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Dozens of CA events this weekend honor Latino Conservation Week; Kamala Harris joins Oprah Winfrey in emotional campaign event; Report finds poor working conditions in Texas clean energy industry; AI puts on a lab coat, heads to technical schools.

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M-2 Program Helping SD Prison Inmates Integrate Back into Society

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Friday, August 8, 2008   

Sioux Falls, SD – High praise is being expressed for a 37-year-old visitation program at the South Dakota State Penitentiary. Since 1971, the M-2 (Man-to-Man) program has been helping inmates adjust to prison life and for their eventual re-entry into society, and the program is still going strong.

M-2 coordinator Don Klassen says the program, sponsored by the Association of Christian Churches of South Dakota, matches volunteers from outside the prison with inmates who have common interests with them. Volunteer "sponsors" befriend and visit with the inmates to help the prisoners build positive self-esteem. Klassen says the program is successful because it helps the many inmates who are lonely and disheartened and need someone to talk to.

"We look for similar interests, hobbies and sports; people who enjoy football, baseball, basketball can talk. If they enjoy kayaking or canoing or whitewater rafting, they can talk. Trappers can visit trappers and bow hunters can visit bow hunters. We've matched pilots with skydivers and hang gliders. It's always fun putting a match together, but the harvest comes when see a man smile who had forgotten how to smile."

The program's goal is to create a bridge for inmates to integrate back into society after their release. Klassen says the success of the program can be tracked by the low recidivism rate of participants.

"For over 15 years, we've had less than one percent recidivism per year. Nationally, they expect two-thirds to three-fourths of all the inmates to go back, and in a relatively short number of years or even months. We think it's outstanding that we've had such a low recidivism ratio."

Approximately one-third of the volunteers come from Sioux Falls, with the rest from across the state. South Dakota also has Woman-To-Woman and Youth-To-Youth programs. The number of prisoners has decreased about one percent at the State Penitentiary this year, to just over 3,300 inmates.




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