What were the early days like?
Shoestring budget, basically taking a very small concept and forming a board. They were friends. They were people involved in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, some judges, etc. You would go to every meeting that became available just to get the word out that we are here. And by the way, we’re here to work with everybody. So it was making sure people understood why we were different and why we were relevant in the space. I think that was super important to understand that we’re just not another reentry organization. It took five, six years to kind of really start resonating with everybody, and then we moved to this space and built this out, and all of a sudden we started getting noticed.
What does the process look like?
You fill out several assessments on your own. We have a career key that you fill out. We have a benefits calculator you fill out. And then there’s what’s called BEI, it’s a behaviors and experiences inventory that you fill out. And then we have a psych form that you fill out, that we just added this year, and then you get placed with a broker. Our reentry brokers are our case managers, because they’re really brokering the relationships. We don’t provide the service, that’s how we’re unique. Tier one brokers are going to take you and they’re going to do the full-on evidence based assessment. It’s the one that TDCJ uses. So our folks have to be trained in it. It’s going to tell us everything, from number of incarcerations, education history, children, health care. Everything. So that broker is going to take all these assessments and is going to work up a plan for you. The tier two broker is going to take that plan and is going to start making referrals for you, based on the needs that are in that plan, to one of our 300 partner organizations. Then we can add that person in or that group in as a partner, but once all those referrals are made, we’re going to keep track of you as you’re working that plan.
Why is this so important to the general public?
I’ve got to look at the return on interest is, and I’m in the people business, but yet, how does this fiscally affect the community? And so I think, roughly, it’s about $80 a day for the general population offender at TDCJ. So if you take that and you amortize that over somebody being incarcerated, let’s say they get out and then they come back, and then they get out and they come back. Think about that. I mean, it’s crazy, whereas, on average, for the general guy that walks through our doors, it costs me maybe a buck a day.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.