MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles’ residential reentry facility in Perry County was recently recognized for its innovation in reducing recidivism rates.
The PREP Rehabilitation Center, which opened in 2022, is a 90-day rehabilitation program for high-risk parolees.
Cam Ward, director of the ABPP, said the program is part of exiting inmates’ parole agreements and there has been a 100 percent graduation rate since the facility opened in April 2022. He said there have been classes as small as 15 people and as large as 60, but the facility has a capacity of up to 200. The facility serves parolees from an 11-county area and its population has been growing incrementally since spring 2022.
Because of the facility, the Council of State Governments named ABPP as a finalist for the State Transformation in Action Recognition Award during the 2024 CSG Southern Legislative Conference last month.
Ward said Alabama’s recidivism rate has lowered significantly since the start of the program. He said “regular” recidivism throughout the state is about 29 percent. Day reporting centers, which have a similar goal as the PREP center but are not residential, have a recidivism rate of about 15 percent, he said. The PREP center has no recidivism rate, he said.
“We’ve not had a single individual go back to prison to graduate from that program,” he said.
The program provides mental health assistance, substance use disorder treatment, education and workforce readiness services to participants. Now that Ward has seen the success of the PREP center, he said he wants to replicate a center specifically for women.
“So far, it has proven to be very successful,” he said. “Other states have called us wanting to replicate our model, and I want to replicate it.”
Last year, Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, and Sen. Linda Madison-Coleman, D-Birmingham, passed legislation to turn a ABPP facility in Clarke County into a PREP-like site for women.
Ward on Wednesday said using some of the state’s opioid settlement money allocated by lawmakers, the former LifeTech center in Thomasville could be a women’s facility in 2026.
Part of the success of the PREP program, Ward said, is that some graduates are getting jobs that pay $60,000 to $65,000 per year. He said the jobs are typically welding, repair and other skilled trades, but some go to Alabama Power as tree line trimmers.
“Alabama Power is a proud partner with the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles as well as J.F. Ingram State Technical College to provide training to individuals preparing for reentry into the workforce,” the company said in a written statement.
The national recognition for ABPP comes as it sees a slight uptick in parolees. Numbers earlier this year showed increases over previous record lows. In February, eligible inmates were granted parole at a rate of 24 percent, the third consecutive monthly increase over January, December and November’s rates of 23, 19 and 13 percent. Previously, the numbers were in the single digits. Ward earlier this year called the increased rates ideal.
