A partnership of state agencies, city and county agencies and the NAACP has brought the Carroll County NAACP Re-Entry Services Program office to Carrollton to serve Carroll County residents recently released from jail.

The sponsors, including the Georgia departments of Labor, Corrections and Human Resources, Carrollton, Carroll County and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, celebrated the opening of the program Thursday, although the office has been open since March 5.

“This is a very unique partnership,” DOC Commissioner James Donald said. “To have an organization like the NAACP and have them partner with a state organization like the Department of Corrections and the community of Carrollton to have a re-entry program that specifically targets people who are coming out of the prison system shows extraordinary insight and understanding that the community cannot be safe without public and private involvement in their own safety.”

The re-entry program will help recently released prisoners reacclimatize to their communities. It will help them find housing, learn new skills if necessary to find a job, and help them search for and land that job, according to Mallie McCord, DOC public affairs manager.

Those two things - meaningful work and suitable housing - are what studies have shown make a substantial difference in whether a prisoner commits another crime or not, Donald said. Nearly 27 percent of prisoners will commit a crime within three years of their release, he said.

With 60,000 prisoners incarcerated in Georgia, 95 percent of whom will eventually return to their homes, communities have a huge stake in making sure that prisoners do not commit another crime after being released.

Although it is very early to tell what kind of a difference the program will make in the long run, since its opening, the Carrollton office has served 22 people - and 11 of them are now working, according to program director Bob Jackson.

“Out of that we have had a 1.5 percent recidivism, 1.5 percent,” Jackson said. “So that means that we have made somewhat of a difference and we’re moving in the right direction.”

Carrollton is providing housing and utilities for the office at 135 W. Center St., an investment in what is good and right and just, according to Mayor Wayne Garner. The program provides an opportunity for those recently released prisoners to help themselves while the community cheers them on, he said.

“We don’t want to hear about how Mama was mean to you or you had a bad coach or anything like that,” Garner said. “When you get here, it’s up to you.”

Projects like this re-entry program are not new to the county, but its comprehensiveness is, according to Sheriff Terry Langley.

“There’s been several different groups trying to do things, but they’ve been off on their own,” he said. “I think this is more of a coordinated effort, spearheaded by the NAACP. Church groups, business, law enforcement and all coming together in a collaborative effort.”

The effort to help former prisoners be successful after their release is an important step in making Carroll County safe, Langley said.