A fascinating and lengthy profile of the new Colorado Department of Corrections Executive Director, Rick Raemisch, highlights the importance of prison reform, including the need for successful reentry programming.
Raemisch, who began the job after the tragic murder of former director Tom Clements by an ex-inmate, has decades of experience in law enforcement and operates under the belief that most offenders can be rehabilitated.
But for Raemisch, successful rehabilitation requires reform to the state prison’s solitary confinement unit, formally referred to as administrative segregation, better treatment options for mentally ill inmates and the development of reentry programs that teach offenders how to become productive members of society following release from prison.
Raemisch has experience creating such programs as the sheriff in Dane County, Wis., where he began and expanded education programs, treatment and public service programs.
Increasingly, correctional agencies nationwide are using reentry programs to decrease recidivism levels, reduce prison populations and rehabilitate criminal offenders.
GEO Reentry Services works with correctional agencies nationwide to provide evidence-based reentry programming that targets changing criminal behavior instead of only punishing criminal behavior by requiring participants to undergo behavioral therapy as well as treatment and life skills programs.
GEO Reentry’s intensive day reporting programs hold participants accountable for their time and actions while preparing them for life in the real world.
To learn more about GEO Reentry’s methods, click here.