Jeffrey Dunn is Alabama’s Corrections Commissioner and says they are working to improve their recidivism rate as well. He tells a joint Mississippi House and Senate Corrections Committee about a six to 12 month pre-release program that is working in his state. Dunn says it includes an addiction and recovery program.
“It addresses job-career communication and financial skills. We talk about faith, communication and character building skills, life skills. We do basic health education. We do family reintegration training and modeling.
Experts at the meeting say those paroled or who have completed their prison sentence need a driver’s license, medications if they have medical or mental health issues, housing and some money. Louise Wasilewski, a rocket scientist and founder of Acivilate, says she’s created software to link former inmates to the services they need and keep them on track.
“Like helping people sort out all the activities they have to do and sending them text reminders. If we’re able to reduce failures to appear which these messaging approaches do we reduce technical violations,” said Wasilewski.
Kerri Pruitt the founder of the Dannon Project tells legislators they have a comprehensive approach to reentry with a list of services including education, healthcare, transportation and oversight.
“We also partner with all of our probation officers, our judges and our justice partners. We do that so we can make sure that they have compliance reports every single week,” said Pruitt.
The recidivism rate in Mississippi is 36 percent. This is the second meeting of the joint corrections committee. Another one is planned for October.
