While our corrections system has a large number of credible outside agency prison programs assisting inmates to a smoother transition into the community, it is an inmate-created program that is raising eyebrows across the state.

On June 27, 46 federal court personnel came to Osborn Correctional Institution to hear a presentation from a number of inmates about their program titled “Skills of Socialization” (SOS). The attendees included federal district court judges, probation officers, attorneys and additional staff of the federal defenders office, clerks and others. The half dozen presenters included inmates sentenced for murder and other major crimes and former gang members.

The program came to fruition two years ago when seven inmates, realizing that re-entry funding was in jeopardy due to statewide budget constraints, decided to take things into their own hands in a positive way. They totaled almost 150 years in served prison time. There was acknowledgment that most of them, while on the street, did not value education, hard work and the structure of rules and laws by which most productive members of the community abide. Most importantly, they recognized they did not value themselves. Instead, they had looked up to notorious killers, drug dealers, hustlers and womanizers who did some bad things to women.