Prison Rehabilitation: Fact or Fiction?
                                              January 7, 2005

     Currently there are 35,869 inmates in the North Carolina Department of Correction. A common misconception is that the prisoners are sitting in the cellblocks watching TV or in the exercise room working out on weights. While this is true some of the time, treatment and work programs that attempt to rehabilitate the prisoner make up most of the inmate’s day.
     Boyd Burnett, the Director of Prisons, recently spoke at the Fall Conference of Superior Court Judges about prison rehabilitation programs. Over 60 % of prison inmates have a substance abuse addiction to either drugs or alcohol. There are over 19 substance abuse programs treating over 900 inmates. All of the programs are short-term from 36 to 120 days of treatment. Longer programs would increase the likelihood of success for the hardcore addict.
     At any given time there are over 8300 inmates in some sort of educational program within the prison system working for GED, high school, and community college certificates and degrees.
     There are 4800 inmates receiving mental health evaluation and treatment with 18 staff psychologists and an acute mental health treatment facility at Central Prison. Sixty inmates a year go through the Sex Offender Accountability and Responsibility program.
     Over 12,000 inmates at medium and minimum security prisons work daily at various jobs. 5,000 inmates work in the community; an example is in the laundry at hospitals, 2,200 work in road crews and 1000 are in work release programs. 2100 inmates work in Correction Enterprises within the Department of Correction where they construct buildings within the prison, paint, make eyeglasses, farm and grow food for the prison system, make license plates and traffic signs, and print state documents. The 2002-2003 annual report shows that Correction Enterprises had a net income of $702,000 on revenues of 69 million dollars. Two companies have brought industry into high security prisons where inmates make minimum wage. Money made by the inmates offsets some of the cost of incarceration and also pays restitution back to the victims of the crimes.
      Since the Department of Correction releases 22,000 inmates back into the community every year and 98% of the inmates are eventually released, there are transition programs such as the Going Home Initiative and Job Start to help the inmate lead successful lives back in society.
     Most importantly, the spiritual side of the inmate’s life is not neglected. There are 43 fulltime chaplains, 34 part-time ministers and thousands of local citizens bringing faith-based programs into the prisons. Repenting for past bad deeds and calling on God to lead and direct your life is the best way for lasting, life-changing rehabilitation. The Department of Correction gives every inmate an opportunity to make this commitment.

Opinions expressed in this article are solely that of this writer and are not the official position of the Conference of Superior Court Judges. Readers with questions about the Judicial System may send inquiries to the Weekly News to be responded to by Judge Hockenbury or send the judge an e- mail at www.judgejayhockenbury.com .