The New Castle Correctional Facility (NCCF) houses nearly 3,200 inmates. It takes almost 700 employees to keep the facility running safely and efficiently. Each housing unit at NCCF has a case manager who works constantly to help offenders prepare for life after release.
The term ‘prison’ is rarely used in the corrections field. There is a renewed focus on reentry programs, rather than just isolating offenders from the rest of society. According to NCCF Assistant Warden Scott Fitch, nearly everyone who is incarcerated will finish their time and become another member of the everyday community. That’s why it is so important for personnel to be good role models for the offenders, Fitch said.
John Hudson was a New Castle teacher for 38 years. He came out of retirement six years ago to become a case manager at NCCF.
Hudson acts as a liaison to the outside world for the inmates in his housing unit. Some days, he helps offenders find housing. Other times, he deals with issues within the prison, like disagreements.
“It’s not an easy job, but it’s not a hard job,” Hudson said. “I enjoy helping people like that.”
Derek Powell is a case manager in the protective custody unit of the New Castle facility. Powell said the most difficult part of his job is finding places for offenders to live ahead of their release. Some offenders have been in prison for so long, they no longer have family members to live with, Powell said. Alternatively, they may have destroyed those personal connections before they found themselves in prison.
Hudson supervises the facility’s Purposeful Living Units Serve (PLUS) program. The Indiana Department of Correction uses PLUS as a way to empower offenders with the necessary tools to become more productive members of society upon re-entry.
“One guy coming back to me is too much,” Hudson said.
According to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, preparing offenders for their return to their communities is critical to protecting public safety. The long-term goal at NCCF is “to reduce recidivism rates by influencing a positive effect on the offender population.” A 2015 Congressional Research Service analysis of offender reentry defined recidivism as the rearrest, reconviction or reincarceration of an ex-offender.
The New Castle Correctional Facility offers a range of programs to inmates that may help prepare them for live after prison.
The Thinking for a Change 4.0 (T4C) is an integrated cognitive behavioral change program that incorporates research from cognitive restructuring theory, social skills development and the learning and use of problem solving skills. The National Institute of Corrections Information Center said correctional facilities like NCCF can consider Thinking for a Change as “one option in a continuum of interventions to address the cognitive, social, and emotional needs of their client populations.”
InsideOut Dad is a curriculum for incarcerated fathers that is designed to bridge the gap between the inmate father and his children. The National Fatherhood Initiative (NFI) describes the program as a way for inmate dads to “deal with their pasts in order to discover their futures – and the possibility that they can parent differently from their own, often absent, fathers.” The NFI said InsideOut Dad helps prisoners prepare for reentry into society as they learn more about themselves as men and as fathers.
New Castle Correctional Facility also uses Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous substance abuse programs to help offenders overcome drug dependencies. New Castle is also the only facility in the state that offers Indiana Sex Offender Monitoring and Management (INSOMM). State law requires that every sex offender complete the INSOMM program as part of their sentence, so they all spend time at NCFF.
The next installment of this series, which publishes Friday, will look at different educational programs and vocational opportunities offered to offenders at the New Castle Correctional Facility.
