An Excellent Candidate to Succeed...

In the movies, it’s poignant—and easy. The warden hands the departing inmate a suit of clothes and some money. He shakes the inmate’s hand and wishes him luck. The music swells, the doors swing open and the beaming inmate sails off to a productive future.

But in the real world, a newly released prisoner is seldom a candidate for a positive future.

What will he do about a job? A place to live? Clothing? Toilet articles? Health care? Bus fare?

If those needs are not met right away, the former inmate may be a future one.
But a 26-year-old program called Prison Outreach Ministry is combating prisoner boomeranging in the Washington area.

The program operates in the District of Columbia, Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. It supplies limited-value vouchers to end-of-sentence inmates to cover immediate needs. Then it pairs each inmate with a volunteer mentor, who helps the inmate find work, locate a place to live and navigate a world that can often be very hostile.

Each former prisoner can stay in the program for one year. Each is tested regularly for drug and alcohol abuse. Prison Outreach Ministry has a caseload of about 80 former inmates—90 percent of them male. The program is affiliated with the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, but inmates of all faiths are welcome.Is it a success?
“It’s almost too soon to tell,” said Sister Susan Van Baalen, the acting executive director. “There’s hardly a need that they don’t have” the day they leave prison. “You can’t expect everything they need to fall into place in less than a year.”

But Sister Susan adds:
“Anecdotally, we have a very small percentage returning to prison.”
Ella Wiggins, of Accokeek, Md., is hoping that applies to her.
She was released from a prison in Upper Marlboro almost six months ago. She served six months for misuse of a credit card. It was her fifth conviction—always for crimes involving relatively small sums of money.

“But the real story is, I was into crack cocaine,” said Wiggins, who is 50. “It cost me 20 years of my life.”

Wiggins says she was the type of addict who “hid it very well. I thought it couldn’t be no better than this.”

She worked here and there at fast food restaurants and big-box retail stores. But she continued to use cocaine, and to seek it all the time.

“I didn’t learn anything,” she said. “This time, it’s different.”

Via her mentor, Brenda Hester, Wiggins has stayed drug-free since she entered the POM program. Meanwhile, she has continued to look for a job. She calls Hester at all hours of the day and night—often for a simple booster shot of confidence.
“She’s my best friend I didn’t have,” Wiggins said.

Wiggins is an excellent candidate to succeed in the POM program, according to program supervisors.

She graduated from Northwestern High School, attended Prince George’s Community College for 18 months and spent six years in the U.S. Army. Her eight brothers and sisters live nearby. One sister has given her a place to live, free of charge. Wiggins has lived in Prince George’s since she was two.

“I got a family that prays for me,” she said. “It makes a big difference.”
Much of POM’s funding comes via United Way of the National Capital Area. “Without funding from the community, we would not be able to function,” said Sister Susan. “It’s really very important to us.” And to Ella Wiggins.
How is she doing, all in all, after six months in POM?
“I’m scaring myself how much better I am,” she said.