Fairness for Prisoners' Families
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Fairness for Prisoners' Families
Locals speak out for inmates
By Adam Folk
March 18, 2006
Their loved ones may be serving time miles away, but family members got the chance to petition the Georgia Department of Corrections on their behalf Friday.
Men and women from all over the state traveled to Milledgeville to attend the Inmates' Family & Friends Group meeting in the Arnall Building of Central State. They came on behalf of their friends, husbands, brothers, sisters, uncles, cousins and aunts who are serving time in one of Georgia's correctional facilities. They came because they had grievances with DOC policies, ranging from telephone fees to medical treatment. Mostly, they came because they care.
Guests used the question and answer session to voice both their gratitude and anger at the DOC.
One woman told the commissioner that the DOC's phone service, MCI, was destroying her and her husband's relationship, in addition to being counter-productive to his rehabilitation. She said the charge of roughly a dollar a minute plus connection fees can add up to about $100 a month. This, coupled with the cost of transportation to go see her loved one, money sent to him in prison, and the increased prices in many of the prison's vending machines, is an expense many of the families are struggling to meet.
In fact, the stress that many families can face when a loved one is incarcerated was a theme that everyone agreed on.
Commissioner James E. Donald told the families the role they play once their family member or friend is out of jail is essential to lowering the chance the person may return to prison. He said a stable environment, coupled with education and skills taught in prison, can get the inmate integrated back into society.
"One of the key things is changing his environment, and y'all can help me with this," Donald said. "We know regardless of how much we do internally, it has a lot to do with that changing."
He used the occasion to stress his department's commitment to providing the inmates with opportunities to work as well as to learn. Donald told the crowd he was taught the value of work at a young age, but admitted that even he did not fully prepare his children for the real world, citing the fact that he still pays his daughter's car payment.
"Work is a learned behavior - it doesn't happen by accident," Donald said. "I'm just afraid if we send him home without learning, he might go back in."
Donald touted the department's new pre-release centers, which will go into effect in April, as a means to teach inmates the skills they need in the real world. These centers will allow inmates with only a few years left in their sentence to move to a facility where they can learn skills and also earn a bit of money before they are released.
Despite the new policies and the open session, many of the attendees were skeptical of whether the DOC and Donald would follow through on their promises.
Shareef Cousin took the opportunity to talk one-on-one with a warden. He said he had a feeling much of the session was little more than simple public relations.
"A lot of things sound good and a lot of people employed by the DOC are eloquent speakers," Cousin said. "Mr. Donald is an eloquent speaker, but I'd like to see these things get done."
Dianne Sifford, whose husband is being held in Wilcox State Prison in Abbeville, said the DOC is actually making people more prone to criminal behavior than when they entered prison. She attributes the problem to a lack of proper counseling and therapy by the department, but said she was hopeful for a change.
"If the proposals go into effect I think the companies going into the prisons is a wonderful thing," Sifford said. "The biggest thing is that people in the DOC need to remember is what they do while they are in the prisons drastically affects the inmates when they come out."
Donald acknowledged the concerns of the families. He said the environment the inmate returns to has more to do with the likelihood they will go back to prison.
"The two major findings on recidivism has more to do with suitable housing and meaningful work," Donald said.