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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

A Second Chance: MN Program Trains More Mentors to Guide Ex-Offenders

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Friday, November 5, 2010   

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - The belief that everyone deserves a second chance is practiced daily by people involved in a unique Minnesota program. The Community Justice Project is a partnership between the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches and the Minneapolis Police Department. It matches volunteer mentors with felons close to being released. The mentors offer practical advice on education, job hunting, budgeting and housing, and they help ex-offenders navigate through social service and government channels.

The goal is to increase public safety, says Hillary Freeman, the project director.

"So, if we're going to increase public safety, we have to change people's behavior when they return home. Otherwise, they will continue to commit new crimes or violate their probation. We hold people accountable, but also provide opportunity for change and growth."

The program has seen dramatic results. Only 13 percent of felons who are matched with a mentor re-offend, compared to the Minnesota Department of Corrections' overall recidivism rate of 37 percent.

Billy Secord has been a mentor with the program for almost two years. He says he believes deeply in the mission and in giving people a second chance.

"It's my belief that we all own the future of our community, our society. We have to participate in ways that we believe. Coaching and mentoring, which is what this program does, allows our values and our beliefs to positively influence those who haven't always made the right decisions."

He admits that, at first, he was a little apprehensive about getting involved with ex-offenders and had a few fears about what to expect. But that all changed when he met his first mentee, Jerome, and the mentee who followed.

"These are people who often you would never know they were in jail, but because of how they were raised, and the environments they always found themselves in, and the friends that they surrounded themselves with, they got into situations that led them down the wrong path."

Secord says it's incredible to see when positive change happens. One of his mentees is now an honor student in college, serving as vice-president of the school's Phi Beta Kappa chapter.

Freeman says the program could always use more mentors. They're holding a mentorship training Saturday, Nov. 13. Information is available at www.communityjusticeproject.gmcc.org
The Minnesota Department of Corrections Recidivism rates are available at www.accountability.state.mn.us.




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