Program to help newly released SC inmates to be unveiled in Columbia this week

A program in Charleston shown to help newly freed, high-risk South Carolina inmates develop life skills after prison will be unveiled Wednesday in Columbia.

The re-entry program for men, which has been hailed as a success during the six years it’s operated in Charleston, is called Turning Leaf Project. Program leaders there teach former inmates — many with records of violence — coping skills on how to navigate re-entering civilian society.

“We’ve seen the success in Charleston, and any program that helps former inmates, especially those highly likely to return to prison, is something we want more of,” said Bryan Stirling, director of the state Department of Corrections.

Stirling said Turning Leaf’s success — the program claims a 78% success rate — along with sentencing reforms and the department’s existing programs to help freed inmates, have enabled the agency to close a minimum security prison in the Charleston area.

The program deliberately targets inmates who are at risk for not making it in civilian life.

“We look for people who are probably not going to be successful after prison if they are not provided intense intervention,” said Amy Barch, Turning Leaf’s founder and director. “Not everybody coming out of prison needs a whole bunch of support, but some people do. We look for them.”

A typical former inmate selected for the program might never have worked, or have been arrested as a juvenile, Barch said. They also could have a low level of education, have been a repeat offenders or perhaps have little or no family and social support, she said.

“Risky people who carry guns, sell drugs, commit violent crimes — those are the people we work with,” she said.

Turning Leaf sends letters to inmates who are getting out of prison to see if they are interested in participating in the program. If they express an interest, “we know there’s some internal motivation in wanting to change,” she said.

“We look for people who are wanting to change but have no idea of how to do it,” Barch said.

‘You’re saving families’

Turning Leaf’s program combines one-on-one counseling and group therapy, aiming to teach problem-solving skills, anger management skills, impulse control skills and social skills, Barch said.

Barch, 42, graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s degree in law, societies and justice, and she’s currently studying criminal justice in a master’s program.

Replicating the Charleston Turning Leaf project in Columbia has two goals, she said.

“We’re in a statewide expansion, so opening a Columbia site is our first milestone. We will be opening a third site in 2023,” Barch said. “The ultimate goal is to have three different locations — the Lowcountry, Midlands and the Upstate.”

The second goal is to see if a Columbia program can replicate the success of the Charleston project.

Research shows that the success of some programs in various fields cannot be duplicated once they are transferred to a different geographic location away from the founder, Barch said.

“We want to see if it can be a model, to see if it can be systematized, if it can happen in other cities, not just Charleston,” Barch said. “That’s a big part of what Columbia is going to prove for us.”

Expanding Turning Leaf to serve more people will also help provide more data, and more data is crucial to tracking how the program is working and answer the question, “are we really reducing recidivism and can we be national model?” Barch said.

Turning Leaf is not only a therapeutic program, but also a T-shirt and other apparel screen printing business. Former inmates who are graduates of the program work in the counseling and business sides of the program, she said.

The program is for men, not women, who have different post-prison issues from men, she said.

Turning Leaf will fill an outreach gap for the state’s prison system.

The department has in-prison programs to help inmates who are about to be released, but no after-release program to help inmates learn to cope, Stirling said.

It costs about $24,000 a year on average to keep an inmate behind bars in the state’s prison, Stirling said.

So, Stirling explained, keeping inmates out of prison is a worthwhile endeavor that can lead to fewer crime victims, and spares people in the offender’s family — and the victim’s family as well — from being adversely affected by crime.

South Carolina has a recidivism rate of 19% — reportedly the lowest in the nation — but there’s always room for improvement, Stirling said.

“You’re saving police time, you’re saving judicial time, you’re saving families,” Stirling said.

A ribbon-cutting reception will be held at noon Wednesday at Turning Leaf’s Columbia building, at 630 Blue Ridge Terrace.

Barch, Stirling, Gov. Henry McMaster, Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin and House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, are expected to attend.

People wanting to go can RSVP at turningleafribboncutting.eventbrite.com