AX: “Like any other normal person – you tighed up your house before you leave you never know an unexpected guest might be coming.”
But no unexpected guests will be coming. The porch is empty, there is not a single soul or even a chair. Visitors are forbidden from standing in front of the house or sitting on the outside stairs. That’s because the eight residents are ex-convicts who are still on parolE.
The home is part of Fresh Start – a re-entry program with at the First Baptist Church of Bridgeport, which is next door. The program is partly founded by the State of Connecticut and partially supported by charitable donations.
Friday has long braids. His shoulders are as square as his laugh is joyful. He’s 44, and after five years in a Connecticut State Penitentiary, he is starting his life over
AX
I am doing so much wrong over the years – right feels real good.
Seven month ago, shortly after his own release from prison, Jose Trevares lived in the house. He knew that his in-and-out of jail cycle was not working. It was hard but Fresh Start helped.
AX
My most difficult transition coming home was worrying about finding work and I was working two days after my release which left a lot of pressure off me two days after my release I was working.
He now has the family life he wanted: He is back with his wife and two children. Dinner is on the table at a regular time, he helps out with his daughter's softball team, and he is teaching his son how to ride a bicycle. He says his wife does not have to worry all the time.
Claudette Rizzoli manages the Freshstart program. The slim and feminine woman is at ease with the ex-convicts -- who she refers to as clients . She says, the goal of the program is to help ex-cons make their way from the violent, every-man-for-himself work of prison back into the world.
AX
The transition is the biggest fear. What I am going to do when I go out? I have been here for 15 years. I do not know how it is out there. I only now how it is in here. What I am going to do out here and somebody telling me what to do?
Fresh start is an all inclusive program. Rizzoli makes sure that all aspects of the clients new life are handled – whether it’s renewing an expired drivers' license, making an appointment to see a mental health professionaL, or finding shelter and work.
Sallie Shank is chairman of FreshStart’s board of directors. She became involved 10 years ago after she discovered that the rate of incarceration in the United States is 8 and half timeS hIgher than in any other industrialized country.
AX:
These are shocking number. At the cost of about 45000 a year to incarcerate someone about the same cost to send someone to an Ivy League school.
At Fresh start, on the other hand, the highest net cost per client is only 4000 dollars. That is because Freshstart clients work for businesses in the community. The program pays its clients 10 10 dollars an hour and uses the resest to defray expenses. The program isn’t just inexpensive – it’s effective, too. A Yale University study has shown that recidivism in the Bridgeport area has fallen by more than half thanks to re-entry programs like fresh start. But due to the ongoing state fiscal crisis Rizzoli’s budget is stretched to the limit.
AX:
Last year we had 600 guys coming through our services next door. This year we are cut in half.
Anna Crayton is a researcher at the Prisonner Re-entry Insitute at the John-Jay College in Manhattan
AX
I am concerned this program have to do much more with much less
As the fiscal crisis has blown holes in state budgets, States have chosen to close their budget gaps by closing prisons– as Connecticut has done– or opting for early release programs, like Kansas. Both policies suggest more need for re-entry services – even while the budget crisis means there are fewer.
Another Freshstart board member – Susan Ness —has been trying to sell Connecticut's wealthy residents on the merits of Fresh Start. It has not been easy.
AX:
It is a harder sale than cancer, because not everybody can relate.
On his way to a meeting at the Fresh Start office to discuss his wish to go back to school, Friday shows us what sets Fresh Start apart from other re-entry homes: the garden of hope. It used to be an empty lot full of weeds and trash wHere prostitutes and drug dealers did their business . But
AMBI SOUND THE GATE
He and his fellow clients spent last summer clearing weeds and moving rubish, then tilling the soil and it felt good.
AX:
I have never felt that before. It was really nice the experience because I was out there and feel good doing some at the end the day I could actually see what I did.
Shank and Ness, the tow board members are touring the garden.
“Bulbs how that yellow there is tulips --- ho I guess we do not have deer’s here in downtown Bridgeport.”
Sounds of bird
“That looks really healthy – you do not need much maintenance.”
Eugene McNight has been with Fresh Start for more than two years . He started as a client but is now a staff member. He says the garden is really important. The guys gain work experience and can claim ownership of something positive for the neighborhoods.
AX:
The good experience I have is why the guy on a day-to-day basis – bonding with the guys on our hands and knees digging in the dirt which we never expected we will be doing but we are.
The clients of Fresh Start are also growing their own vegetabkes in the garden. But there’s no guarantee that ex-cons will continue to enjoy what they’ve done. Connecticuts budget deficit may lead to even more cuts which will mean more ex-offenders on the street with less money to help them transition. – for now, through Ness and Shank, the two board members like the fact that the clients and their neighboors are admiring the flowers.
Sara Bertin Columbia Radio News