Prisoners shown way out
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LAFAYETTE — About 50 Lafayette Parish Jail inmates recently took advantage of a new opportunity to ease the transition back from incarceration to making their way on the outside.
The state Office of Motor Vehicles paid a house call to the jail to issue 46 inmates state identification cards, paid for by the inmates, as part of the jail’s re-entry program, known as Options.
Leah Dishong, project development manager for the Sheriff’s Office, said Monday that having the opportunity to secure state ID cards before leaving jail is important for inmates looking to shift to a life that will not land them back in jail.
She said the Options program formally began in February, with the hiring of a transition coordinator whose sole job is handling the various programs and resources that exist to help inmates have the best chance to succeed in the outside world.
Dishong said courses dealing with things such as breaking free of drug addiction and managing anger have long existed and still do, but where Options is different is in the smaller details that need to be taken care of to rejoin the mainstream.
She said that the ID card, for example is crucial for former inmates seeking an apartment to rent or a job to pay that rent.
If inmates, upon release, have difficulties in finding work and affording places to live, they can fall back into old habits and seek out the old friends who might have been part of the problems that sent them to jail in the first place, Dishong said.
She said that Sheriff’s Office officials began noticing the need for a better handling of transitions for prisoners by noting how many prisoners, once released, went back to old habits and ended up back behind bars.
Little things such as state ID cards created on site mean prisoners will not have to deal with trying to figure where and how to get them made, and will be less likely to grow frustrated with the process.
Dishong said the site visit by the Office of Motor Vehicles mobile unit was the first to a jail, but the Sheriff’s Office hopes to make such visits more regular.
