Stopping the prison cycle: Manchester speakers focus on Indiana efforts to help ex-offenders rejoin society
NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. – How is Indiana helping ex-offenders who have done their time re-enter society and ensure they will not return to prison?
Many people leaving prison often struggle to find work, housing and further education – a situation that can become a revolving door back into incarceration.
Manchester University has asked state re-entry experts to speak at 3:30 p.m. March 13 in Cordier Auditorium on the North Manchester campus.
“Supporting Re-Entry and Preventing Recidivism: Initiatives for Indiana Prisoners” is free and open to the public.
The Indiana Department of Correction speakers are Alexis Dean, executive director of re-entry and Medicaid; and Rick Rosales, in charge of community and mentor engagement. They will talk about the challenges facing ex-offenders in Indiana and work being done within and outside prisons to help lower recidivism.
The program was initiated by students in a first-year seminar led by Stacy Erickson-Pesetski, associate dean of Academic Affairs and associate professor of English.
Erickson-Pesetski has taught Shakespeare to prison inmates and incarcerated youths, taking some Manchester students to Pendleton Correctional Facility. Her sabbatical a few years ago was at Pendleton, and she continues to volunteer there.
Manchester student volunteers also write letters to death-row inmates as part of the Death Row Support Project of the Church of the Brethren.
Manchester University is one of six colleges across the United States grounded in the values and traditions of the Church of the Brethren. Manchester maintains an important relationship with the church, a Christian denomination recognized as a historic peace church. MU has the oldest undergraduate peace studies program in the world.
This discussion is part of the Values, Ideas and the Arts program, which offers cultural, intellectual and artistic enrichment to MU students.
About Manchester University
Manchester University, with campuses in North Manchester and Fort Wayne, Ind., offers more than 60 areas of academic study to nearly 1,600 students in undergraduate programs, a Master of Athletic Training, a Master of Pharmacogenomics and a four-year professional Doctor of Pharmacy. Learn more about the private, northern Indiana school at www.manchester.edu.
February 2018