BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Reentering society can be difficult after being freed from jail. So, to bring awareness to people in Bowling Green, a simulation was held for those to go through the struggles of integrating back into society after leaving incarceration.
According to the Prison Police Initiative, Kentucky has an incarceration rate 930 per 100,000 people. And when people are released from incarceration, they face struggles such as rehabilitation, and low amounts of money with a lot of bills to pay.
So, the Goodwill Industries of Kentucky put on a simulation for people in Bowling Green to bring awareness to the matter. The nonprofit has a mission of helping people who are disadvantaged achieve and maintain employment to better their lives. For this occasion, they did this by putting their volunteers and employees through certain struggles people might face after leaving jail, such as lack of transportation, getting identification, and paying bills.
Director of Career Services of the South West Region at Goodwill Industries of Kentucky, Chad Spencer, went through the simulation.
“It’s fun and games, but it really gives you an idea of the struggle people have when exiting incarceration," Spencer said.
He role played as a person who was just released from jail, and had to make ends meet on payments, despite him starting out with little money. It helped him better understand people who have went through these turbulent times.
“It’s to alleviate some of these barriers that incarcerated people face. We want to make that transition a little smoother so they can worry about obtaining employment. And we can worry about getting the services they can get," Spencer said.
The simulation also highlighted other, lesser known struggles of being released from incarceration, such as transportation, by giving them tokens to use as currency to navigate from place to place.
Some of the people who also participated in the simulation were formerly incarcerated. One of those people was Jesse French. I asked him about the struggles formerly incarcerated people actually go through.
“It was a struggle. It’s easier to give up sometimes than persevere and keep going. You have to go to meetings, doctor appointments, obtain employment, drug testing," French said.
French is currently reintegrating back into society after being released. And although he said it can be tough, it is possible to become successful, but you have to be willing to go above and beyond. His above and beyond was going to rehabilitation.
“To get something you never had, you have to do something you’ve never done," French said.