MILTON — One East Milton facility, located on a properly named Transition Road, operated by the Santa Rosa County Sheriff ’s Office, gives low-risk offenders the opportunity to be successful.
They can do so through the SRSO’s work release and Second Chance Outreach Re-Entry and Education Development Inc., or SCORE, programs.
The sheriff ’s office runs a work release program for offenders out of a former women’s detention facility near the Santa Rosa Correctional Institution.
GALLERY: Photos touring the SRSO detention work release facility>
The building has sleeping quarters, restrooms and showers, laundry rooms, a kitchen, and an outside recreation area.
PRODUCTIVE USE OF TIME
“This gives us another alternative than just locking people up and having them just sit in a cell,” Santa Rosa County Sheriff Wendell Hall said.
Hall said the facility and program allow offenders to keep their job or help them find a job while staying inside a correctional facility.
“The purpose of this place is that they keep their job and they do not become a burden on the taxpayers,” Hall said.
Lt. Thomas Hawley, who helps oversee work release operations at the facility, said the men involved with the work release program have been involved in minor infractions, like driving under the influence; theft; or burglary.
“These people are not dangerous,” he said. “They are not in here for harming people; they just harmed themselves with drugs, selling drugs or stealing people’s property.”
The work release program partners with the volunteer-based SCORE program, which provides Moral Reconation Therapy, or MRT treatment strategies, to help reduce the rate of recidivism, or repeated prison sentences.
These strategies include counseling on a variety of topics, from handling drug or alcohol abuse to anger management. SCORE also offers job search assistance and partners with Locklin Tech in administering GED classes, among other areas.
‘FROM POINT A TO
POINT B’
Alton Johnson, SCORE’s chief executive officer, said he became aware of such a program’s benefit during his time with the Florida Department of Corrections.
“I realized there was a need for guys to have additional resources when they are released or they are coming back (to prison),” Johnson said. “They have to get from point A to point B.”
The program has seen an 82 percent success rate, Johnson said.
Still, “The need is not just in Santa Rosa County,” Johnson said. “We have 100,000 inmates in the Florida Department of Corrections, and there (are) not enough programs to meet those needs; there needs to be more.”
BY THE NUMBERS
Here are some numbers involving the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office Work Release Program
● The facility was opened in March 1, 2016
● Currently the facility has 15 offenders
● There 14 offenders released for time served
● Eight returned for not following the rules
● Out of the 15 inmates housed at the facility, only two are not employed and are currently searching
●These inmates are housed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, unless they are working for a local business.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Work release program aims to reduce recidivism ( PHOTOS, VIDEOS)