Jail program holds great promise
A new program at the Sullivan County jail holds great promise for inmates who take advantage of it, giving them a new start on life and saving taxpayers money.
Tennessee ranks 20th in the nation for the number of people in state prisons per 100,000 population. One big reason for that is the state’s recidivism rate. Nationwide, 32% of persons released from prison re-offend within three years, according to the Justice Department. In Tennessee, that rate is 47%.
Recent action by the Sullivan County Commission opens the door to the most successful program known at keeping previous offenders out of jail. The commission has accepted an East Tennessee State University Correctional Pathways Group grant of $50,000 to train inmates for work.
It’s that simple. Nearly half the people who leave Tennessee prisons hit the streets with little in the way of job skills and no ability to provide for themselves. And so they return to what they know, old habits that often lead to drugs and criminal activity to pay for them.
Nearby South Carolina has one of the lowest rates of recidivism in the nation, according to a new survey as reported by The State newspaper published in Columbia. According to the survey, only about 22% of inmates released from South Carolina correctional institutions return to prison within three years. Ten years ago, South Carolina’s recidivism rate was 33%.
What made the difference, according to The State, were efforts to prepare inmates for reentry to the world after incarceration. Those programs include educational opportunities, vocational training and job preparedness courses. The corrections department partnered with other state agencies to help inmates get identification before they leave prison, make sure they have street clothes, ensure they will have continuity in mental health services, and connections with the Department of Employment and Workforce to help them get a job.
Tennessee has experience with this approach. In 2014, Greene County criminal justice system leaders identified the need for better approaches to working with residents who were incarcerated and in need of adult basic education and career and workforce training. The county’s sheriff’s department leaders and community partners began delivering services, including basic skills and high school equivalency preparation. In 2015, a formal team was established that created the Greene County Correctional Career Pathways pilot program.
These programs work so well they should be mandatory for everyone locked up in Tennessee prisons.
According to the state Department of Corrections, it costs $86 a day to incarcerate someone in Tennessee. For every inmate who leaves prison and goes to work instead of back to prison, the state saves $31,000 a year.
Times