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Program helps transform dads
Monday,April 20, 2003
Excerpted from The Washington Times

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Each week in this picturesque Southern city, around 50 fathers are rounded up and hauled into a crowded jail for the crime of not paying their court-ordered child support. Most are quickly bailed out.

But when the bailouts stop, the men step onto a well-worn path: Survive the tedium and frustration of months in jail. Upon release, find a job any job. Keep paying enough child support to avoid the court's attention. Sooner or later, get re-arrested and re-incarcerated. This pattern is repeated often.

Some men, such as Corey Wright, are now taking a path that is even more personally demanding, but it holds the promise of escaping the child-support merry-go-round.

Mr. Wright, 34, graduated on Feb. 14 as a member of Class No. 7 of Project Restore, a program of Agape Ministries of Charleston. He has since been released from custody.

For 16 weeks, he studied about life, parenthood and manhood. He also worked on construction sites, took college classes in carpentry and built houses with Habitat for Humanity.
About $2,000 of the money he earned during the program went to pay down his child-support debt of $4,696.

Project Restore has "changed Corey a lot," says the boys' mother, Katashia Campbell.

[Project Restore is] a combination of work-release, life-skills and relationship programs "but with a faith-based and ownership component," the Rev. Dallas Wilson says.

Mr. Wilson's wife, Janie, organizes and oversees the program. She teaches the men professional etiquette and the value of positive attitudes and adaptability.

• For a full copy of the above story, please contact Project RESTORE.

Jail overcrowding strains sheriff's budget
Monday, May 20, 2002
Excerpted from the (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier

Overcrowding makes the jail vulnerable to lawsuits. Overworked detention officers in an under-staffed jail face safety issues. And the obvious solutions all involve more money - a politically unpopular choice
with taxpayers.

The dilemma that faces (Charleston County Sheriff Al) Cannon and the council is not a new one - nor is it unique. The question is, other than building more jails and hiring more jailers, are there any other options?

The simple answer is, yes and no. Governments around the country have been tinkering with the judicial system for years in search of solutions to jail overcrowding. Some of the experiments are innovative.
Others are variations on old ideas. Ultimately, though, the drawback to many alternative programs - even those that do the job of cutting down the jail population - is the same problem many of the programs were
created to address: They cost too much money.

Such programs, said Chief Deputy Keith Novak, are no substitute for jail expansion to relieve the pressure at the 850-bed jail.

In March, John Zaruba, the sheriff of DuPage County, Ill., celebrated a milestone - 15,000 adult and juvenile offenders who have worked off their sentences through a public works program.

Novak said Project Restore, once operated by Agape Ministries, was similar to the Illinois plan, but its federal funding has ended. Local magistrates divert defendants to community service programs, but they
can't move enough to lower a jail population that grows by 100 to 150 people annually, he said.

• For a full copy of the above story, please contact Project RESTORE.

Jail isn't the only answer for 'deadbeat dads'
Sunday, April 7, 2002
Excerpted from The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier

When Congress changed welfare laws in 1996, it added more ways to force non-custodial parents to pay, including automatic wage withholding, revoking driver's licenses or professional licenses and seizing tax refunds.

The last resort is jail time.

The nationwide efforts are working. Since 1995, collections have increased by nearly 50 percent, rising to $17.9 billion in 2000. South Carolina collections jumped from $111 million in 1995 to $220 million in 2001.

Despite the climb in collections, failure to pay child support remains an epidemic, with billions owed. By the end of fiscal year 2001, South Carolina counted $832 million in overdue child support.

The Sisters of Charity Foundation, a Columbia-based Catholic foundation created by the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine, started the movement in South Carolina in 1998 when it launched grants for the initiative called Reducing Poverty Through Father Engagement.

Today, the foundation funds 15 fatherhood programs in 13 counties, including the Father-to-Father Project and the Agape Ministries of Charleston's Project RESTORE. Both local programs work closely with DSS officials and family court judges, who refer individuals to their services.

"Most of (the men) don't know what makes a good father," said Dallas H. Wilson, Project RESTORE resource director. "They don't know for one basic reason - they never had fathers."

These programs throughout the state offer more than just child support assistance. They provide employment and on-the-job coaching, legal education, parenting skills, anger management, emotional counseling, spiritual development and referrals to drug and alcohol treatment.

• For a full copy of the above story, please contact Project RESTORE.
  

R.E.S.T.O.R.E., Inc.
MSC Box 1007
701 East Bay Street, Suite 3A-100
Charleston, S.C. 29403
Fed. Tax ID#: 57-1088108
Phone: 843.853.1090 | Fax: 843.853.0060 | email: info@agapeministriesofcharleston.org