry.
vericatrajkova Faith-based Programs, Inmate Programs, Inmate Telephones, MS Lauderdale County, Mississippi
A Caddo Parish LA project that tries to steer nonviolent offenders onto the right path and out of the revolving-door of imprisonment is expanding and will cross the river into Bossier Parish.
A $162,000 grant announced this month will allow One Church One Offender to enter prison facilities at least three months before inmates’ release dates, to prepare them for the prisoner re-entry initiative. The funding also will allow the program, based at Little Union Baptist Church [in Shreveport], to open a second facility in Bossier under the auspices of the Multicultural Development Corp. of the Stonewall Baptist Church in Bossier City.
One Church One Offender provides training, counseling and work for nonviolent offenders upon their release from prison.”It’s not an early release program,” said the Rev. C.E. McLain, of Little Union Baptist Church. “It’s a way to assist them in the area’s of family, jobs, life skills, substance abuse and counseling. It prepares them for life after prison and helps reduce the recidivism rate. “McLain brought the program to Little Union when he came to the church in late 1992. He said the program was pioneered in the late 1980s by the Rev. Sylvester Hunter at Union Baptist Church in Fort Wayne, Ind. The program receives $202,000 in funding from the Louisiana Department of Corrections to provide re-entry services. It’s one of 19 such programs to receive the grant, and its staff now will enter prison facilities in Caddo and Bossier parishes …
In the past, former inmates went to the program on the order of a judge as an alternative to prison. Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator said One Church One Offender is not an early release program.”It’s not an effort to make it easy on prisoners,” Prator said. “It’s an effort in making it where we don’t have to see them again. This is an effort to make them productive citizens when they are released.”
Further details are in the story at KATC.
vericatrajkova Faith-based Programs, LA Bossier Parish, LA Caddo Parish, Re-Entry
When Polk Sheriff FL Grady Judd cut the ribbon to open the County Jail’s new work camp Monday, he shared the podium with a 99-year-old veteran of the corrections system — who shares the vision of reforming inmates.
In his day, Maury Sigler had supervised the likes of Robert Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz. He worked at Leavenworth federal prison, the Angola prison in Louisiana and oversaw more than 12 executions. In 1976, Sigler retired as chairman of the Federal Parole Board and moved to Lakeland. Judd said Sigler is the kind of visionary who recognized that some inmates can be rehabilitated, which is the reason behind the work camp. “This is the day that a dream has come true,” Judd told a group gathered for the ribbon cutting Monday. “I believe you need to be tough on crime, and make sure people pay when they break the law. But you need to give them the opportunity to change their criminal ways.”
Inmates in the work camp will receive faith-based counseling and family counseling, he said, to help them get back on their feet. The counseling will be provided by a group of volunteer ministers who will work together.
The work camp can accommodate 96 nonviolent male offenders who are willing to work during the day. The money they earn will pay the child support for those who owe it, and for others, it will help them support their families, Judd said. At the same time, the program will take a portion of those earnings to offset the costs for each inmate’s room and board. “People who use the County Jail should pay to stay at the County Jail,” Judd said. “They are going to pay for their food, they are going to pay to wash their clothes.” He estimated that the inmates’ share will pay about half the costs associated with work camp … For now, the camp is limited to men, but future plans may include a similar program for women.
More on this story at The Ledger.
vericatrajkova FL Polk County, Faith-based Programs
Medical care costs in Mesa County CO expected to increase 40% this year. Inmate suicides in the UK have risen 37%; overcrowding blamed. Sussex County DE develops new bee-keeping program to add honey to inmate meals. South Carolina uses God and drug treatment to help inmates.
vericatrajkova CO Mesa County, Colorado, DE Sussex County, Faith-based Programs, Inmate Health, South Carolina