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New Prison Promises Training, Counseling For Inmates

Tribune photo by MICHAEL SPOONEYBARGER

Bonnie Brookhart, a social services counselor works with inmates at the Demilley Correctional Institution Feb. 4 in Polk City.

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By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 8, 2009

POLK CITY - Warden Rod James asked the busload of arriving inmates to raise their hands if they had been incarcerated at least once before.

Of the 50 men on the bus, 49 raised a hand.

For James, that simple exercise illustrated an inescapable truth: while prisons can keep criminals off the streets, they're not doing enough to change behavior.

"We need to take a different approach, see if we can't keep people from coming back," he said.

The state Department of Corrections is trying to do just that with an experiment at the recently opened Demilley Correctional Institute in Polk City.

Demilley, a former Department of Juvenile Justice site, has been converted into Florida's first transitional re-entry prison.

Inmates receive computer skills training, school education and substance abuse counseling. They are taught life skills and receive 100 hours of transitional training, learning everything from how to complete a job application to how to interview for a job. Classes include information on institutionalization and breaking the cycle.

The prison eventually plans to teach inmates culinary skills. The idea is an ex-con with marketable job skills will have less reason to return to crime.

The task is daunting. In Florida, 32 percent of prison inmates released return to prison within three years.

James said the state Department of Corrections hasn't given him a statistical goal for the program. But, he says, any reduction in the recidivism rate will help.

"One of the things Secretary [Walter] McNeil asked is, 'Do we want to be a Department of Incarceration or a Department of Corrections?' " James said. "I think everybody who works in this prison has to have a different mindset. This prison is a great experiment."

In addition to the public safety aspect of the program, James said, there's also a hope that taxpayers will spend less if Demilley if a success.

When James started work with the corrections department more than 30 years ago, Florida had 20 prisons. Now, the state has about 60 prisons, with plans for 19 more.

Each prison costs the state about $100 million to build. Each inmate costs taxpayers about $19,300 a year.

Florida has about 99,400 prison inmates. That's roughly the population of Lakeland.

"We can't keep building our way out of this problem," said Franchatta Barber, assistant secretary of re-entry for the corrections department.

Polk County was chosen to be the first location for a transitional re-entry prison because the prison system gets such strong volunteer support there, Barber said. If the program works, she said, the corrections department would like one such prison in each of Florida's four regions.

Inmates began arriving late last year at Demilley, a medium security prison. About 270 inmates are now on site, though soon there will be 384. Their ages, education levels and criminal offenses run the gamut.

Demilley's inmates are required to have three years or less left behind bars.

Inmate Joshua Coyne, 29, of Port Charlotte, has about 2 1/2 years to go. He was convicted of burglarizing homes; he says he had a drug problem at the time.

Now he hopes to take advantage of the computer training Demilley has to offer so he can work for his father as an insurance adjuster.

"I'm a prime example of what they're trying to do here," he said. "I don't know much about computers. I'm going to get a job, and knowing how to use computers is going to give me a step up."

Inmate Matthew Rodriguez, 36, of Tarpon Springs, has about 18 months left in prison. He's using that time to hone his computer skills.

"It's a therapeutic community," he said of Demilley. "It's giving you a different outlook than other prisons."

Rodriguez wants to get a certification with computers. But he's not positive what career field he wants to enter when he leaves Demilley.

"I'm not really sure at this point," he said. "It all depends on what I get out of this."

Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at (813) 259-7691.

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