How To Keep Ex-Cons At Home

In Baltimore, Some Ex-Cons Get Some Extra Help

(CBS)  When one of these offenders is coming through that gate, free at last, headed back to Baltimore, what's he facing?

Says Levy, "The odds against him are incredible. Many times, he has an active drug addiction. Oftentimes, he doesn't have a place to live. Many times, he doesn't have a supportive family to go back to, no job skills, no training. Very, very, very slim prospects."

The reentry partnership takes about 100 ex-cons a year. Each one is managed by two counselors who make sure that he finds a house, finds a job and, if necessary, finds a way out of addiction.

When Levy talks to new partners, she tells them: "So you guys are going to come out with a team of people that are going to work with you night and day. They're going to eat with you and breathe with you and cry with you and sweat with you and get through all these issues, just to make sure that you don't come back here (to prison)."

The program is open to all convicts, except sex offenders and those who commit crimes against children. It’s voluntary. The ex-cons can leave at any time.

Nevell Thompson is a counselor, and Terrance English will be his problem. When he looked at English's case file, what did Thompson think?

"Addict. Addict. Not a bad guy. Just a sick guy," Thompson replies. "The most important thing that I'm going to be pushing on Terrance is keeping his recovery first. No matter what else, you can't use."

But what are the chances? Nobody reading Terrance's folder would pick this guy for a winner.

"Nobody except people like me," he says.

That’s because Thompson himself is an ex-con and recovering addict.

He explains, "I know that if I can do it, I just believe that anyone can, if given the opportunity and given the right time, the right place and the right set of circumstances, and I can't tell you what that would be or when it would be in anyone's life. Is it time for Terrance English? We won't know 'til we know."