No one is immune to making bad choices, it’s just that some decisions carry more severe consequences that can lead to a visit to the county jail. Recovering from those mishaps is harder for some, making the offense a gateway to a season of repeat offenses, big or small, that keep inmates coming back. From a budget perspective, the $140 per day expense it costs to house a single inmate is reason enough to help inmates break this cycle, but it’s the heart for local people that drives the St. Johns County Sheriff Department to invest in a robust re-entry program giving an incarcerated person a second chance at life.
Sergeant Michael Clark manages the voluntary Re-Entry Program saying it all started with a simple directive from his boss, “Sheriff Hardwick came to me and said ‘Hey, get this guy a job.” The success of that action, prompted a deeper look at how they could offer the same support system to every inmate where besides a job, they could equip them with things like getting two forms of ID, skill training, completing their GED, receiving mental health support and addiction recovery before they are ever released.
“A job is great, but if a person has no support system on the outside or nowhere to live, they won’t keep that job and they’ll likely end up back here,” Sergeant Clark explains.
It’s not just a SJSO initiative either. Local business owners, non-profit organizations, even former inmates contribute to the program through classes covering everything from construction to financial planning and mental health. Instead of low-paying work release programs with no support system, they have been able to increase opportunities through second-chance employers like county and city municipalities, even local businesses, who now have more confidence hiring someone with a criminal record because of the reputation of graduating offenders.
Three years later, the recidivism rate (the tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend) in St. Johns County has decreased by 10%. While the county is growing drastically, the inmate population is actually decreasing with 100 less inmates than this time last year.
