ALIX MCLEAREN:
Going to prison, all by itself, is a big challenge.
You lose freedom, and privileges,
and the ability to be in contact with your family.
Reentry, the entire process is difficult. There are lots of barriers that are put in
place so that when somebody’s coming out of prison, there may be restrictions
on what they can do job-wise.
They may have certain conditions
that are stringent that they have to adhere to
that are designed to help keep them out of
trouble but also may make their life a little bit tougher.
JOHN WETZEL: Preparing inmates for release
is not like paint by numbers, it’s really
individualizing it and we start at commitment.
We do a series of assessments looking at
addiction and education levels, and those
kinds of things. Then we put them on a course
an individualized course
to address both criminogenic needs and other needs.
ALIX MCLEAREN: In the Bureau of
Prisons, we offer individualized services
so everybody comes in
and makes their own set of goals
based on their own needs
and then picks programs or other activities accordingly. We have knowledgeable and skilled
mental health and medical professionals.
We have self-help resource libraries.
We have a whole range
of mental health treatment programs that
treat not only the seriously
mentally ill individuals in Bureau custody,
but also address trauma, adjustment,
and severe-entrenched personality disorders.
We have educational programs, which, again, very broad in scope, so not
just literacy which of course is a huge focus, but recreation
and leisure time management skills programs,
as well as vocational
and occupational programs that help people. We also have life skills programs,
resume writing, or criminal thinking elimination.
And finally we have services that are specific
to certain high-need groups within the population, such as gender responsive programs for women
and disability support groups or
other supportive services for people that may face some specific reentry challenges.
