NEW: Worcester Sheriff Announces New Inmate Programs

Wednesday, February 06, 2013

GolocalWorcester News Team

Worcester County Sheriff Lew Evangelidis announced an effort to curb behavior issues through anger management with a new inmate re-entry program.

The new Anger Management and Relapse Prevention program comes as almost 1,200 inmates are incarcerated at the West Boylston facility and most are being released in under two years, according to the Sheriff’s office. The Sheriff’s office said they are committed to reducing recidivism and behavioral issues.

The main focus of the new re-entry curriculum is to help foster inmates' awareness of their thoughts, feelings and emotional responses in dealing with addiction and behaviors that would impede them from a successful transition into society after incarceration.

“With almost 90% of our inmates today behind bars due to addictions to drugs and alcohol, our new program takes direct aim at those behavioral issues which lead to incarceration,” Evangelidis said.

The program is a voluntary ten week certificate completion course that provides inmates with a clinical approach to dealing with their anger management and substance abuse behavioral issues.

“Facilitated by our very dedicated education and substance abuse counselors, these new clinical and cutting edge programs have remodeled and reformed an ineffective and outdated approach to relapse and recidivism with a very effective and disciplined approach to positive community re-entry with our inmates,” he said.

To date, there have been three Relapse Prevention and five Anger Management classes since they were introduced by the Sheriff last spring. Of the 274 inmates who participated in the new curriculum, 206 graduated with their certificate of completion with over forty graduates in the most recent class.

At the conclusion of the rigorous ten week course, where 100% attendance and the completion of a one hundred and ninety page workbook is mandatory, Evangelidis issues the acknowledgement certificates to each graduate.

New Hampshire native and inmate Brain Doubleday who completed the ten week course, spoke about the program’s benefits.

“I now have much better skills to help me cope with the pressures of the outside world. Before I would easily give in to the temptations of drug and alcohol use which has always resulted in me serving time, now I will stop and think twice about what I have learned here first,” he said.

According to Sheriff Evangelidis, more than 6,000 inmates come through the doors of the correctional facility each year.