Challenges of jail-to-society transition listed at Franklin County workshop

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — Stressors on the correctional system in Franklin County, Pa., include a dearth of available housing and public transportation that keep people incarcerated beyond their possible release date, a criminal justice professional said Sunday.

Kim Eaton presented information about local efforts to ease the transition from jail into the community while speaking to a group known as Franklin County Concerned Citizens.

Among the services at the Franklin County Day Reporting Center, where Eaton is director, are behavior-modification programs based on a person's criminogenic risks.

"We've got to get people to think differently to act differently," she said.

The day-reporting center allows eligible criminal offenders to be released from jail early if they check into the center and complete the curriculum there.

As part of an outreach initiative for the Franklin Together Re-entry Coalition, Eaton gave Sunday's public presentation about challenges that former criminal offenders face when re-entering the community.

She said inmates stay in jail past their minimum sentence when they don't have a home plan approved by the probation department.

Not only do the ex-offenders struggle to find transportation to new jobs, but they often don't know how to ask for help or deal with criticism in the workplace, Eaton said.

There also needs less often considered, such as steel-toe shoes costing more than $40 to start a job at a concrete plant, she said.

"We try to problem-solve with them," she said of the day-reporting center.

Franklin Together links probation officers, human-services organizations, health providers, county administrators, jail staff members, churches and others in a quest to reduce the rates of ex-offenders committing new crimes when they return to the community. The coalition aims to reduce barriers to successful outcomes.

Franklin Together's current focuses are housing and employment needs, and it is developing a peer-mentoring program.