Kosciusko County guiding inmates back into society

WARSAW, Ind. -- How do inmates start a life after release when all doors feel closed? Kosciusko County sheriff, James Smith, says some don’t. They fall back into the same patterns they’re used to and wind up in the system again and again.

Smith says that issue of reoffending was what made him want to establish the Kosciusko Community Recovery program, hoping to guide inmates back into society and thrive, keeping the county jail numbers lower and recovery rates higher.

The Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department hosted a public meeting Monday evening at Warsaw’s Zimmer-Biomet Center Lake Pavilion, introducing the recovery program to the community and explaining the success they’ve seen since their July start.

The program uses three methods to aid inmates in the transition outside of jail: a resource navigator, peer recovery coaches, and partnerships with not-for-profit organizations. The goal is to support and educate inmates before and after their release.

“We’ve done the same thing for the last 50 years or longer, we’ve locked people up, you know they’ve been incarcerated for their time, and then we expect them to leave after their time served and not to come back. Found that it’s not that simple for some. Some just need a helping hand along the way and what I like to reiterate to people, this isn’t a handout, this is a hand up and only works for those willing to put the effort in and we’ve had great success so far,” said Smith.

The peer support coaches are offered through another program, Living in Transition Effectively, or L.I.T.E. Inmates are able to get connected with them through the Resource Navigator.

Those mentors are people who have walked through the system or recovery themselves and can give experienced guidance in what the transition into life after incarceration is like, like mentor Rachelle Dickey.

“Are we gonna ask for help, are we gonna get sober, or are we just gonna go back to the same places, the same people, and the same things? And catching us in jail, it makes us feel like, okay they care about us, they’re not just gonna throw us out. Because I’ve been to jail many times and many times on my release day I just walked outside and looked around and wondered, so what now?” said Dickey.

The first step in the program is for the inmates to meet with the Resource Navigator, Shanna Wallen. She described her position as the traffic director, essentially deciding what that specific person’s needs are and directing them to the right resources.

“The sheriff says a lot of the time that 90% of the crimes are committed by 10% of the population, and that really is true. It’s a lot of the same people that keep coming back to jail, so the goal was to find a way to help them find a better way to live their lives and make better decisions and not feel the need to keep coming back,” explained Wallen.

Sheriff James Smith says the program is always looking for additional resources and needs community help in any way they can. Whether it be with transportation, job opportunities, housing, volunteering as a peer mentor or in the jail, community members can call the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department or contact Shanna Wallen at 574-265-2940 or their email at [email protected].

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