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| Special Angola program aims to ease ex-cons’ re-entry into society and workforce |
| By theneworleansadvocate.com- Chad Calder |
| Published: 06/29/2015 |
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One of every two inmates who steps outside the gates of a Louisiana correctional facility will end up back inside within five years, having succumbed to any number of forces that can conspire to make a lie out of promises to go straight. Former inmates who stumble ultimately fall prey to their own bad decisions, but a lack of job skills and education, mental health and substance abuse problems, prohibitions on employment and frayed ties to community and family all make successful re-entry exceedingly difficult for ex-convicts. A program created by the Legislature in 2010 aims to change that, allowing judges to work with prosecutors to select nonviolent offenders facing sentences of 10 years or less — except for sex crimes — and send them not to parish correctional centers but to Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. There, they spend at least two years learning a trade, getting their GED and receiving counseling from mentors serving life sentences. Upon release, they are subject to an intense probationary period that includes curfews, drug testing and treatment. Read More. |
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