ORDWAY, Colo. — Every year, nearly 600,000 people are released from state and federal prisons in the U.S. Another 9 million are released through local jails.
More than half of those people will be rearrested within three years, and nearly half of those will be reincarcerated.
Colorado has one of the highest rates of recidivism in the country, at nearly 45%.
In a classroom at the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility in Crowley County, a program called Breakthrough is being taught in hopes of ending the revolving door of recidivism.
"I've never experienced anything like this in all the facilities I've been in, and I recommend this program for everyone," inmate Michael Rangel said.
The Breakthrough program is designed to teach inmates skills they'll need to have to stay out of prison. Subjects inmates learn include starting a business, resume building, job interviewing, and social skills like learning to empathize with others.
Ashley Furst, a former inmate herself, now works as the Director of Business Development for Breakthrough. She said the program helps those who have been locked up find a path forward.
"One thing that Breakthrough does is give people hope because hope really acts as that barrier between what's perceived to be impossible and the possible," she said. "It gives people the opportunity to say, 'Oh I can do this. I didn't think I could do this, but I really can.'"
Programs like Breakthrough are needed, Furst said, to make sure people can make their second chance work --even those who might not get a second chance outside of prison, like Louis Russo. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life.
"I wanted to put myself in the best position I could to find meaningful employment should I ever have the opportunity to be released," Russo said.
Along with Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility, the Breakthrough program operates in other Colorado prisons at La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo, and Colorado State Penitentiary and Centennial Correctional Facility in Cañon City.
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