Clay County inmates preparing for successful reentry into society by completing a 12-step moral reconation therapy program.
Clay County Anti-Drug Coalition Certified Peer Recovery Specialist Dwayne Rich said the structured cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on improving decision-making skills and impulse control. Rich said the program targets the root causes of addiction and criminal behavior to help participants understand the ethical consequences of their actions.
“So their behavior change is,” Rich said, “Instead of being caught up in the past, they’ve dealt with the past and their behavior is now about looking forward and being the better person in the community and just all-around being a better human being.”
Clay County Anti-Drug Coalition Certified Peer Young Adult Specialist Daniel Roberts said participants actively plan goals and seek to apologize to people they have wronged starting at step two of the program. Roberts said inmates complete homework assignments together to build unity within the jail pods.
“So in the correctional setting, they’re able to help each other out with the homework, they’re able to talk through any struggles, so it gets unity within the pods, if the pods—if the jail has pods, and it get—gets unity in—in the jail because they’re helping each other while they’re going through the hardest thing in their life right now is, you know, being incarcerated, being away from their family,” Roberts said.
Rich said the team setting requires every man to be accountable for the next person to ensure all participants finish their weekly requirements together.
“Every man is accountable for the—for the next person,” Rich said. “So, you know, when one person gets it done, the—the point of it is to get he—he helps the next person and the next person helps the next person and then when the week comes back around, they’re all done and they’ve all done it together and not individual.”
Roberts said the coalition provides inmates with job readiness training, trauma training, and assistance with job applications before their release. Rich said the ultimate goal is to prevent repeat offenders who previously relied on self-will from returning to incarceration.
“My hope is that family members would see that their fa—their loved one while incarcerated, was doing something to mend the relationships, was doing something while they were in jail to to help make their time worth it and just build their skills,” Roberts said.
Roberts said graduates are recognized publicly to show their families they have worked hard to change for the better.
