‘GETTING AHEAD WHILE GETTING OUT’
Re-entry program helps inmates join community after release
Leaving a jail or prison can be a daunting task; from finding housing and transportation to reconnecting with friends and family and securing employment, the mountain those who have been incarcerated have to climb as they re-join the community is steep.
Local nonprofits have recognized the difficult undertaking those who have been incarcerated are faced with, and over the past several years have implemented several programs to help those who are released from jail and prison to Union County re-enter the community more easily.
One such program is Wings of Love, a re-entry facility for people who have been released from a state prison. The program gives men a place to stay; access to job training in areas like soft skills; a place to reconnect with their family; a church community; and more.
The Hannah Pregnancy Resource Center works with women in the Union County Detention Center to prepare for their eventual releases as well. HPRC representatives began working with female inmates in 2018, hoping to help guide the women in their eventual pursuits of regaining custody of their children.
They learned that some women needed additional assistance in other life areas, and have since utilized a program called “A New Hope” that teaches life skill classes on topics like employment, family life and freedom from substance abuse. The HPRC reps also help the women in jail to develop re-entry and family reunification plans for when they’re released.
Now, the Union County Sheriff’s Office is getting involved directly.
“It started as trying to do some recidivism programs, similar to what the ADC (Arkansas Department of Corrections) is doing, and Debbie (Watts) with the SHARE Foundation helped get grant monies to make that happen,” explained UCSO Capt. Richard Mitcham.
The UCSO has hired a fulltime re-entry coordinator in Nicole Smith, who is hoping to get the program started within the next month.
‘Getting ahead while getting out’
“These are my people — that is, my heart is big for this population,” Smith said in midMarch. “They’ve done bad, but it doesn’t mean they’re bad people and I’m excited to see them change, make positive changes and get their lives on track. They just need a little help.”
Smith, who has previous experience in substance abuse recovery and health care, is no stranger to some of the struggles many inmates face. The Union County-native is also in long-term recovery, and she said she hopes that can serve as inspiration for the women she will be working with at the jail.
“They need to see someone who has done it and know they can do it as well,” she said.
Smith and Pastor Chuck Bennett, the chaplain at the
Union County jail, will work with women and men, respectively, to help prepare local inmates for their release. Bennett also can relate to inmates at the jail, having previously been incarcerated himself and having become an example of successful re-entry.
Smith said they plan to utilize the “Getting Ahead While Getting Out” curriculum to help inmates get ready for release.
“It really teaches people to have a different perspective — looking at problem areas in their lives and how to make better decisions. It has financial classes, (substance abuse) prevention, fatherhood initiatives,” Smith said.
The re-entry program will initially be available to up to 15 women and 30 men, and applications were set in mid-March to be distributed to all inmates at the county jail before the start of April. Mitcham said they’re hoping to target inmates who won’t be going to an ADC facility, since similar opportunities for re-entry programs exist in those prisons already.
“They do the same style training in the ADC that we’re doing here, so they’ll probably wait. Those that are waiting for trial — absolutely (are eligible),” he said. “In some cases you can be sentenced to up to a year in the county jail, and we have some who have been waiting for trial for a couple years… We’ll be able to service people who will not be leaving any time soon.”
Smith will also help connect inmates to resources available to them as they’re released, like Medicaid, food stamps and other local nonprofit initiatives that they can access.
“One of the things that are roadblocks when they get out…, that puts them in a bad place is getting their Social Security card, birth certificate and other documents they need. That will be something, before their release, that I’ll work personally with them on,” she said.
Inmates in the program will also have the opportunity to continue their education through a partnership with South Arkansas Community College. Those who haven’t completed high school can earn their GEDs and participate in workforce training, which will culminate in the individual earning a WAGE Level 1 certificate. If an inmate doesn’t complete the education they’re seeking before their release, they can continue it after, Mitcham said.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for the re-entry participants to learn, or refresh, basic skills prior to their release,” said Jennifer Schroeder, director of adult education at SouthArk. “Our team is excited for the opportunity to work with Sheriff Roberts, his team and the SHARE Foundation to support this effort.”
Having continuing care available — such as the educational opportunities at SouthArk, connections with Smith and Bennett, knowledge of necessary resources they can access
like health care and partnerships with nonprofits like the Literacy Council of Union County, Hannah Pregnancy Resource Center and others — is invaluable, Mitcham said.
“That’s always been our issue is that we could do training in the jail, but when they left, there was no place to continue, so they fell through the cracks anyway,” he said.
And even if the COVID-19 pandemic spikes again, inmates will still be able to continue their work in the program because large televisions with Zoom access have been set up in the jail specifically for outside agencies, like the Hannah Pregnancy Resource Center, to present training and classes, Mitcham said.
“We have a room set up with the Zoom TV, and they will work with outside people in classrooms where Chuck and Nicole will also work with them,” he said. “And we also have tablets in the jail; we’re working on getting the courses on the tablets where they can do their homework and paperwork that’s connected to our technology system in the jail to read after and before class.”
Breaking the cycle
Mitcham and Sheriff Ricky Roberts have both working in law enforcement in Union County for a good deal of time. They’ve seen their fair share of familiar faces in booking, courtrooms and transport trucks.
For Roberts, the new re-entry program seems like a light at the end of the tunnel — it could be the thing the community needs to help not only lower the recidivism rate, but to support our neighbors who have been sucked into the prison pipeline.
“A lot of the young people today are seeing their grandfather went to the pen, their father went to the pen, their uncle went to the pen, and they think that’s the way of life, and you’ve got to break that cycle — to say there is a different way of life than to follow in those footsteps,” he said. “We’ve got three or four generations in here right now, and it’s mind-boggling to me that we see the same people come and go; it’s almost like we’re having to have someone stand at the back door to oil it because it’s constantly revolving.”
And whether the program impacts one person or 100, it’ll be worth it, he said.
“If we can turn one person’s life around — and hopefully, it
will be more than just one — then those efforts — it will be well worth the efforts,” he said. “If we sit on our hands and do nothing, what are we? We’re not trying to show them there’s a better life… Let’s get to the core root of why they’re making those bad choices. Let’s see if we can mentor them to the point of ‘I don’t want to come back anymore.’”
“If we can help those that are repeat offenders, if we can help them from coming back, my career will be complete,” he continued.
Mitcham recalled the moment he realized that institutionalization can have very significant effects on a person’s psychology.
“I’ve been in the jail many years, and I’ve had the opinion of ‘this is a short term place.’ One time I was in a pod with an inmate and he said ‘you don’t understand; we know how to do time.’ It didn’t hit me right then, but I went to a training and they said these people become institutionalized and think that’s the only way there is,” he said. “I came back and sat down with that inmate and said ‘please tell me what we need to do so that you don’t think all you can do is time.’ We’re trying to figure out what those things are so that they don’t just do the time.”
The efforts to establish a re-entry program within the jail’s walls have been long. Mitcham said they first began in 2018, when the SHARE Foundation’s Violence Intervention Plan, which specifically targets healthy re-entry for people who were formerly incarcerated, was unveiled.
But it will take buy in from the whole community to be successful,
Roberts said.
“I think the old adage of ‘lock ‘em up and throw away the key’ — I think we as a community need to be thinking outside that box, and that’s part of this program, finding out the core root of why they do what they do and why they keep repeating,” he said. “I think as a community, given a few months, maybe a year or two, I think we’re going to reap our benefits then… We ask that the community work with us and we hope, hopefully it will be successful.”
Smith is being paid through the SHARE Foundation, and Roberts purchased all the materials from the program with his budget, Mitcham said. Bennett is working in the jail as a volunteer, as are other nonprofits that come in to work with inmates.
Debbie Watts, vice president of community impact at the SHARE Foundation, noted that the re-entry program being utilized locally was modeled after programs in Garland, Sevier and Pulaski counties, where a significant drop in recidivism has been noted.
“That means the programs they have in place are working,” she said. “If people are given tools they need to succeed, we all win.”
“We want people to know that regardless of what they have done and how many times they have been in jail, there are people that believe they can be successful and thrive in society and that this can be their last time being in jail,” she added. “To back it up, we are putting people in place to help do that.”
For more information about re-entry efforts in Union County, visit sharefoundation.com.