Best Chance: Ex-convicts help peers stay free
Agency provides needed resources for ex-inmates to stem recidivism
Barry Ore remembers meeting his family at the Frontier Restaurant after being released from four years in prison. He compared the experience to “culture shock” — visiting a different country with strange languages, food and people.
“It was the element of humanity there that had been lacking the whole time in prison. Families gathered. Couples. People studying,” the 28-year-old said. “I remember seeing a dog on the sidewalk and I was like, ‘Wow, look at that dog, look at that dog’s energy.’ ”
Ore is peer support worker with Best Chance, a nonprofit organization in Albuquerque run by ex-cons for ex-cons to help stem recidivism.
New Mexico has the second-highest rate of recidivism in the region with nearly 45 percent of inmates returning to prison, according to a 2015 report from the Legislative Finance Committee.
“The leading causes of inmates serving time in prison rather than on parole are a lack of community resources for parolees,” the report states.
Best Chance is one of those resources, whether it’s getting identifying documents, résumé building, finding a job and, most importantly, peer support from those who know what it’s like.
“I know how it feels to get out,” Ore said. “I know how stressful and traumatic it is.”
‘Welcome home!’
When you walk into the Best Chance office, the first thing you see is a banner that says “Welcome Home!” There are board games, a library and storage room full of backpacks, razors, socks, underwear and other supplies. Everything is available to whomever needs it.
In 2016, Best Chance served “maybe a
dozen or so” people informally, Ore said, while in 2017 the organization has already served more than 60 people, all referred through different sources: parole and probation officers, halfway houses and re-entry coordinators, among others.
Unlike prison, Ore said there is no release date for Best Chance clients.
“We try to keep people around for good,” he said. “Because as they grow and develop, they might bring something back to the community.”
Jarvis Jones, one of Ore’s earliest clients, said Best Chance does much more than just outreach.
“They may have office hours, but if you need them, somebody is there,” he said, recalling the time Ore delivered medicine when Jones was sick and on crutches.
Jones, who served a year in Los Lunas for his fifth DWI and is now attending classes at National American University, said the peer support at Best Chance has been the most valuable asset in dealing with the pressures of reentry into society.
“The weight of wanting to move forward — you have to get a job, you have to have a place to live — it can be too much,” he said.
Ore said Best Chance not only helps its clients, but also benefits him as an ex-prisoner.
“One of the major forces in my recovery and my success is knowing that my experience can help other people,” he said.
Peer education
Daniel Rowan, program director and co-founder, worked out the idea for Best Chance while serving four years in prison and working as a peer educator behind bars.
“I saw how powerful peer education could be,” he said. “I thought to myself, ‘We should do this for people coming out of prison.’ ”
After Rowan’s release, the organization was incorporated and began taking clients in 2016 with co-founder Stanley Weinstein. It is currently funded by anonymous donors.
“Our whole model is welcoming people home right away and letting them know that they can have a home here,” Rowan said.
For Best Chance, he said it’s only the beginning as Rowan hopes to integrate an industry into the organization, such as Best Chance having its own landscaping company.
“So guys could have jobs, coming out,” he said.
Rowan would like to see a Best Chance for women and to have the organization spread statewide.
“A Best Chance in every community,” he said. “So many other men and women who have experienced successful transitions have an opportunity to share it with those that desperately need it.”
Rowan and Ore believe that, as it gains momentum, more corrections institutions will want to make sure that funding comes to organizations like Best Chance.
“I think that is the direction it is moving in,” Rowan said. “So our numbers in the prisons go down.”
Bob Hayworth, a new client, said it is “emotional” for him to see Ore and Rowan out in society succeeding.
“I’ve never known people like that,” he said. “That have made a mistake, paid for their mistake, and then used that learning experience to help other people like me.”
Hayworth, 52, who served 33 months for drug trafficking, said he has been through the “revolving door” of the prison system eight times and never given proper preparation to start a new life.
He was “pretty confident” he was going to fail the last seven times, he said. But, this time, something is different. He has never had as many opportunities offered to him.
“People out here seem to want to help us now; they don’t just want to write us off,” he said. “That makes me feel that this time I can be successful — I’ve never felt like that before.”