Redemption Road

PALMER — Pretty much every hour of every day, someone on an anti-crime Mat-Su Facebook page posts a repeat offender’s photo or announces the latest bold move by desperate addicts seeking items to hock for drugs.

“Hang ‘em high!” some reply angrily.

“I’m locked and loaded!” others warn.

Others make pleas for compassion and understanding, pointing out that many offenders are driven by their substance abuse problems, or reminding that each of them are someone’s husband, son, sister, mother, or daughter and deserve a second chance.

Those involved in prisoner reentry programs throughout the country and especially recently in the Valley would side with the second group as they celebrated National Reentry Week this week in line with President Trump declaring April “Second Chance Month.”

When asked why anyone should open their hearts and lend a hand to felons returning to their communities after incarceration, Mat-Su Reentry Coalition Coordinator Janice Weiss explained that it only makes sense if people expect negative, and sometimes dangerous, behaviors to cease.

“Everyone should care for several reasons,” said Weiss, who previously helped create educational and vocational training programs in what is now Hiland Mountain Correctional Center in Eagle River. “Nearly every one of the people who is incarcerated will be released and living back in our communities at some point. These people can release with education and skills, and the opportunity for education, skills, and health assistance, which will lead to their being good citizens — or they can release and come out to continue a life of crime. As a community, we need to take an active part in assisting people to be good citizens, which leads to a strong, healthier community. Families will be better off and fewer victims of crimes will be created.”

This is why Weiss and several other Valley residents have worked diligently since 2012 to create the Mat-Su Reentry Coalition from the Mat-Su Coalition on Housing and Homelessness.

Community forums in 2013 led to more than 17 public task force or committee meetings where more than 150 participants focused on employment, education, community involvement, medical needs, transportation, and capacity issues. The ultimate goal: To increase the success rate of prisoners re-entering the community.

Over the next few years, local agencies such as Alaska Family Services, Akeela, Mat-Su Health Services, MyHouse, Set Free Alaska, Valley Residential Services, Knik House, and Mat-Su Job Center jumped on the bandwagon and grants from the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority and the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services allowed for Weiss’s position and that of a Case Manager to be funded full-time.

While Weiss works to build relationships in the community for the coalition, Case Manager Brian Galloway provides direct support to inmates who are close to release and tracks them in their progress afterward if they sign up for a six-month case management program.

To qualify for case management, inmates need to be classified as felons with medium-to-high risk for recidivism. This usually involves substance abuse or mental health issues, Galloway said.

With 95 percent of all prison inmates in Alaska being released at some point and 48 percent of those returning to prison within the first year and 66 percent returning within three years, according to the recent Mat-Su Reentry Coalition’s Comprehensive Reentry Plan report, Galloway feels his job is vital to reducing those statistics.

“We’re offering any supports we can to make sure re-entrants are staying successful and are happy and don’t have to get back into the habit of how they’re going to pay for rent this month or survive,” said Galloway, who has being doing some form of case management for the past 14 years.

Galloway said he has met with about 150 inmates getting ready to be released from Goose Creek Correctional Center over the last six months and, of those, about 25 agreed to sign up for case management with him. That is the key to being successful and not ending up back behind bars, he believes.

“Some of them get involved in the same social settings and renew the same behaviors that got them into trouble in the first place, but for the most part those who sign up for the program know they are ready for the change and that is the most important thing to getting clean and becoming productive,” Galloway said.

He said he has one former inmate on his caseload who stands out to him as a model of a successful re-entry.

“One guy got out about six months ago and has maintained his parole without an issue, gotten a job, and reached out to other agencies on his own,” Galloway said. “Before, it seemed like every other year he was getting incarcerated again for failing to comply with conditions of his release or for substance abuse. This time he’s done supremely well and will be graduating from the program soon and heading to work on a fishing boat in western Alaska.”

Galloway said the certificates reentrants receive after going through case management with him show a potential employer or landlord that the former inmate is serious about getting his or her life together.

Every bit of encouragement helps as finding affordable housing is one of the most difficult barriers reentrants face, he said. If a landlord isn’t put off by the “felon” label, the rent can be daunting for someone with little-to-no income.

“Most people just coming out of prison aren’t going to have $700 or $900 for a one-bedroom apartment, but sometimes they can share a home with others who’ve been released or get into Knik House in Wasilla,” he said, adding the Mat-Su Reentry Coalition continues to work with local landlords and hotels that will accept tenants on a longer-term basis.

And while Galloway hasn’t had as many female reentrants take him up on his case management offer, on the second Friday of every month, he, Weiss, and representatives from Mat-Su Health Services, Akeela, Set Free Alaska, and Alaska Family Services go into Hiland Mountain to do in-reach with female inmates who are within 90 days of being released.

On March 9, about 35 women wearing orange jumpsuits listened anxiously to the offerings before them and wondered how to make the most of the services.

One woman wondered where she could get her tattoos removed.

“I have addiction or drug culture tattoos and I don’t want to be in that life any more,” said the woman, adding she has grief and loss issues she needs help with, as well.

A few other women wanted to be sure to get counseling for themselves and their children or other family members to reduce the chances of ending up back in prison.

A 31-year-old woman from Palmer with tight braids in her hair that made her look 10 years younger was especially interested in a new residential treatment facility for women in Palmer called Valley Oaks. It’s owned and run by Set Free Alaska, which uses a “mind-body-spirit” approach to recovery.

This particular facility does allow a certain number of children, which makes it popular with many women who don’t want to be separated from their children while in treatment for several months, according to Sherry Hill of Set Free. Hill told the Palmer woman she would need to be assessed first and gave her her card to reach her upon release.

“That’s like right across the street from my parents’ house,” said the woman, who was now a second-time felon after allegedly being involved in an armed home invasion with a male accomplice in Eagle River earlier this year. “That would be perfect. I don’t think my parents want me at their house right now, but I really need to get clean and stop doing stupid stuff.”

Galloway said the most encouraging aspect of the statewide Reentry Program has been the fact that the Department of Corrections redirected their funds to support the program.

“I thought it was very forward thinking for the DOC commissioner to do this,” he said. “That’s where it came from. Him looking at why the system isn’t working and what can be done about it.”