Reentry services are key to a successful exit from prison | Opinion

Damon Hininger | Guest columnist

Show Caption Hide Caption Inside transition center where Cyntoia Brown will prepare for freedom The 194-bed transition center is designed to prepare inmates to succeed once they leave the rigidity of prison life.

Gov. Bill Lee’s Criminal Justice Investment Task Force recently met to review new data on Tennessee’s incarcerated population.

Among other findings, the data revealed 47% of those released from custody are rearrested within three years. And while Tennessee’s recidivism rate is lower than the national average for state prisoners at 68%, much more must be done to help these individuals successfully reenter society.

Lowering our recidivism rate is a complex issue, involving a variety of factors like addiction, mental health, access to employment and more. We applaud Lee’s call to involve the wider community — including those who don’t always see eye to eye to address this urgent issue.

We know it will take everyone — public and private, business and nonprofit — to set aside differences to help incarcerated individuals restore their futures and rejoin their families and communities. And if we do it right, our families and our communities will be stronger and safer for it.

I am proud of our CoreCivic reentry services team and their work each day to help individuals prepare for life after prison. We have made the commitment to do programming in an evidenced-based way that is proven to reduce recidivism.

A transformative program

In 2016, CoreCivic created a new process that is transforming how we think about reentry. “Go Further” is our systematic approach designed to help people in our care engage in the specific programs needed to address their personal barriers to successful reentry into society.

By reshaping the reentry conversation, where staying out of prison is the given, we encourage individuals in our care to start envisioning what life looks like after they leave our facility. This is more than just telling someone to stay out of prison, but giving them the tools to do so and addressing the root causes of what contributed to their incarceration in the first place.

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According to a 2018 study by the RAND Corporation, inmates who participate in educational programming are 28% less likely to find themselves back in prison than those who do not. Investments in education and vocational training can break the cycle of recidivism and help provide a trained workforce for some of our region’s highest-need skills.

That is why we are proud of the 26,991 inmates from across the nation in CoreCivic’s care since 2013 who have completed career and technical education programs to provide them with industry-recognized, employable job and trade skills — and the 8,570 inmates who earned their high school equivalency certificates while in our facilities.

In Tennessee, 4,142 inmates completed job training and education programs during that same time — with another 1,525 inmates currently enrolled in academic or vocational classes, led by 114 educators in academic, vocational, library and leadership positions in facilities we manage here.

Most recently, at the Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, we launched the new Persevere program, which not only offers inmates coding skills on computers, but also helps them find employment to use those new skills upon release.

More than a job

But “Go Further” includes more than just career and technical training. We also partner with religious and nonprofit organizations to offer faith-based programming, substance use treatment, behavior change, victim impact programs and more.

We are continuing to seek new ways to bring those resources into our facilities and create strong support for those rejoining society.

We see reentry as a priority from day one. Our hope and goal are that our Go Further approach will set the individuals in our care on the right path to regain their footing, rejoin society, and positively contribute to our state and our communities going forward.

Damon Hininger is the president and CEO of CoreCivic.