Programs available to help people leaving prison

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Hope Conference at Youngstown State University’s Kilcawley Center, hosted by the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence, was all about getting information about services and resources to people previously incarcerated, said CIRV coordinator Guy Burney.

“We try to connect the dots for them, and have [resources] all available in one place,” Burney said Thursday. He said one major barrier his organization tries to help these returning citizens overcome is employment.

“There’s definitely an employment barrier, and while we understand businesses have to protect their bottom line, we will try to help them find employment,” he said.

Burney, along with Lola Simmons, re-entry coordinator of Home for Good at ACTION (Alliance for Congregational Transformation Influencing Our Neighborhoods) and the Rev. Willie Peterson, pastor of NewBirth Kimmelbrook Church and executive director of Center for Community Empowerment at Rockford Village, said they are trying to bring together resources for reinstating driver’s licenses, family and child services, health-care signups, and job opportunities.

“It’s not an easy process, but we offer help for those who want to get their lives back on track,” Burney said.

Anthony McDowell, a peacemaker with CIRV, said he was locked up for eight years, and he made poor choices from a rough upbringing. He joined gangs and dealt drugs to make up for that, but after becoming involved in assault and gang violence, he decided to change his life.

“I just want to help someone who doesn’t see tomorrow, and be a positive motivating force for them,” McDowell said. “I just want them to stop being locked up in their minds.”

Now with a daughter who attends Youngstown State University and a son who graduated high school, McDowell, 40, thinks he can be an example of a lifestyle not to follow for his kids.

“They know how I used to be before I mentally changed myself,” McDowell said. “They don’t pick up drugs or get into gangs.”

Clifton Moton, 36, never met his son until he was 5, and left his daughter while she was still 3 before he went behind bars.

In 1995, at age 16, Moton got involved in drugs. “The people I surrounded myself with were doing it, and I would have felt left out otherwise,” Moton said. “All I cared about was partying, and not being responsible for my family or my kids.”

After getting his General Educational Development certificate, Moton attended Youngstown State University in 2010, but dropped out due to discouragement, he said.

With the CIRV program, he hopes he can find encouragement to move forward. “I hope to gain a group of people who are supportive and willing to help others,” Moton said. He hopes to find employment, become further educated and gain skills to become a welder.

Ira Cross, a 43-year-old veteran of Desert Storm, bought a gun just a few days before his arrest to protect himself in the rough neighborhood his girlfriend lived in. For Cross, the thought didn’t even cross his mind that it was illegal to carry a concealed weapon due to his military training.

“I was on my way to work when I was arrested,” he recalled. He served 10 days in jail, and then went on probation. He is attending Youngstown State University and has been taking classes since 2010.

Cross is receiving some help from the military with his schooling. “They are paying for a little of it, but I am trying to remain as independent as possible,” he said.

Now in his second marriage after a divorce, he has two sons, one stepdaughter, and one stepson.

McDowell, Moton Cross and John Jemison, a board member for Home for Good, said that though most go out into the job market or attend school, some relapse due to not knowing about the resources available to help them get accustomed to normal life again.

“We want to get them away from that generation of desperation,” Jemison said.