Video Transcript: Re-entry

Re-entry. Re-entry: that term is used not only for prison and jail, as for people coming out of prison and jail, re-entering society, but it's also used in a broader scope. For example, re-entry from being at the hospital where you broke your leg and you were treated and you were inpatient for a while, or you were sick and you got well, you are re-entering back into society, back into your home, family, friends, and the same goes for re-entering from maybe a rehab place. Perhaps you're struggling with addiction, as we've been talking about in this course, but addictive behaviors and life issues, perhaps you needed to step back for a while and then re-enter, back to your home environment, and you get back into life as God intended.

Of course, it begins with prayer, begins with the Lord, and then, of course, of God's people today's session, and using the term re-entry, or to re-enter, refers to those who are coming out from jail and coming out of prison. And in other videos, I've appealed to you who have been in jail or prison, and I've said to you, if you're in jail or you just got out of jail or prison, that this is for you. This is, again, training, education to help you rise above, move forward, get things back on track and so on. Our hope for you is to go forward in Christ and to go forward in recovery. Because recovery, as I've talked about before in this course, refers to restoration, becoming all that God has intended you to be. And as a result, we look at re-entry in many different ways. So today we're going to look at how re-entry happens in terms of ministry, how does the minister, the Christian leader, the church member, and the rest of society around them? Because it ought to begin with God's people. Re-entry has to do with God's people helping others who are coming out of prison, coming out of jail, to get reestablished.

Unfortunately, we have a few issues with re-entry. When one issue is with re-entry, how it refers to NIMBY, and what NIMBY stands for is this: not in my back yard. NIMBY, and many who are coming out of prison in jail, and again, for those who you're watching coming out of prison in jail, either eventually or you are, you'll run into this where people who are living in your hometown or the city that you were paroled to because of a different arrangement, they just don't want you to enter into their backyard, to live next door to you, or whatever order, work in the same area of the city that you did that they are, whatever it may mean. NIMBY is an issue due to another word that we know quite well. That is stigma. Stigma, so between NIMBY and stigma, meaning that, ooh, you were put into prison because of murder, Oh, you were put into prison because of a criminal sexual conduct; crime, ooh, you were in jail just for 30 days. Ooh, prison, huh? Well, I hope that you learn your lesson. People might say, and they put stigma. They put a black mark on you, if you will. Or this, this person, this perception upon you, is prejudice. They project a prejudice on you, thinking that you don't really belong, or that you are somehow different. Yes, we are different because we change as people, and they do too. But the whole message of the gospel is restoration, recovery. To stomp out the stigma, we want to get rid of this. So, stigma really ought not to be in our vocabulary. It is, so that we can recognize it. We can acknowledge it, but when it comes to re-entry and also to get rid of this, so not my backyard attitude, yes, we need boundaries. And unfortunately, due to, well, things that have happened because of criminal sexual conduct, boundaries have that have been put in place to help protect everybody. 

In general, re-entry then takes us into the messiness, the complexities of how we help brothers and sisters in Christ, who had that felony, who had that former conviction, and now they've done their time. You've done your time, are now re-entering society as far as where to live, where to work, where to play, where to contribute, to give back. And everyone that I've worked with for many, many years, have always said to me and said, Come out of prison. I want to give back. I want to become all that God wants me to be. And we do, too, as Christian leaders, as people of God who believe in the gospel, the good news, a restoration, redemption. So, the redemption and also restoration.

We also need to look at goals. How to do these? How do we bring someone who is fresh out of prison, fresh out of jail, into goals and restoration. And we have what we call Going Home Initiative goals, or goals in general, however you want to call it. But the first thing is to ensure public safety by reducing recidivism by successful community reintegration. The term recidivism means to go back to jail, to go back to prison. For example, I've had men and women who have come out, and we've worked with them with community recovery, and then they don't do so well for the first two months, and they really don't do so well for the next three months, and they end up re-offending. Why? Because, well, first of all, they're having trouble because of the barriers in the community, the barriers as: I can't get a job, I have a felony, or they don't want me to live here, or whatever. And the whole thing of re-entry is that we want them to be able to work, live and play back in society, to give back to God and to others.

Trouble is that they are coming to a point where it's a breaking point, and especially those who were have done long prison sentences, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, maxing out their sentence, and they don't know how to use the smartphone or the laptop, the Internet or those barriers other than these, just of people's attitudes and decision making. They need goals, they need a roadmap. They need a plan. And what often happens is, with recidivism, going back seems easier: I'll reoffend, the person thinks, so that I'll have three hots and a cot, meaning I'll have three hot meals and a bed to sleep in, and I'll be okay, as opposed to saying no, I will move forward in faith with God's help, and people as God's agents of help and support, and Lord willing, And hopefully, in a healthy way, goals can be created, realized and therefore met and to move forward to the next level and the next level, so that we can see success happening, because God makes it happen through his people.

Goals ensure public safety by reducing recidivism and helping reintegrate our brothers and sisters and creating a sustainable transition and re-entry process that ensures coordinated services supervision for offenders released from prison., There has to be something in place as people come out. Often there isn't. Now, I hail from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and thankfully, we have many resources. In fact, many of the homeless in the United States have moved to Grand Rapids in recent years because of all of our resources. They're not finding the resources that they need in other cities in the United States. And funny enough, we find them coming to Grand Rapids. At the same time, we have these barriers. Still, the felony, therefore, no job, the 'not in my back yard' attitude. Therefore, where do I live? There has to be people bought in, there has to be people getting into becoming stakeholders of how we can help brothers and sisters who are coming out to get back in to society. And finally, in this slide, we need to establish a statewide network of government agencies, community and faith-based organizations, businesses, citizens committed to successful offender transition and re-entry. That's a tall order, that takes a lot of work. And there's a movement that we've been involved with, with community recovery, called Healing Communities. Healing communities, because re-entry has to do with not this, but this, to create what we call a healing community.

Now, healing communities is a vision and also movement that was started by Dr Harold Dean Trellier. We call him Dean and Dr Trellier is from the Philadelphia, Baltimore area, and he's also a professor and an activist. And we thank God for his work, as he has birthed and also breathed life into the Healing Communities movement, as it's now gone to many cities all over the United States, from the East Coast, including Grand Rapids, Michigan and the West Michigan area. As a result, Community Recovery, the organization I founded and that I work in, along with many churches and also other agencies, in partnership, collaboration, we are able to look at re-entry with a plan, a plan that helps that man or woman who's rolling to your city, to our city, to get connected to the support and work that they need. So, collaboration, partnerships, making the plan work all by God's power. Of course, that's a given, but from there, we ought to have reintegration that is meaningful and that also help our brothers and sisters to succeed.

So how does that process go? Well, there's a few phases. Phase one is division of prisons. You make a plan for the offender's re-entry. We participate in programs such as education, substance abuse, mental health, treatment, life skills and job training as much as we can on the inside of the prison to prepare for what is about to happen coming out to the outside. So, you may have heard that some seminaries and also other schools. they have programs on the inside of prison, very successful. We are grateful to know, for those of us who work with re-entry, as we do, primarily that that's happening on the inside. There are many prison ministries going in and also programs going in on the inside of prisons here in Michigan and, of course, other states. And how that has proven to help prepare mind, body, spirit, life for brothers and sisters to re-enter. The problem is, is that if we prepare them on the inside, there's no plan for them on the outside that they can plug into. And let's say they have no family and friends, they're willing to step up to begin with, to meet them at the gate, as we say. So, they're coming out. There's someone there to support and bring them to a healthy place, as opposed to going to old places, people, places and things where there was the crack use, there was the crime and so on. The phase one division of prisons, looking at what's there and how we can work in the inside

Second phase community re-entry, and, as we say, Community Recovery restoration, ongoing review and monitoring of the offender's re-entry plan. If we can work on a plan with our people coming out, of course, it's a little bit difficult because it is also beyond that many and also, as we speak, are coming back into our county, Kent County, for Grand Rapids in Michigan, and that we need to be prepared. We need to be ready so that we can have that plan, have that support, and also help our brothers and sisters succeed. Looking at phase one, the institution, there's the plan for defenders, re-entry participation programs work on the unit. Of course, we partner with organizations that do this so that the release can be done well and that things can be prepared well. And then the institution process, look at the eligible inmates 12 to 15 months prior to release, also reviewing the list, verify eligibility, contact case managers, discuss Going Home Initiative and schedule initial meetings. And often, we can work at the parole office on the outside to find out who's going through this process, as well as what partner organizations there are on the inside as well. Something to keep in mind, also, we look at the review of the inmates file, conduct team meetings, complete needs assessment, modify case plans, conduct team meetings, review the case plan and so forth, recommendations and review. We want to help, but we need to be prepared as release then happens. Intended outcomes: improve coordination through programs and services, identify transition and re-entry, increase accountability, institute outcome-oriented case planning and initiate a seamless transition.

What do I mean when we look at re-entry? We need to look at outcomes, look at results, and we want those results to be measurable. Define our metrics. What models do we use? And there are many models to use in re-entry. We need a variety, because no one model will fit every person. One model may fit many persons. Yet another model fits a whole other group of persons, depending on background, offense and also their readiness to get back in society too. To mean more boundaries, do they need more structure? Most often the case, boundaries and structure are the name of the game, but we need to then translate how the boundaries and structure with organizations working together and also helping a person to be restored, but also to become independent and interdependent, so they can then become part of an agency, a church, both to help give back down the road and also, too, as was on the last part of the slide I just looked at, there's a seamless transition. It's never easy, but the best we can do, and our goal is to make things seamless, and some department corrections programs, policies and procedures, look at education, vocational rehabilitation, but DART, of course, that does stand for drug, alcohol recovery treatment here, coming out of the North Carolina example, and character, education, transition, after care, network, employment, many different names. And of course, you may have different names for what's happening in your town. And get to know those different acronyms, get to know those different programs, get to know what is available so that there can be a coordination and maybe God's called you to coordinate re-entry. Maybe God's called your church to put your arms around this, because more and more, especially in the United States, we are the most incarcerated country in the world, not to say that there are a lot of countries a lot of prisoners or in the local jails, but as we look at the predicament of the United States, we have, too often, locked people up for minor offenses and thrown away the key, as well as for major offenses, and we still have lifers. People are going to be in prison until the day they die, or until they're put to death, depending on what state that they're imprisoned in the United States.

Incarceration is a huge problem for the United States people, and yet it seems like our cities seem not to be prepared, still, even today in 2018, as prepared to receive those who will be released to re-enter and reintegrate well into society, well community re-entry. A community re-entry that phase two, as we looked at the other slide, ongoing review, participating in programs, develop, mentoring, mentoring, mentoring, mentoring. And you may wonder, well, what is the purpose of the mentor? And you are thinking, I've had, I have mentors, I have had sponsors in recovery. I've had accountability partners. There are different definitions of these roles when we look at sponsor, sponsor in recovery, term sponsor means make a little section here. Sponsor means that he or she is a guide to the addict who wants to work the steps of recovery, not dictate, not tell them what to do, but guide and be directive, not controlling, but guiding. Okay, that's sponsor.

Then we look at accountability partner. Different nuance. Accountability partner means that we have transparency between one person to another. If you have a person who says, Yes, I want to be your accountability partner or iron sharpens iron, as scripture says, but if the person wants to be a sponsor or has some other directive role, this would not work. It's on this being on the same plane and being able to hold each other accountable for what's going on in their lives. Did you stay away from the porn sites? Yep, by God's grace, I did or, how many cigarettes did you smoke this week? How about that job search? How's it going? Yeah, let me tell you how my job search is going. You hold each other accountable, praying for each other. That's different than the sponsor saying, Well, okay, you're in step one. Now let's get to step two. How do you see God and so on? Step two is that we realize that we turn our will over to a power higher than ourselves and so forth. There's guiding with sponsor. There's the same plane be on the same level with accountability partner.

And then you have the mentor. Mentor. The mentor is directive. It is a support to the person and a bit of a blend of sponsored accountability partner, but this also too. This is also to give support, care and connection with resources, and just to listen and coach do. There is a coaching process going on here with a mentor. You could say that, well, isn't sponsoring coaching too? Aspects of it can be of sponsor, but again, sponsor goes back to guiding and directing; accountability partner to just exchange mentoring as well as coaching. The mentor is more of that coach to guide that person who just came out of prison or jail, so he or she can obtain that resource, the community connection, where they are, and to build new supportive networks. Re-entry in the community process, you have a community mentor. It could be again that there's that mentor who commits to a 24-hour boundary. I mean, where there's open, they can make that phone call at three in the morning. That's okay. Or you put a boundary on it. Say, Well, hold on, you're not going to call me between midnight and 6am or it's nine to five. That's what I've got. However that plays out, that's where the mentor needs to be.

And establishing basic support, beginning probation supervision, that's how we also get involved as a support, a wraparound, as the people of God. We're not there to do the probation supervision both, but with probation supervision. We begin with that process so that we can advocate, say, Yep, she's doing it. Yep, he's doing it, doing well, struggling here, struggling there. And be supportive as you work with the probation officer or the parole officer, developing community case planning with expanded transition teams and having that support, that support team, or you may. calling it a monitor group, you're monitoring the case plan and our treatment group, but that's more of the medical model or participation in programs and services. There's that group that says, okay, Jack; okay, Sue, how's it going? Meeting of the mentor going well, each week, great, wonderful. And how can we help you more? And where there's that once a month, or maybe once a quarter, team meeting together that you can then provide for that person? Not every person is going to want that. Let's get honest, not every person coming out of jail prison is going to want this process. We hope they do, and also to get into Christian leader Institute so that they can get an education, they can further their lives, and also to get the support that they need with support groups and so on, and participate in programs and services but not everybody's going to do it. There are many who come out of prison, in jail, who think I can do it. I'll go back to my old neighborhood, go back to my people. And then you want to ask them, six months later, how's that working for you? Don't know. What we would hope is we are presenting here in this video, and the focus on housing, focus on employment, again, in mentoring and continuing, ongoing case management, ongoing mentoring, getting that sponsor, because in recovery, that sponsor is very helpful for getting through someone's issues. You can't do it alone, and that's what we need to continue to emphasize as we get organized, with people coming out of jail and prison, we need to get organized. We need to have structure. You are not you. You need to learn how to use the smartphone and the laptop for the good reasons, for the legal reasons, to also move forward in life and how to relate with society as it is right now, intended outcomes, reassess offender and risk reoffending, and also risk and need and monitoring, outcome-oriented case planning, as we've talked about that before, increasing accountability for expected outcomes.

That's where the accountability partner, mentor, sponsor, all three, that can help altogether, although I think you want to watch out for overkill. Not too much, but having that team there, at least that one person to really make that initial contact every week, so that the person can go forward and increase accountability or improving programming service, delivery systems constantly evaluated, constantly changing things that need to be improved and to always look at how's it going every month, every year, moving forward, emphasizing specific transition issues such as housing, employment, mentoring, treatment. There are issues always. How's it going with that landlord, Jack? Well, he doesn't fix the faucet when I asked him to, or, boy that that roof is leaking again. Hmm. How does it make you feel? We go through the coaching process and then Jack finally says, Man, it just makes me want to drink, or makes me want to use That's what I used to do years ago, and that's what put me in prison and so on, and let him work through the issue, get through the issue, not around it, not to avoid it, not to say in denial, that I'm okay.

How about you when you're not? In fact, there's that the famous word fine. I'm fine. How about you? Oh, I'm fine, oh I'm fine. Are you fine? Oh, I'm fine. How are you today? Oh, I'm fine. I'm very fine. But what fine means is I'm Freaked out, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional. I don't have it all together. None of us do, but God's help, he puts us back together again. We can all say amen to that! Structure of outcomes: it's not an academic exercise. Today, we are outlining some very practical, real-life examples and also realities actions that are being done by people who love the Lord and love you and also are committed and passionate about our brothers and sisters as they do re-enter society.

A few more notes, phase three, long term support, identify long goals, participate in continuing care, continue, continue, continue. If anything from this video that you have caught on to, it is the whole thing of continuance, the whole thing of continuity and of consistency. If it's not consistent, you risk recidivism. You risk the person reoffending, going back in. Long term, support network, build capacity, have that structure, promote and cultivate relationships. And I would add in there be non-judgmental, no stigma. Stomp it out, nonjudgmental and conduct training and provide technical assistance and workshops. If you're a leader in this area and you're saying, Wow, great. I've got my people. Keep doing it, keep them trained as best as you can, and get trainings, other trainings that are around you, being done by other mental health agencies, take advantage, get connected and keep learning. We always keep learning. The key is offender reintegration, an interlocking process involving the correctional system with state and local partners. We talk pre-release planning, post release transitioning, ongoing community support, and then we have close supervision from day of release through transition, through the probation officers, parole officers, in concert with law enforcement.

In other words, with the case plan and with law enforcement, the police are on our side. It's not an us-and-them issue. They don't want people to reoffend. Then you might say to me, yeah, but I know this police officer who has this attitude and perception and prejudice that we should just lock up everybody, throw away that key and keep men. That's not always the situation. The police want unity in the community. They want diversity to be harmonious. They want people to live and be fortified productive members of society, and yet we look at corrupt political systems and corrupt political leaders, at times, who want to take that big thumb and keep that brother and sister who's in prison, in prison. However, our communities, our loved ones, our moms and dads, they want and down deep, even though it was difficult when they were offenders and offending and then getting locked up and so on and addiction and so on. Down deep, families want reconciliation. They want that restoration to happen. Now, for some families, agreed, you have families who said, you know, I love my loved one. God bless him. God bless her. I can't be around them. I thank God for God's people, the church. Who can be that mom, be that dad, be that mentor, be that sponsor, be the accountability partner? Maybe someday, we'll be able to be a family again, a family reunification to happen now, happening sooner than later for some, for others, perhaps not for a lifetime, the very day, where years later, decades later, he walks in, she walks in. There's mom, there's dad, a lot older, and there's that bridging over, bridging back to family, just like with us and Christ. Jesus said, My peace, I give unto you, not as the world gives. And now he came as a ransom for many. bridging that gap between us and God. God the Father can have all of us back into his home. Jesus says, I'm preparing a place for you, and we can all be made new. That's re-entry. That is recovery. And with supervision, we have the parole officers. We have law enforcement involved.

On that note, reunification, restoration, four C's, a partnering. You're saying, wow. How does this work in practicality? Dr, Mark, huh. How in the world do we go about this. Well, let's look at this. This visual collaboration begins and well, that's at the top, but at the bottom of the foundation communication, the free sharing of information and knowledge; commitment, a good faith pledge of all partners to do whatever each has resources to do, with no concern for who gets the credit. Let me tell you, you will run into organizations, individuals, executives of nonprofits and so on, where that's what they're into. Lord willing, you will run to more organizations and executives who say, I don't care who get the credit. We're all in this together. We're all in to help our brothers and sisters to win in it, from communication to commitment to coordination, a sequence plan of action agreed to by all parties, delineating who will do what, when and for what duration, a memo of understanding or MOU where on a piece of paper you say, you spell out how you're working together with XYZ organization as a church or you're in an organization, you're saying, How do I work with this other ministry locally? So, we can all have an understanding of how we're going to do this together, regardless of the credit. In addition, coordination, a sequence plan of action agreed to by all parties, and then that memo of understanding goes into play that leads into collaboration, a spirit of willing cooperation and mutual respect that allows different entities to share a common vision, to contribute to the process, for example, community recovery. We are a one-stop support, recovery and support.

And then there is a partner organization called Seventy Times Seven in Wyoming Grand Rapids area. Wyoming is one of our suburbs in Grand Rapids, and so the Grand Rapids Wyoming area, seven times seven, based out of Holland, Michigan, now has a site there in Grand Rapids area, saying to us, okay, we'll handle the mentoring piece, and we'll handle the case management piece and do job readiness, work with our brothers and sisters who are coming out, but you be the support piece. You be the organization that provides the spiritual and also the support group. Peace ends so that together, we can have a synergy. We can have this bond where we are collaborating and seeing a process that truly does help, where our brothers and sisters do rise above and are restored by God's power, God's grace, where we cover all the bases, body, mind and spirit. So, from communication to commitment, coordination to collaboration, the four C's of partnering, reintegration culminates in the community. The Albert Challenge is reintegration in the whole community, because it will still run into attitudes of, "not my backyard," will still run into attitudes of, well, you were in prison. We don't want you here. Stigma! And also how a whole concept of healing communities, or being a healing community, is very foreign, scary, messy, and yet people just don't want to go there. You do it, they'll say, that's just not us, but our prayer and our hope is that they will as we educate and connect and network more and more, we can get them on board with the vision.

Community partners who will assume primary responsibility in the stage must be increasingly involved in the process as it progresses, ensuring continuity. Remember, continuity of support leading to offender reintegration in the Healing Communities movement we call our brothers and sisters who are re-entering 'returning citizens.' Returning citizens, as a concept, means I have dignity, I have worth, I have respect, because God gave that to me. I'm made the image of God still, and God has given me a purpose and a plan for my life. It's a purpose and a plan, Jeremiah 29, a future and a hope for me. God given. And so, the community needs to recognize this and employ this. Objectived as a local partner process: Increase understanding of the criminal justice system; always be up to date what's happening in the Department of Corrections; also looking at public safety, integrated local and integrated local resources and agency work, problem solving, and of course, education; diverse core group that can explain. program and resource needs for system reintegration, because with every single city, there's a system to be understood and a culture to be won for the power of Christ.

So critical elements define the mechanisms: representation from all organizations appropriately define the roles direct involvement; clearly define procedures; identify needs and also orientations for all partners’ to do list; develop leadership structures, regular meeting schedules; memorandum of understanding; standard operating procedures. Tour the prison. Yes, go inside, re-entry. People need to be on the inside, not on and off, you know not now and again. Say, Okay, here's what's going on. Meet with the warden. Meet with or the people that he or she wants you to meet with. Get to know them, and they get to know you as well, because they know that many in their prison will not say they're wrong. Yes, years, but then one day, they'll be re-entering where we are. Conduct resource mapping, major need areas. Look at housing, employment, mentoring, life coaching and treatment. Get to know that your community, what's around you, get connected. Develop job description for a contractual job link staff, or again, whatever. That's one example sort of the term job link, or 70 times seven job readiness, and build that network capacity. And our hope for you, our hope for you today is that we've given you some practical items, some practical tools, a literal toolbox of re-entry principles and actions and best practices. So again, re-entry is restoration in the name of Christ.