By C1 Staff
MORGAN COUNTY, Ala. — Recently released inmates from the Morgan County Jail can find a helping hand in local churches, which are pairing up with the facility to keep former inmates moving in the right direction.
WAAY TV reports that inmates, through good behavior and hard work, can be part of a new program that aims to keep inmates from coming back to jail once they’ve been released.
“The first step we thought might be a local church that they can be a part of and that they can start having a relationship with those people that can help them with the services they provide once they get out here,” Sheriff Ana Franklin said of the program.
The three churches involved with the program also minister to inmates still incarcerated.
“My mission statement is to reduce crime and part of reducing crime is to prevent these people from reoccurring crime,” said Franklin.
Daniel Blankenship is one inmate currently participating in a pilot version of the church program, and he has nothing but praise for it.
“It really opened a lot of doors for me. I don’t think there will be no reason why I’d ever be back here,” he said, talking about the jail.
The program is operated by volunteers and comes at no cost to the taxpayers.