SUN-GAZETTE FILE PHOTO The Lycoming County Prison, 277 W. Third St., is shown from above. Women inmates are returning to the prison after being transferred to other county prisons in the fall.

The judicial system has changed since the days when prisoners were sentenced to hard labor until their time was served and they could re-enter society. Today, incarceration is often considered a time for rehabilitating those who have committed a crime so that they have the skills to navigate life outside of prison and possibly prevent a return to criminal activity.

President Judge Nancy Butts remarked at a meeting of the Prison Board about the “positive supportive” programs offered at the Lycoming County prison and the Pre-Release Center (PRC).

“If people think that people in jail, whether it’s the county prison or the Pre-Release Center, are just sitting watching TV, they’re actually not. They’re trying to better themselves, so when they are released, hopefully they have some new tools that they’re not going to find their way back into the criminal judicial system,” Butts said.

She praised the counselors at the prison and PRC for the work that they do and how they offer insights about the inmates because of their interaction with them.

“Programs like this can’t happen without the support of the prison counselors. They are the unsung heroes behind the scene who are doing so much work for the individual inmates,” Butts said.

“I see the majority of them through treatment court because they often give us a little bit of extra information to know if this person’s going to be suitable; what their strengths are and how we can best help them when we bring them into treatment court,” she added.

Currently at the prison, Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous programs to inmates are offered as well as two through West Branch Drug and Alcohol Abuse Commission-one for females on life after trauma, which helps them cope through all the trauma they may have experienced that may have contributed to their being incarcerated and a drug and alcohol program for both males and females.This fall Penn College started to offer a course for inmates. There are also opportunities for inmates to earn their General Equivalency Diploma (GED) as well as a program run by GEO Reentry.

“In house-our employees run it-we have a life skills (program) for males and females, a mental health-educational group, which someone from Joinder just started. And then we have the MAT (Medication-Assisted Treatment) program which also is coordinated with West Branch,” said Chloe Perrin, counselor at the County Prison.

Similar programs are also available to residents at the PRC, in addition to others that are specifically offered there.

Crossroads Counseling comes in and they do individual and group counseling for drug and alcohol. During what they call Power Hour the local YWCA conducts a domestic violence group with the females. The GED program at PRC has classes weekly and testing monthly.There is also tutoring available for the GED as well as college courses. There are also religious programs such as church services and Bible Study available.

A special guest, Ludo, the Courthouse dog, began visiting the PRC in July.

“We’ve been trying to get him in once a month for one-on-one visits with the residents,” said Karey Snook, a counselor at PRC.

“Another thing that I think is probably not talked about enough is our new tablets. We have programs available on the tablets that are really amazing. There are hundreds of things that they can learn on there-anything from parenting to mental health issues,” Snook said.

Once the resident completes a session, they get a printout certificate saying they have the course.

“It’s free and it’s really a good opportunity for them to use in their free time,” she added.

Taking advantage of the opportunities offered, in most cases, is the decision of the inmate or PRC resident.

“Every now and then we’ll have a court order that’ll come right from the court saying why they’re incarcerated, they need to do this and this,” said Deputy Warden of Inmate Services Chris Ebner.

“A lot of them are based on the individual signing up and going,” he said, adding that there is a protocol in place to remove someone from a group if they sign up and are absent too many times.

Residents at the PRC have been sentenced to the minimum security facility, while inmates at the county prison on the other hand are awaiting sentencing and by law, they cannot be forced to attend programs. The residents at PRC usually participate in a work release program so they’re most likely to be out during the day, so programming is in addition to their time at work.

“We don’t do that quite as much at the prison, because we deal with a lot of pretrial people, and they have not been sentenced. In the state of Pennsylvania,(with) pre-trial people, you can’t even make work. They’re not sentenced yet, so you can’t make them work. So that’s kind of what makes PRC just a little bit different. Plus it’s a minimum security facility and there’s no bars,” Ebner said.

He noted that although participation in programs is not mandatory, officials “highly encourage” it.

“The only thing that is mandatory at PRC is the drug and alcohol. So we have two counselors, me and another counselor, if we put them in the drug and alcohol, they’re required to attend. But the other programs are voluntary, but we do require that they continue. If you sign up, we basically try to talk to them about commitment. When you make a commitment, you have to stick with it,” Snook said.

Some of the programs, such as the college course offerings, have limited class sizes, so if someone signs up and then doesn’t follow through until the course is finished, that denies another person the opportunity to take the class

“We always talk to them ahead of time and say,listen, this is voluntary, but since you are volunteering for it, you need to know that this is a commitment. It’s not something that you’re going to take one class and decide you’re done with it. You’re going to commit to it and you’re going to complete it,” Snook said.

“I really think that they like being held to their commitment, because it forces them to be committed and complete, where sometimes they probably wouldn’t complete, and push themselves. And then, when they complete, and then they get a certificate, like an actual black and white paper, they’ll say, ‘this is the first certificate I’ve ever received.’ Then they feel that sense of accomplishment that they may not have done if they weren’t held to make sure that they complete it,” she said.

When inmates first come to the prison, according to Perrin, they are asked what they would like to sign up for.

“We lay them all out, NAA, drug and alcohol, any religious programs, and it’s their self willingness to sign up for them, and most of the time that they do. I I see more people sign up for programs than not. But we also have people sign up and not go, but the programs like life skills, life after trauma, the mental health group, we have a cut off for them, and most of the time they are committed every week that they’ll go,” Perrin said.

“Life after trauma is eight weeks our mental health group is six weeks, life skills four weeks, and there’s a success, like they’re completing the whole four weeks… and at the end of my life skills group I give them a certificate, and make them do a little speech from the last four weeks. They clap and sometimes they’ll tell me no one’s done this,” Perrin said.

Most of them don’t have their GED or diplomas so this might be the first time they were told they did a good job.

“That’s something that I look forward to,”Perrin said.

Of course, there are detractors who think offering programs to those who have committed crimes is coddling them. To them prison should be punitive, not rehabilitative.

“I hear a lot of people say, well, they don’t deserve that, or, you know, they shouldn’t be able to do that. Why should they get a free college class? Well, what do you want them to be doing in there,” Perrin said.

“I thought that part of being in jail was to better themselves, not to just punish them. And everybody, I mean, everybody in my facility (PRC), I cannot say that about the prison, but almost everybody we deal with is getting out, and they’re gonna be your neighbor, they’re gonna be your coworker. Why do we not want them to be better people? And if they’re willing to put the work in. Why would we not be willing to offer this stuff for them,” Perrin said.

For those in the county prison, Snook agreed with Perrin.

“If they just sit in jail for whatever their sentence is, or if they’re waiting to go see the judge and they’re just sitting and doing nothing, they’re not getting better. They’re just being stagnant,” Perrin said.

‘My biggest thing is I want to give you the resources for when you go out that you’re going to be better, because they might be your neighbor and may not ever have the resources to go to college to get help with their addictions or whatever. So if they’re not in recovery or trying to get better, then they’re going to continue to keep doing the same things over and over and over again, because that’s what they’re used to.I feel like we get more pushback at the prison because why are we helping them? But I love what I do, because I like seeing the end result and then getting help and benefiting them for when they go in front of the judge,” Perrin said.

“I think studies have shown that if the inmate population nationwide is engaged in good, pro-social activities, programming and stuff, it turns out that it makes your overall jail/ PRC operations run smoother. People that are engaged in doing things are not security problems for prisons. That has been shown, Ebner said.

Besides diminishing security problems, county prisons are required by law to offer programs.

“You have to offer these things, and you have to have programming. So it isn’t an annual or semi annual (thing), it’s all part of what we do,” he added.