16 BUSINESS
IRONCITY.INK
SIPS & BITES
HAPPENINGS
IRON CITY INK
SIGHTS
SEPTEMBER 2017
hope
FACES
B’HAM BIZARRE
NECK OF THE WOODS
DISCOVER
INSTEAD OF
hurt
Ex-felons create Offender Alumni Association as support system for re-entry into society t ents in the en er mni ss ci ti n s ne th reer e iness r r m ic tr sh in it s i e n h e een in e in the ss ci ti n in s me since it e n in e r h nie s s i r n re re
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series of bad choices, including dropping out of school and a crack cocaine addiction, “ set the road map” for Deborah Daniels’ life. But after being released early from her third sentence in Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women, she found a support network that helped her realize that road map didn’t have to be her future, too. I t’s that background that gives Daniels credibility when she tells other Alabama prisoners that they can create a new road map, too. “ To have us go back into prison — and especially for men or women who we did time with — there Daniels is such great hope for them,” Daniels said. “ Nobody knows how it feels to be on your bunk and be faced with all the decisions and the harm and stuff that you caused and not be able to do anything,
except somebody who has been on that bunk and cried those tears.” Daniels is one of the creators of the Offender Alumni Association, which has a ministry in four state prisons — St. Clair, Limestone, Bibb County and Staton correctional facilities — and support resources for recently released prisoners who are trying to reintegrate into society. She began volunteering with Prison F ellowship after her last release from prison in 1997 and is now the Southeast Area director, but she felt that ex-offenders like herself had something uniq ue to offer. “ I realized that one of the resources that we were not utilizing to its full capacity was eq uipping those of us who had actually been there, and engaging us in being part of the solution, and getting us involved in every angle of this process,” Daniels said. “ We were just like them. We were the ones who dropped out of school. We were the ones who made all the bad choices. And so I felt like if we could mobilize and empower us to be part of that vehicle, part of that effort to bring about a change, that we could really make a difference.” According to a 2016 annual report from the Alabama Department of Corrections ( ADOC) , an average of 32 percent of inmates released in 2013, or 3,603 people, were within the prison system again within
ne the first the r r m hi e c e h n re r cti e in s r r ms Photos by Sydney Cromwell.
three years. A successful re-entry into everyday life for newly released prisoners — including jobs, social connections and a mental shift toward making new, better choices — make it less likely for them to re-offend. Re-entry programs have been shown to reduce rates of recidivism, or returns to prison, after being released. The ADOC 2016 annual report showed the recidivism rate of inmates who participated in their Supervised Re-entry Program ( SRP) prior to release in 2013 was only 17.6 percent. There were 13,274 inmates released from Alabama prisons in 2016, of which 2,794 participated in the SRP. I n 2016, the ADOC funded almost $ 1.8 million for SRP, which totals about 0.41 percent of its annual budget. However, last year the department began downsizing its re-entry program and moving community supervision responsibilities to the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, according to ADOC budget documents and annual reports. Dena Dickerson, who helps with the OAA program in Limestone and a community engagement program in Titusville, sees the OAA as a way to pick up where staterun programs leave off. “ We are the extended arms of re-entry,” said Dickerson, who is now a case manager at I mpact F amily Counseling.
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The OAA holds support group meetings on Monday evenings at I mpact F amily Counseling, 1000 24th St. S. in Southtown, and Daniels said they’re working on expanding Dickerson these groups to other areas such as East Lake, Ensley and Collegeville. There are also meetings for the families of inmates before and after release. As Daniels knows from her own experience, families can be as much a hindrance as a help in the re-entry process. “ When you’ve been incarcerated, even though your family is there, you really haven’t been in their lives. And they really don’t know how to embrace you. Y ou know, a lot of times they can enable you and cripple you, and it’s all in love. And it’s not because they mean to do any harm,” Daniels said. Along with their regular programs at four facilities, Daniels said members of OAA will sometimes travel to do forums at other correctional facilities and answer inmates’ q uestions. I n June 2016 they created a community engagement program in Titusville,