Restoring lives, community

It’s common sense: If offenders get help transitioning back into society, the transition is more likely to be successful.
Success means less crime committed against law-abiding citizens. It means less heartache for offenders and their families. It means less tax money spent on incarceration.
Just such a transition program at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Jail is proving successful.
A recent study showed that the intensive, eight-week re-entry program helped hold down recidivism. Six months after completing the program, only 14.5 percent of offenders were back in jail.
That compares to a 20 percent recidivism rate among offenders who had only a short meeting with someone from Offender Aid and Restoration about transitioning. For offenders who received no counseling, the repeat rate was 31 percent.
Jail superintendent Col. Ronald Matthews says he’s looking to expand the program from the jail into the community.
Society, he warns, continues “to punish” offenders because “we don’t welcome them back” into the community. “We set them up for failure… .”
In the long run, that’s not good for the community or for the ex-offenders.
The recent study shows that there’s a better way.
We’d like to see the study extended beyond six months for a clearer picture of the program’s efficacy.
But there’s no arguing with the numbers that have emerged. The re-entry program is helping restructure lives. And that’s good for the community and for the individual men and women, including ex-offenders, who comprise our community.