On Wednesday March 12, a guest speaker came in to speak to the men enrolled in Solano's Long Term Offender Program. His name was Dejuan Lewis, and he works for a Parole Service Center (PSC).
PSCs provide a broad range of services for men who are re-entering society from prison. The PSC Dejuan works for is GEO ReEntry, in San Francisco. In addition to providing transitional housing, it offers onsite AA and NA groups, as well as onsite classes for Parenting Skills, Substance Abuse, Anger Management, Employment Readiness, and Job Search.
GEO also boasts of having a staff that wants to help each client and that understands the issues faced by men on parole. Those words spoke to Dejuan's captive audience, some of whom will be on parole within the coming months. Dejuan took deliberate care to speak about how successful the ex-lifers were who paroled to GEO. He put a human face to the program that had helped them, and it reassured us.
The government funds allocated to GEO and other PSCs are part of a statewide shift to accommodate prisoners slated to return back to the world. This, more than anything else, is solid evidence that California is finally putting mechanisms in place to safely reduce the prison population. Admittedly, I am impressed, but not completely convinced that the state is doing enough. I am waiting for state legislators to pass measures providing judicial or administrative reviews for first-term offenders and first-term lifers.
PSCs provide a broad range of services for men who are re-entering society from prison. The PSC Dejuan works for is GEO ReEntry, in San Francisco. In addition to providing transitional housing, it offers onsite AA and NA groups, as well as onsite classes for Parenting Skills, Substance Abuse, Anger Management, Employment Readiness, and Job Search.
GEO also boasts of having a staff that wants to help each client and that understands the issues faced by men on parole. Those words spoke to Dejuan's captive audience, some of whom will be on parole within the coming months. Dejuan took deliberate care to speak about how successful the ex-lifers were who paroled to GEO. He put a human face to the program that had helped them, and it reassured us.
The government funds allocated to GEO and other PSCs are part of a statewide shift to accommodate prisoners slated to return back to the world. This, more than anything else, is solid evidence that California is finally putting mechanisms in place to safely reduce the prison population. Admittedly, I am impressed, but not completely convinced that the state is doing enough. I am waiting for state legislators to pass measures providing judicial or administrative reviews for first-term offenders and first-term lifers.
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