The "Reimagining Myself" class at the maximum-security Howard Young facility kicks off with a fast-paced game that’s played in a circle. The class - held twice a week since January - starts this way most days.
Instructor Kate Kenney reviews game rules, "what's the next one? Anyone remember how we got the cow right? What does the pow do? .... Yep, yep, how do I how do I block a pow? You remember? Right bounces it back. Now. Now it's time for diddly D."
The men told instructors they couldn’t have seen themselves participating in a game like this before. But participation is enthusiastic now.
"Focused eye contact, energize, whoosh, whoosh. Whoo. As woo it's Oh, wow, okay, okay, okay, okay, so we got all those, what's the one we didn't do?" she said as she continued instructing the class.
The program is voluntary and geared to men 6 months to 2 years from release, to help prepare them for reentry.
Jesse Jamison, one of the participants, gave us permission to identify him for the story. He had about two months left on his sentence.
"I wasn't always a person that speaks out or a person that participated in stuff like that. I was always shy or didn't want to be on spotlight. So I could say, for me, this class helped me be more open. Be willing to help others. Be willing to be creative. Don't be shy. You know, if you have to give a little bit to get a little bit, you know, once more, one person speaks up, then you know, you got the rest of the class speaking up," Jamison said.
Delaware's Howard Young facility is the latest to buy-in to the RTA class, joining California and New York. Kenney says it’s based on cognitive behavioral therapy practices.
"The program is really entirely focused on the social and emotional aspects of re entry. The idea is to lessen some of the surprises and potential challenges that people might face, knowing that we can't solve all of those in a 10 week period, but at every point, the program has been infused with the lived experience of people who have made the transition from incarceration back into their communities," she said.
The class warm up had done its job. Kenney and her co-instructor – Joshua Holmes– moved to more serious material. Holmes showed a video with interviews from men speaking to their experience with incarceration and reentry.
"All they're saying is, plug into a system, plug into a brother, plug into a sister, that will allow you to access the resources that are available to you. Do not have to return to prison if you choose not to. There are the methods. There are the means," said one of the men in the video.
He took the men through materials that asked about plans and thoughts for re-entry.
Holmes said, "Don't worry about this. Even before moving from like we started this, you look at yourself right now, right. Seriously, look at that kind of progress that you're made. You know who this? But this introducing you much more to you, right?"
Holmes is an artist in Wilmington who was previously incarcerated at Howard Young himself. And since this day was the group’s last session, he asked the men to reflect on their time in the course and at Howard Young.
"So that's why this stands out to be live precisely for today. Look forward to tomorrow because you must. This is going to end too. That's coming too. It's coming a. Edge. It's coming. So please. It'scritical, critical, critical information," he said.
Michale Remond was another man who gave us permission to identify him, answering Holmes’s group prompt. Remond said, "reinventing yourself is important because you important because we got kids, we got people that look up to us. We got family that love us."
Art comes into the program through personal storytelling and performance-based exercises that help people in the course to “reimagine themselves.” That day was a kind of a graduation for the group, where they recited a poem, adding physical interpretation for the words.
Holmes instructed the men about the activity and explained, "moving into our next activity is called poetry in motion....Poetry emotion."
"So everybody has to speak at least one line. Everybody's gonna put their voice in the space. You can't do it sitting down. We just need that warm up. You got to get your body involved," Kenney said.
The men assigned stanzas and planned their moves.
"so he's little, and then you going to say yours. So we all pop out. We all just pop out, while the other one fall forward," she said.
They rehearsed for a few minutes, "Reimagine, imagination. Educate your ideas. Education, that's how...we're gonna do."
And Kenney told them it’s time to show what they’ve come up with, "All right, welcoming to the stage.??... ‘the four hearts.’
Here’s Redmond’s part of the performance, "Man, let's imagine with a different set of eyes paint portraits of lyrical love."
Again, Holmes and Kenney debriefed. Holmes said the men probably won’t be asked to perform poems or dance during re-entry, but they exercised practical skills, "that's what yall just did. Demonstrated an act of what?– community– it was cute. You don't even be seeing these things,..you see what I’m saying?"
Redmond said he gets it, "teach you how to play your part too. We all had a different role to play, and we followed that role and played our part."
It reminded Jamison of his neighborhood’s effort to shovel snow off the street, "It was like...we all live in this neighborhood. We all got to drive in and out. Our kids live here. Let's all get it together and get it cleaned up. So I like, that was the first time I actually did, like, community work together."
"Reimagining Myself" will continue. The next course at Howard Young starts in September.
It’s one of multiple programs offered by Delaware DOC. Others include the more familiar work release, GED class, and substance use recovery programs
The launch of RTA’s “reimagining myself” this year comes as grant funding from Programs to Support Individuals Leaving Prison ends this year. The state also used these dollars to support case management, supportive housing for probationers, and job training.
