Post by MXB on Sept 21, 2006 8:32:10 GMT -5
Get Out, Stay Out Of Lives of Crime
By The Intelligencer
If you are arrested for a crime serious enough to result in incarceration, the odds that you will make good in life are against you. Nationally, about two-thirds of inmates who serve time in prisons are arrested again within three years of being released.
A new program at the East Ohio Correction Center in Wintersville is intended to help inmates stay out of jail by giving them alternatives to lives of crime — and punishment. It is called “Get Out and Stay Out” — GOSO — and we think it is an excellent idea.
GOSO is the brainchild of Joseph Maiorano, who is a family and consumer science educator with the Ohio State University Extension service. It is a follow-up to another program he established for inmates, Fit 2-B Fathers. That program has involved about 300 inmates who have participated in 17 sessions intended to improve their social and parenting skills.
Maiorano believes that GOSO “is the next step” for inmates who already have completed Fit 2-B Fathers. The new program is aimed at taking up where the previous one left off, in providing inmates with skills they will need to avoid returning to crime once they leave prison. GOSO also is intended as a support group for inmates who have decided to make drastic changes in their lives.
Will it work? Undoubtedly, there will be both successes and failures. GOSO isn’t the first in-prison program aimed at reducing recidivism rates. Some inmates — particularly those with strong support groups including friends and families — succeed in living productive lives after they leave prison. Some do not.
Though there are no guarantees, we think Maiorano’s idea is a good one. We encourage corrections officials and the community — to which Maiorano may be appealing for help in defraying some costs, such as those for literature — to support it.
Section: Editorials Posted: 9/20/2006
www.theintel ligencer. net/editorials/ articles. asp?articleID= 10732
By The Intelligencer
If you are arrested for a crime serious enough to result in incarceration, the odds that you will make good in life are against you. Nationally, about two-thirds of inmates who serve time in prisons are arrested again within three years of being released.
A new program at the East Ohio Correction Center in Wintersville is intended to help inmates stay out of jail by giving them alternatives to lives of crime — and punishment. It is called “Get Out and Stay Out” — GOSO — and we think it is an excellent idea.
GOSO is the brainchild of Joseph Maiorano, who is a family and consumer science educator with the Ohio State University Extension service. It is a follow-up to another program he established for inmates, Fit 2-B Fathers. That program has involved about 300 inmates who have participated in 17 sessions intended to improve their social and parenting skills.
Maiorano believes that GOSO “is the next step” for inmates who already have completed Fit 2-B Fathers. The new program is aimed at taking up where the previous one left off, in providing inmates with skills they will need to avoid returning to crime once they leave prison. GOSO also is intended as a support group for inmates who have decided to make drastic changes in their lives.
Will it work? Undoubtedly, there will be both successes and failures. GOSO isn’t the first in-prison program aimed at reducing recidivism rates. Some inmates — particularly those with strong support groups including friends and families — succeed in living productive lives after they leave prison. Some do not.
Though there are no guarantees, we think Maiorano’s idea is a good one. We encourage corrections officials and the community — to which Maiorano may be appealing for help in defraying some costs, such as those for literature — to support it.
Section: Editorials Posted: 9/20/2006
www.theintel ligencer. net/editorials/ articles. asp?articleID= 10732