PART 2: Dougherty County Jail officials work to reduce recidivism

Editor’s Note: This is the second part of a two-part series on operations at the Dougherty County Jail.

ALBANY — Recidivism. That topic generates careful scrutiny among directors of jails and prisons throughout the nation.

The percentage of recidivists – those inmates who are convicted again of crimes — are carefully studied.

Col. John Ostrander, director of the Dougherty County Jail, has been involved in law enforcement for the past 33 years, the last 25 of which have been with the Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office.

He started with Dougherty County as a jailer and then became a full-time member of the training staff. Ostrander served as captain of the training staff in 1996 and remained in that role until being appointed jail director by Sheriff Kevin Sproul in 2010.

Since becoming director of the Dougherty County Jail, Ostrander has had a goal to reduce the jail’s high recidivism rate.

“The last time we analyzed our recidivism about four years ago, we determined our recidivism rate was about 76 percent,” Ostrander revealed.

It’s important for jail officials to trim the recidivism rate because it’s a way for the facility to cut expenses.

The administrator said the Dougherty recidivism rate was determined by taking randomly selected records of approximately 1,000 former inmates.

“We used the philosophy of one time is an event, twice is a coincidence and three times is a pattern. If an inmate showed a pattern of coming to jail, we classified that inmate as a recidivist,” Ostrander explained.

While the Dougherty County recidivism rate is approximately 76 percent, the state average is closer to 65 percent.

“We tried to analyze what was feeding that and what were the specific causes of recidivism,” Ostrander said, ” and we identified four main areas — substance abuse, mental illness, under-education and community resources.

“From the resources perspective, many employers are biased against ex-offenders and don’t want to hire them or want them around. We try to work with different employers in the community and get them to commit that they will indeed employee ex-offenders in some capacity. … We try to work with folks in the community to learn where former inmates can get housing, daycare, transportation and those things that they need to put together a successful life.

“If they can’t put together a successful life, they will not recommit.”

The facility offers substance abuse education on site.

“For mental health, a psychiatrist comes to the facility on a weekly basis and we currently have about 20 percent of our inmates on some kind of mental health medication,” Ostrander said. “When they leave here, we make sure that they leave with two things. Number one is an appointment for follow-up treatment with a provider in the community and number two is enough medication to get them through until their appointment. And then it’s up to them.”

The jail staff realizes that if somebody does not have the minimum of a high school education, it will be extremely difficult to get meaningful employment to build a successful life.

“We don’t have the opportunity for our inmates to engage in college courses because they are not usually here long enough. But we do have a partnership with Albany Technical College to provide GED instruction,” he said. “They send an instructor. We have a classroom onsite where we put the inmates and we do oversee them from a security standpoint.

“But they are allowed to get instruction and then take the test for GED.”

The program has been in place for approximately two years, but it has had to overcome a major stumbling block —- the cost of books and materials and GED testing.

“The inmates must pay because we could not use taxpayer dollars it probably would have been too expensive for them as the cost of the GED Test alone is about $200 and the books and materials on top of that,” Ostrander said. “We needed to find a way to get these things bought and paid for without tapping into inmates’ personal accounts or using tax dollars.

“Myself and my director of security went to the public. We went on television and made appeals at different events we attended. … We just tried to spread the word. As a result, we began to start receiving donations and we started a cash account for the monies. Now all the books and materials and GED testing fees are paid for 100 percent.”

Ostrander said that since sheriff’s office officials started to “spread the word,” donations have come from everywhere. He noted that a person living in Japan sent a $1,000 donation.

Approximately 50 inmates currently are enrolled in the program — 25 men and 25 women — and they receive instruction separately.

Is the program a success?

Of the 12 inmates who have taken the GED exam, all have passed.

Ostrander related the story of one of the inmates who passed the GED. He is the youngest of 17 children and the first in his family to complete high school level.

An older brother, who also is an inmate, was so impressed by the accomplishment that he began working for his GED. And he is now being tutored by his younger brother.

Ostrander said he is hoping to do another recidivism survey in the near future.