|
http://www.gadsdentimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20060103&Category=APN&Art
For two decades, Randall Hines lived a life bound by the stone walls, metal bars and barbed wire fences of St. Clair Correctional Facility - one of Alabama's five maximum security prisons.
The first things on his mind when he was released in June were the basics: a job, a place to sleep, something to eat. However, as a 43-year-old ex-felon who spent about 20 years of his life incarcerated for second-degree theft and possession of a forged instrument, getting a job and finding housing has proven to be challenging.
When Hines was released from prison the first two times in 1987 and 1997, he stayed with his mother. But upon his release in 2005, the world was unfamiliar. His childhood home on Grace Street was abandoned, and his parents were dead.
With no job training, nowhere to go and no idea how much the world had changed since he was last out,
Hines placed blame on the prison system.
"They didn't show me any other way to live," he said. "When I got out they gave me $10, a busticket and that's it. Alabama doesn't care about you once you've done your time. They want you to come back to prison, because you're their job.
"There's no rehabilitation programs or anything like that teaching prisoners how to live out here. I just want some help getting the basic needs that every human being needs to survive. But I didn't get any of that. Now I'm sleeping on people's porches, until they kick me off."
In the last few years, a number of states have added state and federally funded inmate transition programs to the roster of their department of corrections services to cut down on recidivism rates.
Programs such as Georgia's "Re-entry Initiative" prepare inmates for re-entering society by providing them with substance abuse treatment, education about the stress of re-entry, job skills and job placement links.
Though Alabama's prison system has remained without an inmate transition program, they do have a few things in the works.
"The climate is changing, and correction agencies all across the country are focusing on transitioning inmates back into society to cut back on recidivism," said Brian Corbett, spokesman for the Alabama Department of Corrections. "We want the same thing to happen here, but it's kind of a complicated issue.
"The reason Alabama hasn't had a program like this, though, is simple. It's resources. We have a few things we're trying to get off the ground, but if implemented we'll need to find the resources to fund it." Corbett said that the Alabama Department of Corrections recently met with the National Institute of Corrections to develop a work force development program.
The program - still in its preliminary developmental stages - will provide information on places to live and halfway houses for inmates whose sentences are close to expiring.
ADOC also has been working with Gov. Bob Riley's task force on prison crowding in recent months and has developed a summary of prison transition program recommendations that will be presented before the Alabama Legislature in January, Corbett said.
"One of the things the task force recommended was transition centers," Corbett said. "The program will take inmates about to EOS (expiration of sentence) and put them in these centers, where they'll get the knowledge and training they need to re-enter society."
"The task force is recommending that three of these open by 2008," he said. "Each will hold up to 300 men."
Though Alabama's prison system currently lacks a state or federal transition program, a few nonprofit organizations have recognized the need for such programs and have filled the niche themselves.
The House of Hope Inc., in Ralph is one such program.
"Our primary objective is to provide food, clothing, shelter, guidance and love in a Christian home environment for men as they seek to become self-supporting, productive members of the community and society," said Hope Holemon, who runs House of Hope with her husband, Jeff.
"Men coming out of prison don't have anything," she said. "They are literally given a change of clothes and $10. And unless they have family support, you can't start your life over with that. If they don't end up at a house like this or somewhere else to get help, there's a high recidivism rate. Some 60 percent of the men who go through our program don't return to a life of crime."
Community Service Programs of West Alabama Inc., located in Tuscaloosa, is trying to start a similar program.
CSP recently obtained a $25,000 planning grant from the governor's office of faith-based and community initiative that'll be used to identify housing, employment and medical needs for ex-offenders that should be implemented by late 2006, said Sontonia Stephens, director of case management and outreach at CSP.
About 30 percent of Alabama's inmates who have been released return to prison within three years, Corbett said.
As of Oct. 31, Alabama's total inmate population was 27,842. Since his time out, Hines has found refuge at his daughter's home and has gotten some assistance from CSP.
Though he hasn't found a job - he has applied for eight - he's found the support he believes he needs to get back on his feet.
"God has a plan for my life, just as he has a plan for yours," Hines said. "I know I've been blessed. I went to prison three times, and God brought me out three times. I'm going to trust in him and just keep trying 'til I make it."
---
Information from: The Tuscaloosa News,
Thanks for using gadsdentimes.com!
|
