What started as a Dallas-based pilot program in 2005 to help formerly incarcerated individuals re-enter society is now going national thanks to the vision of Bishop T.D. Jakes and former Pres. George W. Bush.
“Former George W. Bush was the governor at the time and he had a really big heart for persons that were incarcerated,” said Tina Naidoo, executive director of the Texas Offender Reentry Initiative (T.O.R.I.) program. “He did a couple of programs for prison fellowship but when he became president, he made it part of his agenda to make sure that faith-based organizations were considered. Bishop Jakes and former President Bush are really good friends.”
Bishop T.D. Jakes founded the Dallas-based Potter’s House non-denominational church in 1996.
T.O.R.I. celebrated its 16th annual graduation of 125 formerly incarcerated individuals from the program on November 6. Former President Bush provided pre-recorded congratulatory remarks, and CNN Contributor Van Jones delivered a commencement address.
“American prisons are built on the idea of retributive justice where the primary goal is to punish and seek vengeance,” Jones said. “It’s a model that aims to incapacitate people who commit crimes and create powerful, painful incentives for them to act right in the future. This system hurts prisoners, their families, and the victims of crime. This is a destructive cycle that must change. Restoration brings healing to all.”
Jones hosts the Van Jones Show and The Redemption Project on CNN.
“We have a really great relationship with Dallas criminal district court judges and these judges are part of our procession,” Naidoo told Dallas Express. “They’re the ones that hand out the certificates of completion, which is changing the public stigma of what people call ex-cons, ex-felons, and all the derogatory things a person is labeled when they come home from prison. We call them returning citizens and I think in the last 17 years, we’ve really helped to reposition them in our community.”
Some 7.6 million people are released yearly nationwide, but two out of three are re-arrested within three years, and more than fifty percent are incarcerated again, according to data from the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
T.O.R.I. is trying to change the current incarceration model with an intensive 12-month case management program that offers employment, housing, education, family reunification, health care, and spiritual guidance with the primary goal of reducing the rate of recidivism.
“Walmart has a career opportunity for our clients and AT&T has now opened their doors to also provide a career opportunity,” Naidoo said in an interview. “So, these are not dead-end jobs.”
The White House, the Department of Justice, Canada’s House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, AT&T, and Walmart are a few government and corporate entities that have consulted or collaborated with T.O.R.I.
“When you employ a T.O.R.I. graduate, you get a very grateful individual,” Naidoo added. “They understand how hard it is to get to self-sufficiency because it’s a very rigorous program. Everything isn’t handed out. It’s really earned.”