LUCKY SEVERSON: Lee Bryant makes the 35-mile-drive three or four times a week. He's on his way to the Tomoka maximum security state prison for men near Daytona, Florida.
LEE BRYANT: Many of them don't get visitors. You let them know that they'll have a chance when they get out, leave them as a better person even if they'll remain in prison for many years.
SEVERSON: He knows about prisons, has family members who were and are incarcerated. Now the church deacon wants to give something back. That's why he is serving as volunteer for a rehabilitation program called Horizon Communities.
Mr. BRYANT (Volunteer, Horizon Communities in Prison): I know that they committed crimes, but we're supposed to love them. God loves them as he loves you and [me].
SEVERSON: Horizon is both a faith-based and a character-based program about making men better inmates behind bars, but especially better citizens when they get out. They learn practical stuff like computers, but also how to be responsible.
GREGORY BOOKER (Inmate, Tomoka Correctional Institution): We're learning how to forgive one another and most of all learning how to be productive when we walk out of prison. SEVERSON: Hugh MacMillan is one of the original supporters of Horizon. He says there's an urgent need to prepare prisoners for life on the outside.
HUGH MACMILLAN (Volunteer, Horizon Communities in Prison): Almost, I'd say, 98 percent of the people who are in prison, they did not throw away the key. They're all coming back.
SEVERSON: This year, more than 700,000 Americans will be released from prison. That's a record. What's even more troubling is that within three yeas, two-thirds of those will have committed a serious crime. The problem, say critics, is that too many inmates receive too little rehabilitation, and they're not prepared to reenter society. Kirt Sumpter has been in and out of prison four times for drugs, burglary, grand theft. He knows what it's like to be back on the streets alone and unprepared.
KIRT SUMPTER (Former Inmate): Basically only with the clothes on my back and the little bit of money that the Department of Corrections gives you as you exit out the system. It's basically do or die. I either stand and make it here, or sooner or later I'll be back in the system myself.SEVERSON: Sam Harrison is not surprised that less than two percent of the Florida corrections budget is spent on rehabilitation programs. He was released last year after serving over four years for writing bad checks.
SAM HARRISON (Former Inmate, Tomoka Correctional Institution): Oh, it was a nightmare. It was a nightmare. Everything that you can imagine goes on and that you would not imagine. I have had many men come to me, and they've said, "Sam, I don't know anything else. All I've done is sold drugs all my life. My mom and my dad sold drugs. That's all I know." I came to prison, and I came hoping for some kind of rehabilitation, and really and truly there is no rehab because they've cut out all of the job training programs. They've cut out most of the schooling.
SEVERSON: Nobody says a prison is supposed to be a nice place, but the Horizon dorm is different. To get in here, inmates need a record of good behavior, and once inside they're required to obey strict rules, such as no gambling or swearing.UNIDENTIFIED GUARD: I observe to make sure there's no issues.
SEVERSON: The guards will tell you that compared to the other dorms at Tomoka, the Horizon dorm is a safe haven. There's a simple explanation for that says the founder of Horizon, Ike Griffin.
IKE GRIFFIN (Founder, Horizon Communities in Prison): Institutions can't love. They can apply the discipline and the direction, but they can't nurture, and they can't love, and that only comes from volunteers. SEVERSON: All the inmates we spoke with past and present speak very highly of the volunteers, and that includes Sam Harrison, who says some are still his close friends.
Mr. HARRISON: They try and let you know that you are somebody and that you are worth something. You life is worth something, and they try to encourage you and try and help you build your self-esteem and to get you to look at your life in a positive manner.
(to Mr. MacMillan): Are you looking for expertise amongst the mentors?
Mr. MACMILLAN: A good heart, an ability to listen and to learn and be open.
JOE KILLEN (Former Inmate and Volunteer, Horizon Communities in Prison, during Horizon counseling session): You've got a couple of brothers who don't give a crap whether you make it or not. They don't want to see you anymore. That shouldn't slow you down. That shouldn't stop you. There are others out there who believe in you.
Mr. REED: I've become in many cases just a friend, somebody they can talk to who's not on the inside. Part of the goal is to let them see somebody on the outside who has a family, who leads a normal life, who has to pays bills, who has to be responsible, and all those kinds of things.
SEVERSON: Kirt Sumpter went through Horizon. Now he works in an AIDS outreach program. He's been out of prison two years.
Mr. MACMILLAN: Where it really shows up is that the disciplinary reports are around half what they are in populations that are really comparable
