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ALBION — Ex-convicts released from prison often have no support system, even at home, and no idea how to build one.
That’s what prompted a program held for the first time in early December at Chain O’ Lakes Correctional Facility, a minimum security prison inside the grounds of Chain O’ Lakes State Park in Albion.
The prison hosted the Prevention Rehabilitation Enhancement Program, according to Chain O’ Lakes Correctional Facility superintendent Michael Cunegin. It marked the first time PREP had been offered at a minimum security prison in Indiana, he said.
PREP is a full weekend for residents and their spouses to learn healthy and positive communication technique, according to the Indiana Department of Correction Web site.
Cunegin explained that prisoners need to learn things to be aware of when coming out of prison back into the world, and so do their significant others. Cunegin had at first thought that meant only wives until a chaplain pointed out that many of the inmates have longtime girlfriends with whom they have lived and have several children.
The weekend is about learning to understand and make contact with the most significant person in that prisoner’s life, Cunegin said. It teaches communication skills so the men and women can better understand each other.
“We had 15 offenders and the 15 wives and girlfriends,” Cunegin said. The women stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Kendallville.
Beforehand, the men went through counseling with two members of the IDOC religious services staff, who were also on hand for PREP. Prison staff and people from Aramark, which works with the correctional facility, were also on hand.
Then the men met with their significant others in the ball room of the hotel with pizza, cookies and chips available. Those attending went through a variety of courses.
“I never knew how to talk to my wife,” said Ronnie Jackson, one of the inmates who took part in the program. Jackson, of Rochester, is serving a sentence out of Fulton County for dealing methamphetamine and nonsupport of a dependent child from a previous marriage.
Jackson said he learned better ways to communicate with his current wife. He learned to avoid withdrawal, invalidation and negative interpretation.
He also learned about filters — preconceptions people bring to a relationship. “It’s how we interpret things that are said,” he explained.
Different factors impact a relationship, such as inattention, emotions, beliefs, expectations and self-protection, Jackson said.
But the most important thing Jackson learned may have been how to work though an argument without it escalating. “It teaches about forgiveness,” he said. It also helps people understand what their partner is actually saying. If a simple disagreement escalates, that’s a sign, he said. “There’s a hidden issue there.”
Techniques for addressing problems included agenda-setting, brainstorming, agreement and following up, Jackson said.
“It was very helpful for me and my wife both,” Jackson said. “She got a lot out of the program, as I did.”
“My wife has stuck with me,” Jackson explained. “I’ve been incarcerated for four years now.” He was arrested when they were newlyweds, and a meth lab he had hidden in her vehicle resulted in her conviction on a charge of possession of an illegal lab, for which she received a one-year prison sentence she has now served.
“She’s stayed clean on the outside,” Jackson said. Her focus is now on her religion. “It’s helping her to stay straight.”
“She’s a very special lady to put up with me for four years,” he added.
Jackson credits the Clean Lifestyle Is Freedom Forever program in prison for helping him turn things around. He didn’t know a healthy way of working through problems, and was using drugs to stay numb. Now he knows better, he said, adding, “There’s a lot more to life than staying and getting high.”
Once he’s out, Jackson believes the techniques he learned in PREP will help him and his wife. “Difference is good. It’s give and take,” he said. “There’s no problem too big that it can’t be worked out.”
As each inmate completed the program, he got a yellow rose to symbolize his accomplishment, Cunegin said. Tears streamed down the faces of the women in the room.
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