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| AK Faith-based Re-entry Program, First Graduate |
| By BRIELLE SCHAEFFER , Peninsula Clarion , adn.com |
| Published: 04/25/2011 |
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KENAI -- Sonny Thompson walked past the 8-foot-tall chain-link gates at Wildwood Correctional Center a free man. It's April 5, 2011. A free man with little more than the shirt on his back and a wooden cross dangling from a blue string around his neck. The rest of his possessions -- books, mostly -- he carried out with him in a clear, plastic garbage bag. Alex Zerbinos was there to pick him up around 1:30 p.m. "There he is, he's my man," Zerbinos said. Thompson strode over to Zerbinos, waiting for him outside his pickup truck. They hugged. "I feel like I'm going to puke all over the place, man," Thompson said. The chaplain was there, too. "You did it," said the Rev. David Arestad, who works at the prison. Thompson is tall, about 6-feet-5, and so thin he looks almost malnourished. His eyes, a deep ocean blue, look out from above his sunken cheeks. He is 26 years old and has been more in than out of jail since he was 13. He wears his jail time on his face -- a tattoo of a spider and its web on his right check. Because Thompson served the entirety of his last sentence, he was free and clear upon release. No probation. This is the first time he's gotten out of jail and wanted to do good, Thompson said. All the other times he wanted to party. Drink beers and see old friends. And every other time he'd gotten out, he wanted to go back. Prison was safe. "It's not fun. It's pretty scary," Thompson said about being out. "I have to take my being released as an addiction -- one day at a time." Thompson is the first graduate of Wildwood's Alpha Re-entry Initiative, a collaborative program among the Alaska Department of Corrections, Alaska Correctional Ministries, and Alpha USA, a faith-based prisoner re-entry program. The pilot program at Wildwood is for inmates who volunteer for the program and who have a minimum of six months to serve. The in-prison piece centers on a Christian education course, along with a substance abuse recovery program and sessions on life and job skills, Arestad said. Wildwood has the capacity to house 18 inmates in the program. All the participants live on the same floor to create a sense of community and accountability. The program is based on a model created by Alpha USA and is operating at eight prisons around the country. There is no cost to the state to operate it. Churches, Alpha USA and community members privately fund the initiative. The state has similar programs at Hiland Mountain and Palmer correctional centers. At a recent open house for the new program at Wildwood, organizers and participants in the Alpha program spoke about its benefits. The inmates sang, prayed and shared their stories with the crowd. "I have no doubt in my mind you guys will never see me in this place again in these clothes," Thompson told the group, dressed in the institutional gold scrubs. Thompson completed three months of the Alpha Re-entry Program and a course on alcohol and drugs simultaneously. "Just because I've done three months doesn't mean I didn't have to work for it," he said. "This program is the only thing that changed me." He said he owes that in part to his mentors who taught him life skills. "I've never had anybody there for me when I got out." A big component of the re-entry initiative is the mentorship program. Each inmate is paired with a mentor or two to help him navigate his way back into society. The mentors provide support, encouragement and accountability. Most of the mentors are volunteers from within the faith-based community. According to Carmen Gutierrez, a deputy commissioner at the Alaska Department of Corrections, 297 convicted felons were released into Alaska communities every month in 2009. Of those released, 66 percent came back to jail within one to three years. Currently, one of 31 Alaskans is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections. The state is excited about this program, Gutierrez said, because it's creating change while the prisoners are in jail and providing continued support after release. "If we haven't done anything to change the hearts and minds of the people that have been here it's no surprise," she told attendants and inmates at the open house. A program like the Alpha Re-Entry Initiative at Wildwood could help reduce the state's recidivism rates and the cost of incarceration. According to a recently released study from the Pew Center on the States, Alaska could save $24.6 million each year if it shaved its 50.4 percent recidivism rate by 10 percent. Arestad said the pilot program at Wildwood will be evaluated in a year or so. The goal is to make the re-entry initiative an ongoing program. The first thing Thompson ate after his release was a jack burger at PJ's Diner in the Kenai airport. Zerbinos drove him there. It was sunny but not warm. A clear, early spring day. Inside the restaurant, Thompson and Zerbinos talked about what he needs to do to get back into society. First, he has to stop by the Alaska Alcohol Safety Action Program office to pay for his education program. Then he's going to get settled in at the Kenai Friendship Mission, a homeless shelter in North Kenai, where he'll be staying until he finds a more permanent home. He needs a job and an identification card. But all those things will come. Thompson prayed before he ate, crossing himself before crossing his hand beneath the table. When Thompson was 13, he was arrested for car theft while driving his grandparents' truck around the Butte. "I've been driving since I was 7 or 8. We owned a ranch," he said. His grandparents raised him in Texas and Oklahoma before moving to Palmer. His grandparents did not want to press charges. But because he was a juvenile the state did, he said. He was put in McLaughlin Youth Center. While he was in jail both his grandparents died. His grandmother had liver cancer, and seven days after she died his grandfather died from leukemia. "Once they passed, things went to hell," Thompson said. He tried to kill a staff member at McLaughlin. It was worse because the staff member was female, he said. They tried to try him as an adult, but he remained in the juvenile system. He got 10 years, but he served five in juvenile detention, three in solitary confinement. He finished that sentence in Anchorage and Point MacKenzie. Whenever he did get out he would get wrapped up in more crime. Theft, vandalism, forgery. Things that violated his parole and carried a sentence on their own. But he felt safer in jail than out of it. Thompson is staying at the Kenai Friendship Mission, the all-male homeless shelter on the Kenai Spur Highway, on the outskirts of the city. Formerly a house of ill repute, the shelter is run by Graydon "Skipper" Cowgill and his wife, Mary Anne. The couple regularly takes in men freshly out of jail. There are strict rules at the mission -- men must attend church services and Bible studies, and there's a 4 p.m. curfew. Read More. |
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