Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Bryan was walking down a local street when he bumped into old friends who were sharing a weed-filled blunt and invited him to join in.
The offer awakened the addict in him, triggering an overwhelming urge to get high.
“You get anxious. You start sweating, especially if it’s your drug of choice and they’re offering it for free. It’s hard to turn down,” said the 21-year-old Wilkes-Barre native who asked that his last name not be printed.
But this time he didn’t give in as usual.
He had analyzed, role-played and practiced what he’d do in this very situation at the Luzerne County Reentry Service Center, a county-contracted day reporting center that tries to teach offenders how to change their criminal thinking and behavior so they don’t land back in the county prison.
Run by GEO Reentry Services, the center on Wilkes-Barre Boulevard marks its fifth anniversary this month.
90 to 100 offenders
An average 90 to 100 offenders participate in the program at any given time in exchange for the chance to stay out of prison. The county saves about $60 a day per offender because the program costs $38 per day as opposed to $97 for lodging in the county’s crowded prison system.
The program is for eligible nonviolent offenders with no sex offenses who are out on bail, approved by a judge for early release from prison or given a last chance to stay out of prison on a parole violation.
When offenders start the program, actuarial assessments indicate they have an 86 percent chance of committing another crime. By the time they leave, that likelihood is reduced by 42.2 percent, statistics show.
More than half of participants graduate, usually in around six months. Of the 178 participants who graduated from the program by August 2014, around 77 percent did not return to the criminal justice system, the center’s annual report says.
The program requires regular drug testing and participation in customized individual and group therapy sessions that attempt to make offenders recognize and rethink behavior standing in the way of their goals.
GEO Reentry wasn’t looking for low-risk offenders for its program because other existing programs already targeted that population, said John Hogan, GEO’s district manager.
“This is for people who are chronic reoffenders. The people who are here now have had multiple offenses throughout their lifetime and multiple failures on probation. These are the hardest cases. That’s what we want,” Hogan said.
Skeptical at first
County Probation Services Director Mike Vecchio said he was skeptical at first because offenders repeatedly caught on parole violations rarely changed their behavior.
“I’ve been doing this a long time. Somebody who had multiple violations normally was not successful. You would expect another violation,” Vecchio said. “To see the success is really impressive.”
Why is it working?
Matthew Shoener, the center’s lead therapist, said the group uses evidence-based therapies that have been scientifically vetted with proven results reducing recidivism.
“I think that’s why we’re so effective here. It’s because everything that we do is based on science. We know it works because it’s been proven to work over and over and over again,” he said.
Take Bryan, for example.
He had to complete “behavior chains” showing how he’d normally respond to a situation and the outcomes that would follow and a second one using a different reaction.
In the case of the encounter with his old friends, his usual chain said he would accept the invitation to smoke rationalizing that he would only use once but then soon fall back into the familiar pattern of chasing highs.
His second chain — the one he ended up following — made him pause to clear his head and consciously ask himself if one hit was worth the ensuing paranoia over going back to jail, the obsession over getting enough money for his next fix and the risk of losing family relationships he has finally started to repair.
“It all starts with thoughts,” he said. “At first it was hard, but as you go through it more and more, the positive thoughts come quicker.”
Center program manager Stacey Velez said most offenders did not receive or digest the thinking and behavior ingrained in others.
“They don’t know how to do it without somebody identifying that their thoughts are are wrong. They believe they’re right, and without anybody to show them anything different and give them something to think about — an option — nothing’s going to change,” Velez said. “That, to me, is the secret here.”
Role playing
It takes time because offenders must build trust and get over their fear of fumbling through role playing, but Velez said it’s worth the effort so they’re not caught cold on the streets, with the potential for another crime lurking.
They practice how to deal with countless situations, from drivers cutting them off on a roadway to coworkers who take advantage of them on the job.
Offenders are more likely to keep coming back to prison without evidence-based programs that reverse imbedded criminal thinking reinforced by years of addiction and negative associations, said county Correctional Services Division Head J. Allen Nesbitt.
“Like any other new skill, you need to practice, practice, practice until you get that skill down. That’s the key,” Nesbitt said.
Prison Treatment Coordinator Grace Franks said the center also is a one-stop shop for offenders to access help with employment, housing, finances, veteran assistance and other issues they struggle with upon release from prison. She and other prison and probation employees also meet to review each case with center workers weekly.
Vecchio said the hours offenders spend in the center each week with positive role models and other offenders rebuilding their lives can make a difference for those who don’t have a strong network of family and friends.
“The amount of time that’s spent in this facility with people who are positive is important so they get enough strength to do it on their own because many people try and fail. It’s just the way it is,” he said.
Young drinker
Bryan said there’s no way he’d be sober without the center.
He started drinking when he entered the U.S. Air Force straight out of high school. He got caught underage drinking three times before he was discharged.
The military’s program to address his drinking was a 15-minute class with a packet he had to fill out, he said.
“I probably filled out the packet drunk,” he said.
Bryan said he got into drugs to numb his depression and shame about his failure in the military, leading to his arrest. He kept using while on probation and was so high when he arrived at the center that he fell asleep on the toilet during his urine test.
He now has an apartment and has lost the sunken face and blotched complexion of his drug use. He takes pride in his appearance again and tries to do three positive things for someone else each day, from cleaning at the center to picking up trash he passes on his bike.
“They don’t give up on you here. That’s the great thing,” he said.