But like many former inmates,
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"You stop and you start because there’s nowhere you can go," said Clemons, 54, a repeat drug offender and former inmate at the Sarasota County Jail.
"You duck it for a while,
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Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Sarasota Manatee has created a way to help Clemons, and others like her,
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"It’s a good feeling to be off drugs," said Clemons, a program client who has been sober and out of jail for two years. to catch three different buses to get there and she does not mind.
"I live good now. I pay my bills, I eat, I go to work, I go to church and I pray,
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Program coordinator Daryl Promey said entry into the mentoring program does not change an inmate’s current sentence. "What’s done is done," he said. "The only incentive is do you want to be back here again next week, next month, next year?"
For Clemons,
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"I’d been in jail at least 20 times and I was just tired," she said. "Eventually you are going to run out of friends and money to support you you’re just gonna hit a dead end."
‘A drop in the wind’
Mentoring continues after jail but only for those who stay sober and participate in a program called Voluntary Interim Placement Enhanced Recovery Program a collaborative effort between Jewish Service, the Salvation Army, Sarasota County Health Department,
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Andria Bilan, vice president of Jewish Service, said the goal is to reduce recidivism and improve quality of life and safety for everyone in the community. "It’s a win win," she said. "Julie was the first one to challenge other women and say ‘If I can do it, if I can do this program, you can do it too.’"
The program has 33 volunteer mentors and another 10 in training. But with a burgeoning inmate population,
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"It’s a program that’s only successful if people step forward to mentor," Bilan said.
Claudia Coville,
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"I didn’t believe it at first," Clemons recalled. "I looked at her and said ‘Yeah, right, lady. You’re a drop in the wind.’"
Coville remembers well how Clemons challenged her at first.
"She would turn her back and say ‘you don’t know about any of this stuff,’ but I told her I had been to some of the places she’s been," said Coville. "But she began to trust me just a little bit and I grabbed onto that."
Clemons was grateful because holding on made all the difference.
"It made me feel good to have somebody like that to support me. She believed in me," she said. "And I stuck with it."
Road to recovery
According to the Jewish Service literature, mentored offenders are 39 percent less likely to reoffend than those without mentors after one year in the program.
The program is especially meaningful for people whose families are not in their lives or are not supportive.
Kerry Dennis is a family reunification counselor with the VIP ER program,
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"We give them the resources to make connections,
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The program helped Clemons reconnect with her sons, Michael,
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