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| Mentor program helps inmates at Norfolk County jail Read more: Mentor program helps inmates at Norfolk County jail prepare for life on the outside |
| By dailynewstranscript.com |
| Published: 08/12/2011 |
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Inside the locked doors of the Norfolk County jail, volunteers with a new mentorship program hope they are the key to lead repeat offenders to productive lives. The result of a partnership between Volunteers of America and the Norfolk County Sheriff’s office, the program assigns community members to inmates soon to be reentering society. Mentors meet with prisoners weekly for the final months of their term, then assist them through their first year after jail. For Norfolk County Sheriff Michael Bellotti, bringing in mentors is an effort to reduce the prison population. About 670 reside at Norfolk County Correctional Center, more than twice its designed capacity of 302. “It’s a dramatic shift in how we connect the inmates with the outside world,” Bellotti said. “This is inviting the outside community into our four walls to help bring down the obstacles that typically lead to recidivism.” Issues relating to addiction or frustrations in searching for housing, employment or health care can lead recently released prisoners right back to their former lives and habits that got them arrested in the first place, Bellotti said. While the maximum sentence at the Norfolk County jail is three-and-a-half years, many wind up serving as many as 25 years. Bellotti refers to it as “doing life by the installment plan.” What’s even worse, Bellotti said, is when their children start wracking up convictions, too. Read more: Mentor program helps inmates at Norfolk County jail prepare for life on the outside - Dedham, Massachusetts - The Dedham Transcript http://www.dailynewstranscript.com/archive/x181942004/Mentor-program-helps-inmates-at-Norfolk-County-jail-prepare-for-life-on-the-outside#ixzz1UqPvHztQ Read More. |
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