DOC to expand HIV/AIDS re-entry program

The Department of Corrections is expanding its re-entry program for inmates with HIV/AIDS to the entire prison population in hopes of reducing the number of inmates who commit new crimes after they're released.

Nearly all infected inmates receive transition services through the Alabama Prison Initiative up to three months before their probation, parole or end of sentence dates, but only minimal aid is available for the other inmates and services vary from prison to prison depending on resources in each area.

Elana Parker, director of Special Projects and Program Collaboration for the Alabama Department of Public Health, has worked with HIV/AIDS inmates for about seven years and will join DOC for two years to design and implement the new program.

The Alabama Prison Initiative is a joint venture between the state health and corrections departments and currently serves the 23 women and 250 men who are incarcerated with HIV/AIDS in Alabama, she said.

"What we're looking at doing is taking that model and expanding that to the general population and making this something that involves more community organizations as well as other agencies and faith-based groups," said Parker, who began her two-year DOC stint last week.

"What we have to do initially is an assessment of specific needs that inmates across the state are dealing with regarding re-entering back into society. We need to be able to identify where some of the gaps are," she said.

Parker, who will serve as DOC's Re-Entry Coordinator/Public Health Liaison, said the department still is figuring out how much the expanded program will cost. A start date hasn't been set, but it could begin as early as this fall, she said.

Prisons Commissioner Richard Allen said retired social workers might be hired to work in the program, which officials expect to cut down on recidivism rates.

"The more support they have that first year when they're out, the less likely they are to come back," he said. "We've got the AIDS people in pretty good shape right now, we've just got to take care of the rest of the population."

The discharge program will help inmates re-establish their identities by obtaining Social Security cards, drivers licenses and even birth certificates in some cases.

They'll also receive assistance with finding jobs and housing before they're released. Allen said that will help solve "unexpected consequences" of the Community Notification Act, which requires sex offenders to provide officials with a valid address 45 days before their sentence ends.

Under the act, failing to give a residential address that isn't at least 2,000 feet away from a school or childcare facility is a Class C felony. Some sex offenders have found themselves jailed immediately after leaving state prison because the addresses they gave didn't comply with the act.

There are more than 28,000 inmates in Alabama's 29 prisons and work release/community work centers and Parker said she's looking forward to helping more of them stay on the other side of prison walls.

"I've always had an interest in working with people that personally I feel the rest of the world could care less about," she said. "And this is an opportunity to work with a little bit of everybody."