Governor Mike Pence today unveiled a new character-based program aimed at rehabilitating those entering the Department of Correction for the first time.
Beginning this week, the Plainfield Department of Correction facility will begin its transition to housing a new population.
Those eligible for the program must be first time offenders within the Department of Correction, have a sentence of less than three years and qualify for medium to low medium security.
"First time offenders are going to be with positive role models plus other first time offenders," says Department of Correction Commissioner Bruce Lemmon. "They're not going to be exposed to a prison environment, and we're hoping the first time will be the last time they come into the Department of Correction."
The mentors, many of them former offenders, will live with the first-time offenders in the facility.
"[The program] bring[s] together these men who themselves made poor choices in their lives but have since turned a corner, to come and speak truth into the lives of these young men," Governor Mike Pence says.
Pence says he hopes the program will help reduce the state's recidivism rate.
Nearly 36 percent of the 20,000 Hoosier offenders released from prison each year return to prison within three years.