By Kathy Samudovsky
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Henry Huffman, a lifelong educator, never envisioned spending part of his retirement working with jail inmates.
The former University of California professor had planned to continue his passion for teaching moral development and character education “parttime, at a college somewhere.”
After retiring in 2005, Mr. Huffman, a lay leader at Christ United Methodist Church in Bethel Park, joined a growing number of people signing up to volunteer with HOPE, a faith-based pre- and post-release rehabilitation program sponsored by the Chaplain’s office at Allegheny County Jail, Downtown.
The jail, which has an average daily population of 2,700, contracts with Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania for chaplaincy services.
HOPE, an acronym for Helping Open People’s Eyes, was created in 2002 for minimum and medium security male inmates serving anywhere from 11 to 23 months. Most participants are in jail for misdemeanors or felonies committed to support a drug or alcohol habit.
The program admits 95 men at a time and has a revolving curriculum. Participants, called “mentees,” spend eight weeks in the Pod of HOPE, one of the jail’s 35 housing pods.
Pastor Lynn Yeso, director of chaplaincy services at the county jail, said the program aims “to restore prisoners to the community not as they were, but better than before.
“A lot of times when inmates come to jail, they’re filled with guilt and shame because of the bridges they’ve burned and people they’ve hurt. We talk about forgiveness and God’s grace, and consequently, these men discover things about themselves that they never knew. They start to see how God makes things happen in their lives,” she said.
The first part of HOPE is an eight-week, intensive program in jail where mentees meet for more than 252 hours of group work. Discussion issues range from anger management and addiction and recovery to confronting what the program calls “Stinkin’ Thinkin,’' and learning how to be a good father.
An “aftercare” ministry, called HOPE On The Outside, offers a network of services and support systems to assist newly released prisoners in the transition to community life. Each is matched with a trained male mentor from support groups located near their neighborhood. A new group is planned to open in McKeesport after Jan. 1.
“We strive for a continuum of care,” said Ms. Yeso, of Brookline. “When inmates are released, the first 12 to 24 hours are critical; it’s when they make a decision to go back to their old life, or live differently.”
The HOPE program works in collaboration with community service providers, and volunteers, mostly from churches, who can serve, for example, as mentors, instructors, and Bible study leaders.
Among churches in the South Hills involved with HOPE are: Our Lady of Grace in Scott; Port Vue United Methodist; Christian Missionary Alliance in McKeesport; and Christ United, which was host to a talk by Ms. Yeso on Nov. 5.
Mr. Huffman, a resident of Nottingham, Washington County, and former Mt. Lebanon School District assistant superintendent, is a volunteer chaplain and oversees leadership training for HOPE graduates who choose to stay on to help instructors.
HOPE program success is measured by the rate of recidivism, or how often the men return to jail, Ms. Yeso said. Currently, the county jail’s recidivism rate averages 60 percent; the recidivism rate of the HOPE pod is 12.5 percent.
“So we know that God is making a difference,” she said.
Plans are to start a female HOPE pod in the spring.
For more information, call 412-350-2057.
Copyright 2008 P.G. Publishing Co.