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Ex-offenders in Memphis working to keep others out of jail

According to TDOC nearly a quarter of those who serve time in the county jail end up back in jail.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. —

Former inmates and those who work to rehabilitate them say, moving forward, Shelby County and Tennessee must create a system that allows for those with first experience in this system to aid with rehabilitation.  

“After I'm out I don’t know what to expect. I don’t know where I stand," John Cox a former inmate and now director of a halfway house near uptown Memphis said. "I don’t know how to act.” 

Cox runs a house through “REBOS” and Flanders Field, helping those who come out of prison to regain their lives.  

The current rate at which people leaving Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) prisons return is 32% and for those leaving county jails, the rate is 48% statewide.  

It's a number Ginny Burton, a criminal justice advocate who is currently consulting for the Tennessee Department of Human Services is working to decrease; making the process less reactionary and more proactive.

"Reentry, I believe, happens the moment that a person becomes involved with the criminal justice system," Ginny Burton, founder of OUT Overhaul said. "It has to."    

A missing component to the state’s and county’s reentry process Burton says is firsthand knowledge.  

"We don’t have lived experience leading the charge," Burton said. "Folks that have been there who have overcome; not just folks who have been there. But folks who have overcome the challenges.”  

Christopher Bobbitt has been out of prison for about 6 months, and he agrees, saying reentry should be more intentional. 

"The only way I feel a man or woman is going to make it in society and reentry would be if they’re placed into something to where they had the moment to get back into society slowly," Bobbitt said. "Instead of getting right back there with the same mindset.”  

It's a slow walk to recovery that Cox believes needs more robust mental health resources focused on breaking former inmates' bad habits.

"People trying to teach something they don’t know,” Cox said. “If you’ve never been locked down and had to live in the environment; how can you teach somebody how to live out here?"


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