Beyond the Bars

Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail Inmate Programs

The Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail is pleased to announce that Vanity Salon will be hosting an Art Exhibit at their place of business beginning Wednesday, November 3, 2009.  This exhibit will run to February 2, 2010.

Vanity Salon is located at 971 2^nd Street SW in Charlottesville and their hours of operation are Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. You are welcome to visit between these hours for viewing of this exhibit.

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The Inmate Art Program here at Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail offers our offenders an opportunity to express their creative talents in a variety of ways. Local artists Rose Hill, LeVonne Yountz, Lindsay Freedman, Esther Lozano, and George Andrew volunteer as instructors teaching oil painting, abstract, and acrylic to approximately 100 students per year.

At Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, we encourage and provide the opportunity for our offenders to utilize and identify their many talents, gifts and skills that they have in a way that promote productive citizenship and community service.

This year we are donating half of all proceeds to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville. The remaining proceeds will be used to purchase supplies for the classes and programs.

For information about our inmate programs contact Phyllis Back, Director of Programs, Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, (434) 977-6981 ext. 288, backp@acrj.org or www.beyond-bars.com.

For a complete list of songs, go to the Music & Poetry page.

Some of our latest recordings – Enjoy!

• Win-Win Situation
• Stress
• I Gave You a Name
• Is It Too Late?
• Stuck in a Box
• The Adventures of the Mind
• Emotions Start to Fly
• Eternity
• Dare To Be the Best
• Change

Via Kris Bowmaster, Proud Angel Music

By Tasha Kates
Published: October 19, 2009

The eight-week re-entry program for inmates at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail has had a positive impact on the recidivism rate, according to a University of Virginia study.

Ann B. Loper, a professor with UVa’s Curry School of Education, said of those who underwent the intensive program, 14.5 percent were rebooked into the jail within six months compared with 31 percent of those who received no treatment. Of the inmates who had a short meeting with Offender Aid and Restoration about transitioning into the community, 20 percent were rebooked into the jail six months later.

“It’s a very hopeful and terrific sign,” Loper said. “Your eight-week program and the initial interview make an impressive difference.”

Loper presented the results of the 170-person study Friday to jail and OAR staff. Attendees said the results have reinforced their belief that the re-entry program cuts the recidivism rate while reminding them what else needs to be done for former inmates who served local sentences.

Col. Ronald Matthews, the jail’s superintendent, said everyone who is at the jail long enough is required to go through the re-entry program. Inmates enrolled in the program, which was started in 2005, attend classes on social and vocational topics designed to prepare them for the transition back into a regular life.
Matthews said the jail is working on a larger community re-education movement about felons.
“We continue to punish them because we don’t welcome them back,” Matthews said.

“We set them up for failure because we ostracize them and don’t give them employment.”

The lack of jobs for convicted felons was part of Friday’s discussion. Attendees mentioned that many businesses don’t want to hire felons despite a federal tax credit, and how a bad experience with one felon can cause an employer to stop hiring them altogether.

Employment isn’t the only place where inmates need help. Of the inmates who said they had a role model or mentor, about 52 percent said it was a female family member and about 21 percent said it was a male family member.

“That tells us that there is a disconnect between the male inmate and the male role model, which goes back to [whether] the father is in the home,” Matthews said.

The jail has been working on a mentoring component to the re-entry program that matches community members with people getting out of jail for up to two years. Matthews said there is a correlation between the amount of assistance a former inmate receives and how successful that person is in the world.

Via The Daily Progress, October 19, 2009

We will be displaying an exhibit at the Paramount Theater on Oct 19th as part of the Incarceration Nation event. See below for more information about this important event

Join us for INCARCERATION NATION on October 19, 2009!

Incarceration Nation, an event to benefit the Legal Aid Justice Center, will address the question of why our prison system is so overburdened, racially disparate, and fundamentally inhumane- and what can be done to change this.

The evening will feature an episode from the documentary series 30 Days, entitled “Jail”, by Morgan Spurlock of the award-winning film, Supersize Me. Following the film, Master of Ceremonies John Grisham will moderate a panel discussion of experts on the prison reform movement, including: R. Dwayne Betts, poet and author of, A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival and Coming of Age in Prison, David Fathi, Director of Human Rights Watch’s U.S. program, and The Honorable Jim Webb, U.S. Senator from Virginia (invited).

This event will be held at the Paramount Theater in Downtown Charlottesville at 7:00 PM on Monday, October 19, 2009.

Purchase Tickets Today!

View a Short Video about our Virginia Institutionalized Persons Project (17 minutes).

Via Legal Aid Justice Center