In the spirit of "Don't Let This Be You", I have designed another PowerPoint program for inmates who are about to be released back into our community.  This program "No More Strikes" was presented the first time on September 24, 2009 to 60 inmates at Caddo Correctional Center as a small part of the new Louisiana Department of Public Safety Reentry Program, facilitated by Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator.

The laudable objective of this program is to provide soon-to-be released inmates with basic training in the area of employment, life skills and job placement with access to support services to increase the likelihood of successful reentry into our communities and to reduce recidivism.

Our statistics are stunning:  Louisiana incarcerates more people per capita than any other state. The national recidivism rates for offenders released from incarceration is about 50% after 5 years, and the State of Louisiana's recidivism is no better than the national rate.  Each year, the Department of Corrections releases approximately 15,000 state offenders into our communities, these inmates having completed their jail sentences.  Therefore, the statistics tell us that each year about 7,500 convicted felons will commit new crimes (against new victims) within 5 years of their release and will return to custody.  This revolving jail door costs all of us big money.  The cost to house a Department of Corrections prisoner is about $35.00 per day, almost $1,000.00 per month.  The capital cost to construct a prison bed exceeds $25,000.00.

Besides the sadness for so many family members of so many inmates, the cost to incarcerate so many is staggering and devastating to our parish and state budgets.  Against this set of background facts, the Department of Public Safety and Corrections has wisely and prudently allocated resources to this new program with the aim of diminishing the recidivism rate.  An illustrative, not exclusive, listing of what this program incorporates is as follows:

1. Employment skills, including: job-seeking skills, interview skills, and appropriate workplace interaction skills
2. Job placement assistance to an offender who has earned Adult Basic Education Certification, a General Equivalency Diploma (GED), and/or vocational/technical certification while incarcerated, providing him with job referrals and/or job placement
3. Money management skills
4. Values clarification and goal setting and achieving
5. Problem solving and decision-making
6. Personal development and planning, including but not limited to social situations and emotional control, sexual responsibility, parenting skills, domestic violence and family issues, and drug treatment and counseling when appropriate
7. Counseling on individual community reentry concerns
8. Information on, and availability of, reentry support organizations including faith-based organizations
9. Anger management
10. Victim awareness and restitution

My small part was developed as a result of a phone call from Sandra Darby of the Northwest Reentry Program at CCC in which she invited me to speak to 85, or so (60 on September 24, another 25 on September 26) inmates in the program somewhat on the eve of their graduation on September 30, 2009.  I now think of it as a calling.  In preparation for my talk I enlisted the help of Ron Stamps, an assistant district attorney, and his brother, Herb Stamps, both of whom have worked side-by-side with me on the Don't Let This Be You program for the past several years.  Together we developed a one hour - what we hope is a dynamic - PowerPoint program which focuses on three main legal topics:  (1) Conditions of Parole; The Crime of Possession of a Firearm by Convicted Felon; and (3) Habitual offender Law.

Our presentation is a unique and perhaps unlikely combination of three people: (1) a state judge of almost 20 years; (2) a prosecutor for a decade/formerly a college professor; and (3) a three time convicted felon (as Herb says "drugs, drugs, and drugs").  Having served time on his third felony drug conviction, Herb Stamps is now rehabilitated, gainfully employed and a productive member of our Shreveport community.

I am proud to report that due to the number of meaningful and compelling questions and comments from the 60 inmates that first night, our hour presentation turned into two hours.  Several men shook my hand and promised, "Judge, there won't be any more strikes".  Leaving the program and Caddo Correctional Center that night the three of us shared a sense of accomplishment and gratification that, while we may not have made an impact on everyone in the room, we definitely reached and impacted some in this first graduating class of the NW Rentry Program.  As a result of this program, some of these inmates will break the cycle and, for them and our community, there will be NO MORE STRIKES.