Thanks to a $60 million donation from Wells Fargo, a re-entry program is expanding to the Upstate this spring. Concordance is a nonprofit aimed at keeping former inmates from returning to prison. It currently has a facility in Missouri and chose South Carolina as its first state for expansion as it seeks to operate in 39 states over the next eight years. The facility will be in the Greenville-Spartanburg area.”Our evidence-driven model has broken the generational cycle of incarceration,” said Concordance CEO Danny Ludeman, who used to be the CEO of Wells Fargo Advisors.”If you look at state penitentiaries all over this country, 80% of people incarcerated have a severe mental health issue (and) 83% have a severe substance abuse disorder, and so if you can’t heal somebody first, then a lot of the other things we offer don’t really matter,” Ludeman said. The program is 18 months long and begins when an inmate has six months left in their prison sentence. It offers rehabilitation services. “And then after we heal these individuals, we provide education job training and we have our own employment agency where we’re not finding jobs, we’re actually employing them with contracts with 13 employment partners and then bringing financial education counseling to our individuals with the help of Wells Fargo as well,” Ludeman said. Right now, South Carolina has the lowest return-to-prison rate in the country. Only 17% of inmates released go back to prison. “And with Concordance, we’re going to go lower,” Bryan Stirling, director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, said. “This is amazing what they’re doing. This $60 million, plus other pledges — it’s going to change so many people’s lives.” The South Carolina Department of Corrections releases 6,000 people each year. Roughly 20% of those released inmates end up in the Greenville-Spartanburg area, said Stirling. That is, in part, because of their overall populations. “I’m excited to see where we’re going to go with this,” said Stirling.
Thanks to a $60 million donation from Wells Fargo, a re-entry program is expanding to the Upstate this spring.
Concordance is a nonprofit aimed at keeping former inmates from returning to prison. It currently has a facility in Missouri and chose South Carolina as its first state for expansion as it seeks to operate in 39 states over the next eight years. The facility will be in the Greenville-Spartanburg area.
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“Our evidence-driven model has broken the generational cycle of incarceration,” said Concordance CEO Danny Ludeman, who used to be the CEO of Wells Fargo Advisors.
“If you look at state penitentiaries all over this country, 80% of people incarcerated have a severe mental health issue (and) 83% have a severe substance abuse disorder, and so if you can’t heal somebody first, then a lot of the other things we offer don’t really matter,” Ludeman said.
The program is 18 months long and begins when an inmate has six months left in their prison sentence. It offers rehabilitation services.
“And then after we heal these individuals, we provide education job training and we have our own employment agency where we’re not finding jobs, we’re actually employing them with contracts with 13 employment partners and then bringing financial education counseling to our individuals with the help of Wells Fargo as well,” Ludeman said.
Right now, South Carolina has the lowest return-to-prison rate in the country. Only 17% of inmates released go back to prison.
“And with Concordance, we’re going to go lower,” Bryan Stirling, director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, said. “This is amazing what they’re doing. This $60 million, plus other pledges — it’s going to change so many people’s lives.”
The South Carolina Department of Corrections releases 6,000 people each year. Roughly 20% of those released inmates end up in the Greenville-Spartanburg area, said Stirling. That is, in part, because of their overall populations.
“I’m excited to see where we’re going to go with this,” said Stirling.
Source: wyff4.com
