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County prison offers inmates help to return to society

Former inmate Thomas Purcell of Butler, right, receives a hug fro his friend Gloria Beggs also of Butler at the 3rd Annual Kids Day event hosted by Action in Recovery. Purcell took part in Acton in Recovery at the Butler County Prison.

The Butler County Prison typically houses around 250 inmates.

When their jail sentence is over, the system usually cuts all ties with former inmates, leaving them to return to the same setting that led them to jail in the first place.

“Taking classes in jail is one thing, but once you get out, that's when the rubber hits the road,” said Deputy Warden Jennifer Passarelli. “Some of them just can't do life. Once they leave here, they are out in the world.”

Prison officials have spent more than six years developing programs aimed at changing that dynamic and helping inmates make the transition back to civilian life. A small number of selected inmates are enrolled in the program.

“The neat thing about the re-entry program is that it takes all the resources in the jail, like anger management, counseling, etc., and bundles them into one program and makes them available to inmates on a regular basis,” said Sarah Kuehn, a criminal justice professor at Slippery Rock University.

Kuehn was hired by Warden Joe DeMore in 2015 along with another professor to work as consultants on the local program.

Tackling a need

Re-entry programs are not a common element in most jails across the country, according to Janeen Buck Wilson, a senior-level researcher with the nonprofit public policy organization Urban Institute. Wilson worked with the Allegheny County Jail to develop re-entry programs based on research.

This is an excerpt from a story that appears in Tuesday's Butler Eagle.

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