GRAFTON, Ohio — Sanford is one of 13 new graduates from Prison Fellowship Academy at Grafton Correctional Institution.

“Most important thing that I’ve learned is we’re not our worst mistake and there’s always growth," Sanford said. "We can always come back from a fall."

Spectrum News isn't sharing full names or showing the faces of these inmates.

“This was one of those programs that I saw that would help me get that continual growth," Sanford said.

Prison Fellowship Academy is a one-year program focused on character development that centers on strengthening one’s faith. The goal is to transform prisoners into good citizens.

The Tier 1 program includes 200 curriculum hours with courses about criminogenic needs, relationships, life skills and reentry, addictions and recovery and spiritual formation.

“Tapping into what makes people, you know, into criminals, how they ended up in the trouble they ended up in and then be able to take it back to the foundational level and kind of build them back out of that," said Richard Swiger, the program manager of the Prison Fellowship Academy at the Grafton Correctional Institution. 

Swiger has first-hand experience with what it takes to become a restored citizen. He spent five and a half years at Grafton Correctional Institution as an offender. 

“I think I’m the first one to actually come back in with keys into the facility that he did time at and have an office in a unit where I can kind of lean over my desk and look up and see a cell that I used to live in," he said.

Swiger’s troubles began as a child and he shares his story to show others that rehabilitation is possible.

“At the age of two, I had a sister who passed away in a bed next to me from abuse," Swiger said. "That caused my parents to get a divorce. At the age of three, I was put in the foster system in Massachusetts. At the age of six, I was put in a group home until I was 12. At the age of 13, I committed my first felony arrest. At the age of 16, my dad was murdered in an arson fire."

He said from there he hit the streets outside Boston, Massachusetts and got into drugs, drinking and trouble with the law. 

"I went back on the streets after five and a half years and very quickly was back in trouble. I violated my parole and caught a new case, and was coming back and facing life in prison," Swiger said. "And through a series of decisions and circumstances. I met the savior of the universe, Jesus Christ, on the floor of a dirty cell in 2002 going through the Medina County Jail."

After that, he spent nine more years in prison, but approached it differently and earned a college degree. After his release, he began volunteering inside state facilities and joined the Prison Fellowship team in 2017.

Today, Swiger is happily married to his wife Deborah. They have three children together and live on a five and a half acre farm.

“So, it's going from crack houses to having something," Swiger said.

According to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, of the top five commitment offenses, the average stay is just under 3 years in prison.

“I would just challenge people that are sitting at home thinking that these in-prison programs are a dime a dozen, and that, you know, that the men aren't worth the effort to think again, because these men are actually going to get out of prison someday, most of them," Swiger said.

Prison Fellowship Academy changed the way Sanford said he views himself and the world.

As a 34-year-old father, he said his family guides his path to being the best person he can be.

“I love my son," Sanford said. "He means the world to me. I just want to be the best father I can be from wherever I’m at, even if it’s from in here."

"The best thing that we can do for victims is change perpetrators so that they never make another victim again," Swiger said.