Milton second-chance program SCORE fighting to survive amid cuts to corrections budget

A Milton outreach program that's given hundreds of ex-offenders a second chance at life now finds itself fighting for survival.

Second Chance Outreach Re-Entry and Education Development Inc. is one of the dozens of transitional housing programs that have had their budgets slashed to shore up a Florida Department of Corrections budget shortfall.

To compound the organization's problems, overcrowding at Santa Rosa County Jail means SCORE will have to give back the housing space it borrows from the Sheriff's Office to give the county more room for inmates.

"We're getting hammered from both sides," said Alton Johnson, SCORE's CEO.It's a situation no one is happy with.

SCORE partners with more than a dozen local organizations to provides housing, mental health care, substance abuse treatment, career training, behavioral therapy and more to local men who have been recently released from incarceration or diverted into the program by a judge. Its partners include the Sheriff's Office, the Lakeview Center, Community Health Northwest Florida, Pensacola State College and many others.

Amanda Nolan, SCORE's lead case manager, said every client who entered the program was assessed and given a personalized case management plan that helps them overcome substance addictions, address mental health disorders and change ways of thinking that contribute to crime.

"These people are our neighbors, these are the people in our community, these are the people we shop with and go to church with," Nolan said. "We need to invest in them."

Over the past six years, the program has served 204 clients. Only about one in 10 have committed new offenses, as compared to the rate of about one in four reported by the state.

Noting that it costs around $55 a day just to incarcerate a person, Johnson said that SCORE spends about $30 a day to provide housing, case management and evidence-based, research-driven treatment that actually keeps ex-offenders from going back to jail.

"We were actually saving them money because of all the services we offer," Johnson said of the state prison system.

The Department of Corrections is trying to come up with $28 million to cover the cost of providing medical care at state prisons. To narrow the budget gap, 33 organizations are scheduled to have their state funding reduced or their contracts eliminated in June.

SCORE's contract cancellation will net the state a savings of about $177,630, roughly the cost of housing nine inmates for a year.

"We were able to do a lot with very little, and now we don't have that very little," Johnson said. "It's looking pretty bleak. We don't know what our next step is."

The program needs funding and a new building, and it needs them both quick.

Johnson said the organization has been talking with the state and the county about trying to acquire the site of the former Berrydale Forestry Camp on State Road 4 in Jay. But assuming they could even get the property, it would take a significant investment to get the camp into a usable shape.

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Johnson said his hope is that someone in the community could help them find a facility, preferably something with room for about 120 beds.

"We're applying for funding and grants, but those take a while," he said. He added that because the funding stops next month and the Sheriff's Office needs to start retrofitting the facility to secure inmates, they needed to get something figured out as soon as possible.

Johnson is a former a U.S. Marine, and he retired from the Florida Department of Corrections as a captain. He described himself as a "hard-nosed, by-the-book" type who as a younger man never would have pictured himself doing the work he does now.

But as Johnson's corrections career wore on and he watched the revolving door of men coming in and out of prison, he realized the system wasn't working. Johnson started researching recidivism and talking to others about diversionary programs, and when he couldn't talk anyone else into starting one, he did it himself.

Now, he can't see himself doing anything else.

"I invested my state retirement into this," Johnson said. "If I have to go back and work full time to support this, then that's just what it means. But it won't have to come to that. I believe our community will come together like it always does. The good lord is not going to let it close."

Emma Kennedy contributed to this report.

Kevin Robinson can be reached at 850-435-8527 or krobinson4@pnj.com.