By IAN SCHMIT
Messenger staff writer
ROCKWELL CITY Jim McKinney's job may seem like a contradiction.
As the warden of North Central Correctional Facility, McKinney gives the inmates of the facility the opportunity to help others and themselves.
For the past 12 years McKinney has overseen the minimum security prison and the creation and operation of programs that benefit both offenders and the community. According to McKinney, the prison is a re-entry facility: a last stop for offenders serving six months to two years.
"The last thing you want to do is warehouse inmates," said McKinney. "Because if you warehouse inmates they're not going to be any better when they walk out the door. What you want to do is give them some opportunities and teach them skills for when they get out."
Bikes for Tykes, a program where inmates refurbish bicycles and gift them to underprivileged children for Christmas, is now in it's eighth year.
"We had a captain who was talking about what we could do for underprivileged kids, something that we could do and would be special to us and all it took was an idea. We found some inmates to help us and next thing you know this is year eight," said McKinney. "I think it's just about allowing people to have opportunities."
Training guide dogs for the blind is another opportunity made available to the inmates. Within the program, inmates train puppies to be lifelong service dogs as part of the Leader Dog program. McKinney got the ball rolling with this idea.
"We made a telephone call to Leader Dogs and asked if they would come and tour our facility. They had never done dogs in a prison before because they just didn't think it would work," said McKinney. "But they just kind of saw this place as a little bit different from all the other prisons and visited. They had a dog with them and asked if we wanted him. We said sure, and since then we've gone from one dog to now hundreds of dogs that have gone through here."
The prison also has a large work-release program. McKinney said when he started as warden of the facility in 1997 there were 12 offenders going outside the fence to work. There are now 280 leaving the facility on work release and around 150 in the winter.
"They found out that these guys were good workers and the inmates enjoyed the opportunity to get out of the prison for a few hours and out into the community and so they worked really hard," he said. "A couple inmates are going to mess up. But you have to look at the thousands and thousands of inmates that have gone through this prison and worked outside in the community and are doing good things."
At NCCF, prisoners are treated more like they are in outside society, said McKinney. They aren't told when to wake up, to find a job or take part in certain programs. But they have many opportunities to get an education by earning their G.E.D. or their A.A. and are also encouraged to part in such programs as CALM, which teaches anger management strategies.
"What we don't do is tell them they should never get angry, because that's impossible. So we actually teach them it's OK to get angry, but when you're angry, this is what you should do so you don't end up in a place like this," said McKinney.
The use of strategies of opportunity and skill teaching seems to be working. According to McKinney, the prison has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the state at 34 percent. He said the national average is closer to 52 percent.
McKinney said there is not a panacea or a single way to fix every offender, instead they work to find 500 different ways to motivate each offender, as there's "500 different types of guys in here, 500 different interests and 500 different ways of life"
"It's super rewarding and frustrating. It's rewarding when you get the opportunity to see people grow, both staff and offenders," said McKinney. "I've seen some staff members that started off as secretaries and worked their way up to some pretty high positions, and I've seen inmates who have a chip on their shoulder when they come in here and they develop this mentality that it's us versus them. But they find out it doesn't have to be that way and a lot of it depends on their attitude."
One of McKinney's biggest frustrations is working with the budget, and trying to find ways to fund programs.
The facility is also running with a population around double that for which it was designed. Created for 245 inmates, it now houses 502, with one-man rooms becoming two-man rooms and four-man rooms becoming 10-man rooms.
However, according the McKinney the problem of overpopulation is vastly marginalized because of the facility's philosophy.
"What you worry about is putting that many people in a crowded area and there's nothing to do. Then you have concerns," he said. "But we have lots to do. They're only really in their rooms to go to sleep. They're out and they're busy and doing things, so you don't have those problems."
The only goal McKinney has for the facility is a broad one: be better.
"I tell my staff I think we are one of the premiere re-entry facilities in the nation right now and I don't want anybody to catch us so we try to find ways to be even better at what we do," said McKinney.
To do that, McKinney says he is dependent on every single person in the facility to their job. From the officer patrolling the perimeter on the midnight shift to the counselors who motivate the offenders, every person has a needed role.
"I am extremely proud to be associated with NCCF and extremely proud to be associated with the staff," he said. "I think they do a great job and sometimes they don't get recognized. They're here, they do a tough job, and they do it well."
Contact Ian Schmit at (515) 573-2141 or ischmit@messengernews.net