‘Society needs you’: These Tarrant County inmates eager to build new lives after jail
Packed into the library at the Green Bay Jail in Fort Worth, 17 inmates along with their teachers and a few family members were getting ready for a small, quiet celebration.
The men spent 40 hours in classes every Friday for weeks with a single goal: learn skills and behaviors that will keep them from winding up back behind bars. On Friday, they were given diplomas celebrating their completion of the Pathways to Hope (or helping offenders pursue excellence) program.
The program was founded in 2021 but didn’t start until 2022 because of COVID-19. Half of the men in the program are military veterans.
So far, the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office says the reincarceration rate for the 141 graduates is around the 6% they were hoping for. In the program, the men learn skills that could help them get jobs, including training in trades like welding, as well as the importance of things like showing up on time.
On Friday, 17 men sat in a semicircle as speakers, including retired Army Capt. Alan Clark, a Vietnam War veteran, and Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Wayborn, reminded them of the importance of a support system when they are released. They hammered home the fact that when the men are serving time in the Tarrant County Jail, they’re missing out on their children’s milestones, time with their spouses, holidays with parents and family and the experiences of every day life.
The room, and the rest of the jail, smelled sharply of sanitizer. Its gray walls were painted with inspirational messages and references to math, science, and writing studies. A painting of Albert Einstein is next to one of an owl with a graduation cap holding a high school equivalency diploma in its talons. Sitting there, every man was quiet and seemed to have blinders on to anything but the people speaking.
They heard how Clark lost his leg in Vietnam, how it made him angry and how important it was that he had support from loved ones when he got back home. He said that the struggles he faced and the difficulties the men will have when they get out of jail are not that different. They’ll need stay out of the places and away from the groups that got them there.
“You’re not in here for what you’re in here for,” speakers and inmates repeated.
It means that the crimes that got them sentenced to jail are a symptom of a something deeper. They’re told they need to stay away from people and places where they have “demons,” triggers that could make it more difficult for them to lead law-abiding lives.
Throughout their time in the Pathways to Hope program, the inmates lived in open-air group cells. The veterans have painted the insignia of the military branches in their shared cell. There, they’re asked to help keep each other accountable to their studies.
The Pathways program will help the men find housing, a job and keep them accountable for 18 months, meeting for two hours one night a week. It’s one of the things the men are told will help them stay out of prison, one of the ways the program keeps its reincarceration rate low.
When toward the end of the graduation Wayborn asked the men what they thought of the program, the men told him they were thankful they were able to learn skills and trades. They plan to follow the advice and instructions they received so they can be there when their children or other family have big moments.
“Society needs you,” Wayborn told the men after hearing what they gained from the program. “We need good fathers out there so we don’t repeat this. Good men out there working and contributing.”
He said the men have been given the skills to reintegrate and make a positive difference in their families and communities.
This story was originally published October 19, 2023 at 6:00 AM.