Photo by Susan Madden Lankford
Scott Frakes, director of the State Department of Correctional Services, has set a goal of reducing the state prisons’ recidivism rate — the percentage of inmates who return to prison within three years — from 30.1 percent to 28 percent.
State lawmakers, after hearing complaints from inmates and advocates about a lack of job training and other prison programs, allocated an extra $10 million to beef up re-entry programs in 2015 and 2016.
The funds provided about $3 million to create a re-entry services unit within the Corrections Department. Frakes said it marked the first time the agency had been able to dedicate staff solely to preparing inmates for their release.
The rest of the money provided grants for programs across the state that train inmates in construction and academic skills, help them apply for jobs and overcome mental disorders and chemical addictions.
The programs are offered to inmates both inside prison walls and after release on parole, probation or work release at community facilities. They are also available to inmates discharged within the past 18 months.
You might want to check your preconceptions at the door when you enter one of the state’s newest programs to help inmates transition from prison to society. First, Honu Home looks like a typical home in the College View neighborhood, not like a treatment center for substance abuse and mental illness. It is staffed not by counselors and psychiatrists but by former inmates and addicts, whose tattoos and piercings speak of lives on the streets, not in classrooms.
And there’s not a long list of rules and requirements at Honu Home, as there are at a typical halfway house. No mandatory meetings, no mandatory bedtimes, no 7 a.m. wake-up calls — just a requirement that guests, with the help of peer-support specialists at the house, seek out jobs, mental stability and a place to live.
“We want people to be adults and develop those adult responsibilities that they’ll need when they leave here,” said Destenie Commuso, the houses’ re-entry coordinator.
At Honu Home, Commuso said she can recall only two inmates washing out of the program out of 196 guests over the past year.
The reason, she said, is the house’s peer-support approach: Guests live at a house run by peers who have already overcome addictions and struggles with mental illness who serve as companions on their transition to wellness.
“We’re able to relate, being on the same level as them,” said Commuso, a former methamphetamine addict.
To be sure, the problems facing Corrections are numerous: chronically overcrowded prisons, miscalculated release dates, high turnover of officers and mental health practitioners, an increase in assaults of staff, and a deadly riot a year ago.
When it comes to prison programs, almost everyone agrees there were more opportunities in the past.
A former inmate, James Jones, who now teaches victim-impact classes for inmates, said that when he served time in the late 1980s you could earn a two-year college degree or learn a trade such as carpentry, auto-body repair, auto mechanics, welding or heating/air conditioning technician.
“There was a tremendous difference,” Jones said. “You could actually be released from prison with skills and actually be able to take care of your family with a living wage. Funding cutbacks changed that.
But Vocational and Life Skills Program grants awarded recently by the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services include:
$777,808
Associated Builders & Contractors, for instruction in building trades for 224 inmates, OSHA training for 1,000
$111,185
Hope of Glory Ministries, for help with finding jobs, social skills and assistance with substance abuse for 72 inmates
$1.2 million
Mental Health Association of Nebraska (Honu Home), to help those with substance abuse and mental health issues find jobs
$1.4 million
Metropolitan Community College, for academic and welding courses for about 700 people
$377,281
ReConnect, to help 300 inmates find employment and overcome other re-entry hurdles
$429,000
ResCare Workforce Services, for workshops and one-on-one help for about 550 people in Omaha, Grand Island, Gering and Norfolk with job searches
$1.4 million
Center for People in Need, to help about 282 recently released inmates keep jobs though instruction on domestic violence prevention, communication skills, self-help and family outreach
$1.7 million
Western Alternative Corrections, to help about 168 people with skills such as basic money management, family reunification, cognitive behavior therapy and parenting, and
$154,000
Prairie Gold Homes, to finish a site-built home in Beatrice, providing hands-on training for inmates in construction.
