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Recovery in the News
Support for ex-prisoners key to lower recidivism
Kym Klass
Montgomery Advisor
March 30, 2008
Dereck Wise knows what it's like to receive $10, a change of clothes and a bus ticket. It's what Alabama prisoners get when they've done their time.
Four years ago, after seven years behind bars for possession of drugs, Wise found himself back on the streets -- in a world that disappointed him.
"Society kept telling me I couldn't get a job because I was an ex-felon," he said.
It took Wise four months to find work. Today, he's an administrative aide at Renascence, a residential transition center that gives ex-prisoners a fresh start, a second chance.
The job and the support is what Wise needed.
And there is help for others just like him, too.
Through the Community Partnership for Recover and Reentry program, Gov. Bob Riley is pushing the state to involve faith- and community-based organizations to provide pre-release and post-release support for ex-prisoners as part of Plan 2010, his second-term agenda he unveiled in 2006.
"Our faith-based organizations and community groups are among the most trusted and effective institutions when it comes to helping those in need," Riley said in a statement. "I want to make sure our state agencies are working together with these organizations so more ex-prisoners have a successful transition back into society."
Alabama has about 25,000 prisoners and about 95 percent are eventually released. Every year, the state releases about 10,000 prisoners and replaces them with about 10,800 more. Studies show about a third of those released will return to prison within three years.
Ex-offenders stand a better chance of not returning to a life of crime if they can find work, a place to live and go back to school the first year after their release, said corrections commissioner Richard Allen.
"A lower recidivism rate is a public safety issue rather than a bed issue," he said. "While the cost of crime is tremendous, reducing the recidivism rate is important from a public safety standpoint."
A prisoner's rehabilitation starts when he enters the system, said Allen.
"We look at whether they need education, drug programs, do they have mental health issues," he said. "Once they come into prison, they are put in line for help for when they get out.
"The new initiative that the governor has ... picks up where we left off."
The governor's initiative is to find organizations on the outside willing to reach out to prisoners and let them know there's help when they get out.
"We can only help these people while they are in the wire," Allen said. "If they are going to get help on that side, it's going to have to be done through organizations on the other side that can kind of pick them up that first year."
During the next four weeks, the corrections department will train institutional staff to help inmates make their transition back into the community, said Elana Parker, re-entry coordinator/public health liaison for the state's corrections and public health departments.
"We've identified the necessary components in terms of life, social and career development skills as well as faith-based mentoring to assist inmates in becoming productive citizens of society," she said.
Cloverdale Baptist Church has answered Riley's call for help from those on the outside. The church's Celebrate Recovery group is a 12-step recovery program that offers support to ex-offenders as well as others in the community. Classes are Friday nights at the church; other area churches offer Celebrate Recovery groups as well.
Program director Steve Mitchell sees the program -- and others like it -- as key to bringing down the recidivism rate and making the streets safer.
Allen, the corrections commissioner, is unequivocal about rehabilitation.
"The most important thing is that you reduce crime on the outside," Allen said. "And the whole idea of trying to rehabilitate people is to send them out in conditions where they won't commit crimes."
Through Celebrate Recovery, Mitchell has seen lives restored -- couples work out their problems, others stop drinking, the out-of-work find jobs.
"You have to want to do it," he said. "The key to survival of any type of addiction is knowledge -- knowledge of why you're doing the drugs, the destructive behavior."
Ken Brothers is convinced that Riley's initiative will be a success -- other states have proved it. Texas, for example, asked for help from the community and one of those organizations answering the call was the InnerChange Freedom Initiative in Sugarland.
The success of InnerChange so impressed Brothers that he adapted it for Alabama. His program is named New Beginnings Foundation.
"We try to work with the individuals in prison, and we try and then connect them before they leave prison with the resources they need in the community," said Brothers, the foundation's president. "The main difficulty is adequate housing, transportation to and from work and obviously job placement."
Renascence, which helped Dereck Wise find his way, provides more than just shelter. The center links ex-prisoners to additional job training as well as a GED if they don't have a high school diploma, said Dana Dunklin, Renascence's director.
"We look to see what we can do to get them certification -- truck driving, plumber, welding," he said.
An ex-prisoner might not see a paycheck for up to six weeks, Dunklin said.
"We've got to find a way to get enough resources available to get them through those first six weeks," Brothers said.
One in three of the non-violent male offenders at Renascence is able to keep a job, stay away from drugs and lead a crime-free life.
"It's very difficult," Dunklin said. "You're expected to go out into society and not commit crimes. So this is a safe environment."
After spending five months in prison in 2005 on drug charges, Dana Hartsfield found help through a Board of Pardons and Paroles program called Life Tech.
Life Tech gave Hartsfield the "tools for survival." After seven months in Life Tech, she went to the Return to Reality halfway house on Madison Avenue for another seven months.
Now, she's living on her own again and is the facilitator of a women's chemical dependency group at Celebrate Recovery.
"It is really hard because drugs are everywhere," she said, "and something as small as a beer can lead someone down the wrong road."
In August, Hartsfield will celebrate four years of sobriety. She remembers the beginning -- how her hands shook and sweated. And how she cried.
She remembers how the community helped her through the worst times. That support gave her the means to survive.
"My goal is to help others," she said. "In a group of addiction, they want out. They may be clean for a day, week, month and year. But they inevitably fall back in it if they don't have the tools."