Reentry training shows agencies, providers struggles facing people leaving prison
One prison parolee’s state issued identification card was stolen, a woman who was paroled sold her welfare check and was sent back to prison, and another parolee was turned away from an agency he went to for assistance.
The roles of those and other parolees were played by 35 employees of the county probation and human services departments and prison, and service agencies like Glade Run Lutheran Services and the Ellen O’Brien Gaiser Center in a training exercise designed to show them the struggles people face after they are released from prison and try to reenter society.
Butler County Prison warden Beau Sneddon arranged the free reentry simulation training, which was conducted by a group of volunteers from the state Department of Corrections and the state Board of Probation and Parole, which were combined into one department 2021. The daylong training session was held at St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Church — All Saints Parish in Butler.
Sneddon said he learned a lot when he attended a reentry training program last year, and wanted to bring the program to the county.
“The goal is to simulate the transition from incarceration back to the life you had before you were incarcerated,” Sneddon said.
Reentering a free life after leaving prison might seem an easy transition, but it can be fraught with challenges, he said.
“We try to give you an accurate depiction of what happens when you’re released from prison,” Aaron Lopez, Northwestern parole manager for the newly combined department, told the county trainees.
He said some people released from prison are not treated well by the offices and agencies they go to for help to get their lives back on track. People in those jobs should consider making an extra phone call or taking an extra step to help former inmates reenter society without feeling they have no choice but to revert to crime, said Lopez, who led the training exercise.
Among those who participated in the training was Kristina Cannon, a mental health professional with the prison’s health care provider PrimeCare Medical.
She said the training demonstrated the need for some compassion by offices and agencies that work with parolees.
“I think this was a great experience to create empathy,” Cannon said.
Acting as a parolee, Cannon said she was met with bias when she visited some of the simulated offices and agencies.
She said her character was given an identification card, Social Security card and birth certificate, but others didn’t have any of those documents or money.
Her character had no means of transportation, but had a welfare check so she sold the check to get money for transportation, but got caught and was sent back to prison.
Some characters failed drug tests while on parole and were sent back to prison. The training was aimed at encouraging offices and agencies to find out what led the parolees to use drugs, Cannon said.
The difficulty in reentering society that some parolees experience leads them to think: “I might as well just use,” she said.
“It’s hard not to go back to your old ways when you feel defeated,” Cannon said.
She said she enjoyed the training session.
“It provided an excellent perspective for people who work in corrections,” Cannon said.
