Wilkes Society Adult Residential Reentry Center

South Carolina’s hands seem to be filled with a surplus of judgment and resentment for how things are run in varying parts of the country; but yet neglect the issues that hit home. While South Carolina legislation is busy worrying about letting “murderers, rapists, and criminals” through our borders, they are blind to the murderers, rapists, and criminals in our own state. Two counties in South Carolina are included in the top 30 dangerous areas in America along with holding the ranking of seventh in America’s most criminal state which has gradually climbed the rank since 2012. Causation for such a high crime rate stems from an equally as terrifying statistic. Almost 19% of South Carolina citizens live under the poverty line, nearly 1 in

Jamie Fader’s book Falling Back which was published in 2013, is based on ethnographic research over three years, from 2004 to 2007, of black and latino males on the edge of adulthood and that were incarcerated at the Mountain Ridge Academy reform school located in a rural area: “within a dense forest in western Pennsylvania, is Mountian Ridge Academy … ninety-acre campus contains eight dormitories, each of which houses thirty-two young men between ages 14 to 18” (p.1). The criminal thinking approach was intended to help young people identify the patterns that had led them to delinquency and replace it with corrective and prosocial thoughts. These young boys had been involved in drug offenses and violence within their suburban communities and were now in the process of behavioral change in order to help them reflect and be able to make better decisions which would lead them to a better life.

The North Carolina Department of Public Safety (Division of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention) is requesting funds to provide juveniles a second chance through a community supervision reform program. The purpose of funding is to provide delinquent juveniles a second chance, and help them successfully reintegrate back into society. This program will address critical functions in juvenile supervision practices, cognitive-behavioral interventions, family engagement, release readiness,

The problem to be address in this paper is the lack of reintegration programs and mass incarceration of African Americans in the United. Mass incarceration amongst African Americans has had a catastrophic impact on families and communities and continues to create a cycle of discrimination, which makes its nearly impossible as a race to progress. Because of the soaring incarceration rate in the United States, many prisons are over populated and lack resources and support to help inmates succeed once released from prisons. Since there is an insufficiency in resources, many of these men enter back into society in need of education and little job experience making it difficult to find a job, creating many of them to reoffend. Of all men released from prison 81.1% are unskilled or possessed no skills, 18.9% are semi-skilled or skilled workers with the average reading level being slightly below 8th grade and 42.5% having less than a 12th grade education. In the first three years of release, 73% of African Americans are rearrested. This is a critical issue that needs to be addressed by appropriate programs that focus on poverty, homeslessness, unemployment, substance abuse, and poor medical and mental health. The first step in the right direction is creating a policy that addresses those needs with a reintegration program through job readiness, education and health management. Reintegration programs will improve families, communities, and job opportunities. If

Recent news stories about Washington State’s Department of Correction letting out thousands of inmates early due to a computer glitch sparked my interest in our judicial and prison systems. I had heard of a study called Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion or LEAD that looked at providing low level offenders with social services instead of jail time. Instead of charging, convicting and jailing these drug abusers and prostitutes, they would be helped by social workers that would guide them toward a path to a better life. This topic is important because it effects everyone, from the taxes people spend on imprisoning low level offenders, to the idea that it may not be effective in stopping their criminal path.

Barman Donalds article talks about a family that is suffering from poverty due to a father with a crack addiction problem and the naiborhood they live in the father is currently incarcerated for crack. Londa is a mother of three children and has a broken leg and has tried multiple times to fix their situation. This article gives an example of a real family and how all that is and what could be done to improve their situation. Further more in depth the article emphasizes more on where the criminal system has many flaws and how so much money is put into prisons incarcerating people on the daily as well as yearly. There is a great amount of research that proves how incarcerating people is not only a bad way to come about to some crimes. To some family’s there situation worsens in poverty due to perhaps a person that is accused for a crime and is then imprisoned waiting for something to happen their family is out in the world struggling to keep up with the bills and expenses. In most cases they have to pay large amounts of money to get people out of prison bails or other fees. Thus, perhaps the ones incarcerated are the money makers in a family worsen a families situation economically as well as mentally mainly the children due to this they will grow up without a father or a mother. In many occasions people in city’s or neighborhoods where

To meet these challenges Unlimited Second Chances has developed a comprehensive system navigation and linkage program in effort to increase access to needed public health, behavioral health, and/or social services. Working in collaboration with various community- based organizations, healthcare services, and local social services etc. Unlimited Second Chance will provide individuals formerly incarcerated with access to much needed resources in order to appropriately reintegrate back into their communities. However, although Suffolk, Franklin, Southhampton County and Isle of Wight offers a variety of programs that assist ex-offenders with reintegration many are simply inundated with the connecting process. Therefore, the comprehensive system

Wilson and Davis evaluate the effectiveness of Project Greenlight, a short-lived correctional program designed to reduce recidivism rates of prisoners. James A. Wilson has a PhD in Sociology from Vanderbuilt University and is an assistant professor at Fordham University. He was the Director of Planning and Research at the Tennessee Department of Correction from 1999 to 2001. Robert Davis is the Research Director of the Police Foundation in Washington, D.C., and has written two books on crime prevention and edited four more. Project Greenlight was an intensive 8-week transitional program based on a series of factors typical to successful treatement programs. Wilson and Davis Conditional Release inmates in New York City, utilizing interviews

As Charon explains this, “we are socialized to accept our own place in society (Charon, 2013).” This could be interpreted to mean that low-income neighborhoods should produce low-income families, college educated parents should encourage secondary education, or that those who disobey the law must stay at the bottom of society. To again analyze data, African-Americans youth are more likely to commit crimes due to stereotyping and self-worth (as cited in Cohen, Garcia, Apfel, & Master, 2006). These minority youth are succumbing to a failure to understand their worth, which requires a different solution that prison rehabilitation programs. Charon states that, “most who try do not succeed, not because of lack of effort or intelligence alone, but because real opportunity is denied by factors related to...minority positions (Charon, 2013).” With more minorities becoming convicted of crimes, the feeling of entrapment within the bottom rungs of society increases, and the cycle of the criminal justice system

The Harlem Community Justice Center is an organization that offers stabilization and criminogenic needs of post detainees in East and Central Harlem communities. This organization maintains Re-Thinking Re-entry blog about diminishing recidivism and improving public safety in Upper Manhattan. The Harlem Community Justice Center collaborates with many local service providers that help disadvantaged people and former prisoners to change behavior and attitudes to improve their life, to learn new skills and the ability to overcome rejection from society. This community based organization would be a great partner for our CHA due to the fact that Harlem Community Justice Center focuses on eliminating of neighborhood problems and inequalities among

Alexis Harris is an Associate Professor at the University of Washington in the Department of Sociology. She primarily focuses on Social and Race problems in society she uses mixed-method approaches to study institutional decision-making. Her primary research interests focus on social stratification processes and racial and ethnic disparities. The article constructing clean dreams published in 2011 shows how ex-offender’s environment and situations can limit opportunities to live as a productive citizen once released from prison. Her article was clear concise and objective. However, in some cases the accuracy of the transcription seemed to be lacking in totality.

The jail population in Rockingham County and Harrisonburg City has increased to the point where action needs to be taken. There has been an increase in crime rates over the years (CITATION), many of whom are responsible for the recent increase are ‘revolving door’ offenders. Offenders labeled as ‘revolving door’ have been incarcerated several times and sometimes represent more than one third of the current jail population. As a result, the Harrisonburg –Rockingham County community has realized that the problem must be dealt with, and in the most efficient and effective way.

When trying to help one better their life it is easy to hand them money, material items, or opportunities that will, undoubtedly, offer many benefits to their life. However, after the money, the items, or the opportunities run out it is not certain that they will be able to acquire these things on their own. Social change organizations have worked to develop plans that will, instead of rescuing, empower and encourage others to actively take part in the betterment of their lives. Homeboy Industries have found ways to maximize the participation and empowerment of incarcerated people.

To begin, in the past couple of weeks I’ve learned plenty about the Amity foundation, not only from the tour, but from 4 members of the foundation who attended one of my sociology classes as guest speakers. Before they attended the class, I grew very skeptical about attending the foundation because I continued to think of the men as who they were before in their troubled history. Through our community project description, it was mentioned that Amity Foundation was home to former prisoners, gang members and drug and alcohol addicts. Due to this, I grew a fear of attending the site. My fear rouse from my inability to see the men past their old wrong doings and who they had been. However, this fear suddenly disappeared the day I met the four members of the Amity Foundation on a Thursday afternoon in class. The men who attended, although still covered in tattoos, were people who were sober, intelligent, religious, and hard workers. The Amity Foundation had helped them overpass their struggles and the stigma of being former prisoners by enhancing their capabilities and providing them with rehabilitation centers, living arrangements, a support system, and trust. Those characteristics are what set the Amity Foundation aside from other rehabilitation

Client seen in a community reentry facility for 45 minute session to start introducing community reentry therapy. Client presented in an electric well chair, he is able to maneuver the w/c using a joystick. Client was instructed on new technology called “TECLA” this technology would allow the pt to have access to Internet, computers, phones and its functions. Pt demonstrates understanding of the technology and shows enthusiasm and state “ this new technology will change my live”. Client was provided with another technology, a navigation app for phone or ipad that will be used to facilitate mobility in the community, the app bring routes and schedule of sub and bus. Instructions about how the app works were given to the pt.. Pt. shows completely