Episode 26: The Way Forward: Reentry Center Offers a Different Path

This episode addresses something many shy away from talking about, or in many cases are unaware of how it is being addressed. How crime and recidivism is a big factor holding communities back from thriving.

This episode we'll explore the work of the Waterbury Reentry Welcome Center, run by Community Partners in Action, and why it aligns with our Financial Stability strategies.

You may ask why invest in this work and how does it impact the greater community? Fair questions.  And one's we’re going to discuss this episode with our special guest Tracie Bernardi Guzman, employment case manager at the center.

This episode brought to you by Platinum Corporate Media Sponsor Republican-American newspaper.  Learn more at https://www.ctinsider.com/waterbury/

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Speaker 1 0:12

This episode brought to you by United Way of Greater Waterbury Platinum media sponsor Republican American. If things sound or look a little different this episode, it's because we are on location at the fifth annual Women United Summer Social at Hawk Ridge Winery in Watertown with our special guest speaker for tonight's event, who is also our guest for this episode. Our work at United Way leans heavily into removing the obstacles that prevent people from thriving. But United Way is always looking at the big picture on how our investments will elevate our entire community. Today's topic addresses something many shy away from talking about, or in many cases, are unaware of how it is being addressed. How crime and recidivism is a big factor holding communities back from thriving. But there is good news. A recent report shows crime in Waterbury has dropped to one of the lowest levels in two decades. The Waterbury Police Department reports that across almost all areas, homicide, property, robberies, and more, the crime rate has dropped. I have to give a big shout out to the Waterbury Police Department, who are great partners in our homeless response system, working in tandem to provide the appropriate level of support, ensuring that arrest isn't always the first option, seeing the person and their struggles first. So a big thank you to the Waterbury Police Department and your professionalism. But law enforcement is not the only solution. This reduction in crime also comes from investing in our youth through programs we invest in, such as Personal Finance Does Matter, which teaches students how budget uh budget coaching leads to financial security, which breaks the cycle of poverty. Or choices, a program through hangtime, which pairs formerly incarcerated athletes as mentors for high school athletes in violence-impacted communities. Through a series of group sessions, the program fosters open dialogue about decision-making, conflict resolution, and positive leadership. And our topic today, our investment in the Waterbury Re-entry Center, run by Community Partners in Action. Funding supports the employment case manager at the center. The case manager works with those who are returning from incarceration and helps them to connect to employment training and other supports, such as providing IDs, bus passes, work clothes, as well as help them create a resume and participate in mock interviews. These are fair questions and ones that we're going to discuss today with our guest, Tracie Bernardi Guzman. Have I pronounced that correctly?

Speaker 2 2:48

Guzman, yes.

Speaker 1 2:49

Guzman. Welcome to the way forward, Tracie.

Speaker 2 2:51

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 2:54

So when the only options you have available are bad ones, you still have to choose. And that is a story repeated far too often. Your work and that of the re-entry center is providing a different path. Could you tell me more about what the center does and the options it creates for people?

Speaker 2 3:10

So as you said, we are called the Waterbury Reentry Welcome Center. We are part of community partners in action. And I like to say the welcome is what we do. When people are coming home from incarceration, we welcome them back into society. The reason we welcome them back into society is because that's not a response that they're gonna get. So some of the things like you mentioned, we help people but uh with bus passes. Um they may have job interviews, they need to get back and forth to those job interviews. They may start a job and not have um transportation. So yeah, they could get bus passes, but not until they're getting that first paycheck. So we we supplement them until they can get that first paycheck and be able to start paying for bus passes on their own. Um we help with phones. Um we don't always have them, but when we do have any kind of um extra money, we make sure we put it towards that because we know it's essential that if we want people to get jobs, employers have to be able to communicate with them. They have to be able to have email and they have to be able to, you know, um go on LinkedIn and all these sites that help them to get the job. Um we help people with the basic needs backpack. Recently, United Way gave us lots of uh like 150 or more um hygiene supplies, and this is great because when people are coming home from incarceration, a lot of them don't even have a place to go. So um they can utilize programs like CHD and other partners in Waterbury to be able to take showers. So we want to make sure that they have what they need and also when they're looking for get employment, you know, hygiene is really important. So we help them with those things. Um we help them with just basic, you know, a lot of people come home and they have absolute, like I said, nowhere to go. So we assist them with 211 calls, we help them to get into uh St. Vincent de Paul's shelter, we help them to get um other kinds of assistance. There's so many things that we help people with. It's not just one thing, it's full circle case management. So, you know, people a lot, even though DLC has money and funding now for IDs, uh, a lot of times people still are coming home without IDs. So, you know, these are barriers to employment, they're barriers to successfully reintegrating. So we help eliminate as many barriers as we possibly can.

Speaker 1 5:49

And this is not a mandated program, so this isn't necessarily in place, they're uh leaving incarceration. It's like, okay, now you're gonna go here, and these are the people who are gonna help you. It's sometimes they're left dropped off to their essentially to their own devices.

Speaker 2 6:03

Right. So honestly, um, like you said, they're not mandated. Um they do some people do get offered it prior to release. It is on their tablets, so they do learn about us, and they they if they know which community they're being returned to, they can ask for it. And we do get some DOC drop-offs. Um, but you're right, a lot of people they go directly to the halfway house or they go directly to our our AIC, um, our transitional house, which also belongs to Community Partners in Action. And you're these people are not mandated to come to us, but they come to us because they have little to no hope. Without support, um, they they don't think that they're they're just gonna recidivate and end up back in the cycle. So they know that they need help. A lot of these people that come to us are really determined and really want jobs and come to us week after week. They come to our job club, they, you know, they contact us, they let us know what's going on with them. And we, if we don't have those resources, we look to the community partners through the, you know, we do the Waterbury um reentry roundtable and we make a lot of partners in Waterbury so that we can refer them out. If it's something we don't do, you know, we refer to American Job Center, we refer to a lot of different places. Um St. Vince and de Paul, we we give vouchers to their thrift shop. You know, these people are coming home. They they don't have anything, they don't have clothes, they don't have, you know, transportation, they don't have phones, and and like I said, and they a lot of them don't have homes. So we're doing everything we possibly can, but we don't we can't push them into accepting it. The people that are coming to us are looking, they're looking for help because the old way that they were doing things is not working, has not worked. So they know that in order to successfully reintegrate, they need to ask. They need to, and and we do just kind of what United Way does. We try to give them a hand up.

Speaker 1 8:01

I imagine they uh that's probably you probably witness a lot of transformation. So I imagine they come in very guarded when they come to you and can they trust you? And are you in help? And then once the guard comes down, uh just what you're saying, then they're calling you, they're giving you updates, they're they're telling you what what the roadblock is or or things like that. I mean, there's gotta be a rewarding aspect of that to your work.

Speaker 2 8:24

Oh, absolutely. I mean, to be able to know that you have helped, you know, in a lot of cases, a lot of these, especially men, we get men coming to our community. We do have a lot of women, but not as much women because there's not actual halfway houses in Waterbury for women. So if women are coming to halfway houses, they're going to other towns in other, you know, Hartford, Bridgeport, uh, Willamantic, they're not coming to Waterbury. But the thing is, when when the people do come to Waterbury and they look to us for help, um, we're we're doing everything that we can. And they know that we're doing everything they can. And at first they don't trust us. You know, they might, some of them will walk in and they'll be like, they'll think that we are, you know, part of the system that they just left and we're gonna tell them what to do and we're gonna put these demands on them. But really, in order to teach someone real stability, you need to give options and you need to let them know, like, look, if you follow through with this, then we can help you with this. If you follow through, we can't force somebody to take our services, but when they do take our services, it is amazing because you get to watch somebody that may not have had a chance. They end up reunited with their kids, you know, and that stops generational incarceration because now these kids don't have to grow up without that missing parent. Um, it it also eliminates not necessarily entirely, you know, depending on the wage that they get, but it it lessens the amount of poverty, right? And if if people have money to buy food, if people have money to have housing, people, you know, and it also boosts their confidence, right? Because a lot of people that end up back inside the facilities are going back because they don't believe in themselves. You know, maybe they burnt bridges and no one believes in them, but maybe they've received negative messaging throughout their whole life and they really just think they'll never be anything. But at the re-entry welcome center, we let them understand we're not our mistakes. We are not that. That is like probably the worst five minutes of somebody's life that leads them to incarceration. And we want them to know that we can break these cycles. We can break the cycles of um recidivism, we can break the cycles of poverty, you know, and but we have to do it together. They have to be willing. And I'm telling you, a lot of them, the people that come through our center are successful, and that is a reward that no paycheck can give. Like to know that these people had no hope, and you didn't only promise them stuff, because we don't make promises, we pretty much um tell them I can't, if I can, I will. But if I, you know, we never want to overpromise, we never want to give people high expectations that we can't meet, but we do want to let them know we're gonna do everything we can to advocate for you and to help you become successful.

Speaker 1 11:13

Would you mind sharing a little bit about your personal story and how you first got introduced to community partners in action as much as you're um you know comfortable with, but I think that'd be really valuable for our audience.

Speaker 2 11:24

So I think I'll start it with one of the reasons that the men and women that come to our center do trust me very easily as a case manager, is because I'm not just this person sitting across the desk from them. I am a person with lived experience. Um, I am a person who was incarcerated. I actually was incarcerated from the age of 19 to the age of 42. I wound up in jail.

Speaker 1 11:51

Hold up, I'll pause on that.

Speaker 2 11:52

Huh?

Speaker 1 11:52

How many years?

Speaker 2 11:53

Is that's a that that's 23 years.

Speaker 1 11:55

That's 23 years. Uh really hopefully the listeners let that sink in.

Speaker 2 12:01

Yeah, so I was actually sentenced to 30 years, um, but with good time laws and things like that, I ended up coming home um and after 23 years. Um, and I don't know if I could have made it um without community partners in action. The company that I am now employed with and the company that I now serve the participants that walk through the door, it's kind of like the hair club for men. I was also a participant. Um I started out early on. Um I became part of Community Partners in Action through the Prison Arts program that comes into the facilities. Um and the prison art teacher Jeff Green, he um works with people that are incarcerated to really explore their talents. And that's uh one way that I was able to really increase my self-esteem because prior to incarceration, I didn't even know that I had talents. I was one of those people that through negative messaging had really low self-esteem, and which is part of the trauma, you know, that I believe led me to make the choices that I made, which ended up in a 30-year sentence. Um and then prior to my release, uh, there was a program at the time called the Resettlement Program. And this was um before the re-entry welcome centers were really a thing. Um, but community partner is in action actually been around for 150 years. So they've been wowed, yeah, they just celebrated that last year. Um, and um they helped me really transition because they sent case managers in to meet with me and just having people sit across from me in a visit. I mean, here I was this girl that went to jail, now a woman, right? And it's important because tonight is the um Women's United. And so it's so important because they invested in me, right? They they they found out, they assessed what my needs were, um, what I was gonna need when I came home. And then they didn't just leave me. They, when I came home, I was able to go to them and they were able to help me with, you know, obviously, I went in as a 19-year-old kid, I didn't have a driver's license or anything. Um, they paid for my driving lessons. Um, they were able to do so much for me. And they didn't only believe in me as, oh, we want to help this girl successfully reintegrate, but they watched me um flourish and they watched me bloom. And then when the Waterbury Reentry Welcome Center came about, they called me and said, hey, we have uh I started out as an administrative assistant. We have an administrative assistant um position open. You know, I already had was I became a um recovery and peer support specialist through Advocacy Unlimited. Um I was already working for um CHR, has a rehab coordinator and a um and a warm line operator, so I was answering calls that were not crisis calls, but people that just needed to talk. So I was doing a lot of peer support and I'd moved to Waterbury, so I didn't have a license at the time, so I could no longer travel back and forth to Manchester. And so I left that job. That was when COVID happened, and then when the re-entry welcome center opened and they asked me to apply, I applied. And it's like, wow, these people didn't just invest in me as somebody that was a participant, like we're giving her this backpack and these bus passes and these, they really put their money where their mouth was because they gave me a chance to actually gain my own stability through their organization, and not only that, but use my lived experience to be able to help other people successfully reintegrate, which was like like a gift times a million. Like it was the best thing that they could have ever done for me. I'm actually, I am no longer, although I've been incarcerated for that time, I actually have an absolute pardon today. Um you spoke earlier of Hangtime. Um, I'm part of the Connecticut Hall of Change. I'm actually a 2023 grade eight, which is also through Hangtime that runs Choices, your program. Um, and I've been able to be really successful. Um, I worked with ACLU Smart Justice, and I was able to help change over 13 laws towards ending mass incarceration. And I have just been able to have so much success that to be able to now be in this position where I'm a case manager, do you know how much hope that gives somebody to see somebody that has actually been through it, understands it, and is able to now say, hey, you too can be successful, but you just have to keep at it. You have to believe in yourself. And you know, for me, I am in a really good position. I love what I do. Um, and then United Way steps in and says, Hey, we love what you do. We would like to partner and also help you run an employment readiness program. And so for me, I was like, yes, absolutely. And my agency was just so grateful as well. And, you know, to me now I run what I call the United Way Financial Stability Program, which is where I help people um get employed and keep their jobs. So I'm loving it, and and I don't know. And to me, the fact that they believe in me and they trust me, then they don't see me as a formally incarcerated person, they see me as a colleague, you know, somebody that that they believe in, somebody that they trust. So for me, it's it's it's a blessing because had you know, if if it wasn't the case, then a lot of the people that I'm so blessed to be able to help might never even know who I am or or might not see that example before them and not.

Speaker 1 17:56

There's such a great group that you work with over there with Beth and everybody else, and we've you know expanded our relationship. You've become a volunteer income tax assistance site for your uh uh clients as well. There, uh so for employers listening, there are vacancies, they're going unfilled, they're interviewing people. They should give this population a second look. And uh I know the reasons, maybe if you could share it with our audience.

Speaker 2 18:21

Well, I just want to point out to anyone listening that everyone makes mistakes, just not everybody has been caught or arrested for it, right? So if we're judging people based on this because we know this and we're not giving them the opportunity, then really we're doing a disservice because when and to ourselves, we're doing a disservice to ourselves because some of the people that are looking for jobs because they have a record and they have to disclose every time they're going to employer to employer, they know that they're gonna get a bunch of no's. People are gonna no, no, no, no, no. But when you say yes, right, you are putting somebody in your company that really needs a chance and is gonna go be above and beyond to show you that that they're gonna do a great job despite their record, you know, and they do. They're they're you know, they work harder, they, you know, because they don't it's not just a guarantee because they have these skills, because a lot of them have a lot of skills. They're you know, we we put them in the vocational courses, we put them into these things, and they still can't get a job based on their record. But when you're employing somebody, you're actually stopping people from going back to jail. So when you're you're employing someone, first of all, you might be, they might be able to provide for their children now, right? They might be able to provide for their housing. When they can't provide those things, the better chance that their child's gonna go to jail in the future, right? Because generational incarceration is real. Poverty. Oh, if if I can't eat, how am I going to eat? Uh am I going to resort to crime? Probably, right? Because that's just a matter of uh a way of life. But when people can feed their families, can feed themselves, can live and be stable, then it's a less chance of them committing a new crime, which equals a safer community. Because now community members don't have to worry about these people committing new crimes just as a means of survival, because they're able and not, you know, they're able to work and they're also able to contribute to the tax, you know, they're able to pay taxes. They're able to really I say reintegrate successfully back into community, and I mean that because that's what they're able to do. But when you say no and you discriminate on somebody based on their record, you're doing a disservice to yourself and to everybody because you're actually contributing to the recidivism rate. And who wants to be a part of that vicious cycle? We don't want to put, like you said, it's six figures, okay? So imagine look at all the dads that go to jail, then their sons go to get jail, then their sons go to jail, or the the kids that are being oversentenced, right? And look at me. I'm not 23 years incarcerated. Can you imagine that cost over a million dollars, not even including my medical bills, right? Had I done that whole 30 years instead of come home and now and now I'm able to be successful, I'm able to help other people be successful. I just think about the way that the racism fit recidivism rate would have continued to just go out of control. But now, like you said, crime's down in Waterbury. And I I don't only think it's because of what we do, but I think it's the community partners, right? I think it's all of the partners, United Way, American Job Center, all of these people that are doing everything that we can to ensure that people are working because like it ends, you know, it it it Stops the cycle of poverty. Poverty is a vicious, vicious cycle. And I think that really, if we really want a better, safer community, then we have to give people opportunities.

Speaker 1 22:12

That's a pretty powerful position, opportunity for employers to be able to make that kind of impact on the community by giving somebody a chance that they're obviously going to capitalize on to save, you know, and it'll be practical, save the taxpayer that kind of money, to save the community and and and just law enforcement reduced crime. And you can do that by just even just committing to saying, I I'm I saw the violation on your resume, so no. No. Take the next step, let them come in and talk to them, see who they are, see what they're about, but take that and then go. That's pretty powerful.

Speaker 2 22:56

Yeah, and I mean I I think that that they should definitely do that. I think that people can grow within your company. You know, I mean, I'm sure I know community partners in action love that they hired me, right? And this is the same story for other people, but you have to give someone a chance to know if they're gonna be an asset. And they have just as much chance of making a mistake in your company or doing something wrong than anybody else. It's just you have this scarlet letter on you that says, Don't hire me, versus a person who maybe never got caught for their mistakes. They could, you know, commit their first crime in your establishment. You don't know. So to say no, I mean, kids, the there's so many kids out there that need their dads to have, you know, their school clothes, there's all these things that that kids need in order to be, we're investing in our future by taking care of the people that are already parents.

Speaker 23:55

You have a success story that possibly you could share.

Speaker 2 23:58

So I have many success stories of the participants that we serve. Um, a lot of them are very successful. Um, I'm thinking of one in particular. Um, so we have a person that um came home from incarceration. He went in as a 17-year-old boy, and I say boy because technically your brain is not fully developed until you're 26 years old, and it's specifically the decision-making realm of your brain. And um, he became incarcerated at a young age, and he actually served 30 years in prison, and then he um received a sentence commutation, he first received a modification, then he received a sentence commutation, and when he came home, um we helped him. We worked with um closely with the job developer at the halfway house. Um, and he ended up, he has he now has his driver's license, right? Mind you, he's a grown man, but has no life experience, right? So he now has his driver's license. Um, he has his ocean, he has his flagger. Um he was able to um to uh get his driver's yeah, like I said, his driver's license. And he worked first, he started out working for the city of Waterbury um through the DEEP program. He was doing um some type of sanitation um like um trash job. And then later he went on and now he works with disabled children. And the greatest thing of all of this story is he's financially stable, he's in a financially stable situation, and now he's become a father, which you know he may have never had the opportunity to do. And we got to meet his his son. Um, and it's just a full circle blessing. You know, this young man, while he was incarcerated, his mom passed away. And so for him to be able to come home and start a beautiful family and to be able to sus support his family, and you know, it's just it's it's such a great thing to see. I believe that, you know, we were a miracle in his life, and I believe that, you know, he he was a miracle in our life too, because he was receptive, right? He wanted the help, he was dedicated to to the job. He he became a good employee when he was working for these um places. He didn't leave on bad terms, he left for better opportunities. And when those doors open and we're able to get those opportunities, my I say where because even though I have a pardon, I still consider myself a formally incarcerated person. It was such a big chunk of my life. But sometimes you can take the worst moments that have happened in your life and your worst mistakes, and you can use them for your to find your purpose. And I feel like that's what I've done, and I feel like that's what a lot of my participants are able to do, but probably would not be able to do without agencies like United Way, agencies like community partners in action, you know, because they burned a lot of bridges prior to incarceration, and people don't want to help them. So when people do help them and life changes, life brightens up for everybody.

Speaker 1 27:13

Is there anything else that you'd want to add that people don't know? Because people don't know what they don't know. And you know, our our prisons are full of bad choices, uh, and giving people better opportunities, I think, is is worthwhile.

Speaker 2 27:28

I think that everybody should who is listening should really look back in their life and think about some kind of mistake that they have made, right? Um, some people will go to a bar and they'll drink and they will leave before an hour is up, right? And they'll have one beer or whatever, and they drive and they don't kill anyone, right? But one wrong turn they might have, you know, and I'm not justifying crime and things like that, but I'm saying remember that no one is perfect, everyone makes mistakes, not everyone goes to jail for them. So I think that that's really important and it's really valuable to think about because when you're sitting across from somebody as an employer or a landlord or anything like that, and you find out that someone has a record, you kind of pull your chair back and try to disassociate yourself with them because they have a record. But if you listen to people and you say, Well, what did you do while you were incarcerated? They can tell you, you know, we don't just sit in prison and do nothing. You know, we have a lot of time to think, a lot of time to reflect. We do a lot of groups and a lot of things that help us to change and become better. And, you know, we really get to dwell on our mistakes and we get to think about all the ways that we're never gonna repeat those mistakes. But we need the community's help. We need the community's support. Because when you close those doors to us and when you say no, no, no, no, no, you're actually opening the doors back to the prison and you're sending us back in by default. And to me, you don't want to do that. I think your money will be better and your tax money will be better invested in our children, right? Let's get the help to children have a better future than paying into these prison systems.

Speaker 1 29:18

Yeah, and they don't want to do it. They don't want to go back and make the bad choice. But you gotta have options. You know, life is the sum of your choices, but you need better opportunities. And you're you guys are providing that, and hopefully uh our continued investment will continue to create those opportunities. Um I really appreciate you coming on the way forward and uh and sharing your thoughts tonight at our Women United Fifth Annual Summer Social. I think the audience is gonna be really receptive to that and uh hopefully uh attract their support and maybe want to get involved in some of this work. Um so as I mentioned in the opening, this is just one program of many that together are creating a safer, more prosperous, and thriving community for us all. So learn more by revisiting past episodes of the way forward and watching for new ones. We are gonna have one coming up on uh on choices this fall on the program I was talking about that uh it's helping uh youth make better choices. So watch for that one. Thank you again to our platinum media sponsor, Republican American newspaper, for making today's episode possible. And thank you for taking the time to listen and for your support. We'll see you next time on the Wave Forest.