Mid-Ohio Valley Reentry Council meets to talk life after prison
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PARKERSBURG -- The Mid-Ohio Valley Reentry Council hosted a community meeting Friday at the Smoot Theatre to discuss the problem with reentry from prison or other reformative programs.
Dominique Kirl, a representative with the MOV Reentry Council, said she was hoping to get an idea on what the community thinks about the problem.
Kirl noted she wants to work more with the community and this meeting was to get a conversation going within the community.
At the meeting were church representatives and representatives from faith based organizations,
Wendy Tuck with the Parkersburg City Council, members of sober living homes, community members from local Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) organizations, teachers and interested community members.
Beverly Sharp, a representative from the West Virginia Reentry Councils, noted that West Virginia has no formal reentry programs for its citizens. Sharp said there are close to 200 people sitting in West Virginia prisons or jails simply because they have nowhere else to go.
Sharp said anyone can help fix the current problem of reentry.
Sharp said some of the biggest ways one can help is to vote and go to community meetings like the one that was held Friday night.
"We've got to humanize the issue we're dealing with," said Sharp.
Sharp noted the main reason for the meeting was to help the community come up with a solution to the local reentry issue.
The council led a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Obstacles and Threats) during the meeting to generate ideas to help community members who are struggling with the reentry process.
The attendants of the community meeting first discussed the strengths in the community in regards to the reentry process.
Donna Donovan with the Appalachian Pagan Ministry noted there are many resources within the community, but they have limitations.
Donovan noted she thought of a lot of problems but not many strengths.
"That's why I've been fighting so hard," said Donovan.
Donovan also said there are many people ready to help.
Cyndi Auth, who came to the community meeting, noted the program she's working on, called "Seeing Your Future Through a Different Lens" works with inmates to explore and train for different jobs.
Auth noted one of the things they have the inmates working on is workplace safety.
The people at the community meeting also listed connections through Westbrook Health Services, AA meetings, the recovery community, local funding and support from the faith community as strengths the local community has.
Next, the community members at the meeting on Friday talked about weaknesses of the community regarding the reentry process. One of the bigger weaknesses the community members pointed out is there are no positive outlooks on recovery. Sharp said fear is the biggest influence in the U.S., especially in regards to the reentry process.
The community members talked about the stigma that usually follows those in the reentry and recovery process and how that stigma makes it hard for those in that process to find jobs and sometimes the help they need.
"There's some bright people in there," said David Garcia, who works with inmates and prepares them for reentry.
"It's part of our community whether you like it or not," said Wood County Democratic Executive Committee Chairman Jeff Fox, who is also running for the District 9 seat of the Parkersburg City Council.
The community members noted the community struggles with family reunification, lack of community engagement, stigma, lack of housing, healthcare, 24 hour transportation, restrictive housing, sober living, expensive recovery housing, not recognizing DCR identification and misplaced priority funding. Multiple community members noted they think the opioid settlement funding is not being used as it's supposed to, and that's hurting the recovery and reentry communities.
When the community members talked about the threats to the reentry issue, a big thing they talked about was the stigma that follows ex-convicts"It's not about us and them," said Sharp. "It's about we."
Fox added to the discussion by saying, "Politicians react to the fears of the few instead of the needs of the many." Another threat the community members noted was money diversion from the government, lack of safe and affordable housing, lack of hope, bans on sober living homes and insurance restrictions.
The Mid-Ohio Valley Reentry Council meets monthly, visit their facebook page to learn more.