HUNTSVILLE, Texas – A key branch of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is its Rehabilitation Program Division.
According to the TDCJ website, “The Rehabilitation Programs Division (RPD) serves as the centralized administration and management of activities related to inmate programs within TDCJ.”
During a KSAT Investigates visit to the Wynne Unit in Huntsville during the statewide lockdown, we had the opportunity to visit with some of the inmates who are leaders in their units and the director of the Rehabilitation Programs Division.
Life coaches
“I had created so much chaos out there and caused a lot of pain out in the world. So I wanted to do something different,” Raymond Ramirez, an inmate at the Wynne Unit, said.
”As a result of seeing this and going through this and see so many guys get executed, then it caused me to really want to make a difference,” Thomas Miller-El, a Wynne Unit inmate said.
Ramirez and Miller-El are leaders among the inmates at the Wynne Unit.
“We just trying to reach out to our peers and just give them hope,” Ramirez shared.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice calls them life coaches.
Bret Minster doesn’t have the official title of life coach, but he might as well have it.
“I noticed that a lot of people looked to me when I started changing and they themselves started changing,” Minster said.
The life coach positions come with expectations of excellent behavior and leadership from higher-ups within TDCJ.
Christopher Carter, who oversees the Rehabilitation Programs Division, has been with TDCJ in a variety of roles for nearly 30 years.
“Six weeks of training on cognitive intervention, substance use, recovery issues, and mental health first aid. And they actually go out to the field and work with their peers on those three issues,” Carter said.
The life coaches have stringent rules and a zero-strikes policy.
Carter said TDCJ is seeing success with its life coaches.
“We’ve seen a tremendous increase in enrollments. We’ve seen a decrease in issues. Those programs actually really work because we know that the peer influence is...it’s a powerful influence,” Carter explained.
Miller-El offers an especially unique perspective. He spent 20 years on death row and had 11 execution dates set.
In 2008, that sentence was changed following a Supreme Court ruling regarding jury bias.
Miller-El is now giving back, teaching other inmates what it is to choose a new direction for themselves.
“Learning how to find yourself and how to love yourself, learn how to respect yourself, because it’s only through learning how to love yourself, that you can love someone else,” Miller-El said.
Rehabilitation programs
Carter said his team within the Rehabilitation Programs Division is always looking at new ways to enrich incarcerated peoples’ lives so they have a better chance of success when they’re released.
“We have a program called Go for the Goal,” Carter said. “We have individualized treatment plans for each individual that’s in prison. And with those plans, it enables my staff to develop treatment assignments for them in certain areas that they need to focus on in order to achieve their rehabilitation.”
Ramirez talked about how helpful he has found the Go for the Goal program to be when TDCJ approaches someone who is just coming into the prison system.
“This covers anything you want to go to, any kind of education, want to pursue, need anything religious, overcomers, manhood, you name it. It’s endless of all the opportunities that they’ve given to us,” Ramirez said.
Whether it’s a substance abuse treatment program, sex offender treatment, volunteer services, or secondary education, TDCJ is trying to cover every aspect of rehabilitation to create a safer environment inside and out.
“We have what we call program expositions, where we actually go out to the facilities and talk to the men and women about those opportunities, get them to sign up right then so we can go ahead and start positive change in their life now,” Ramirez said.
While in the lockdown, the rehabilitation programs were impacted because inmates were not able to be out of their cells for long periods of time, aside from the extensive searches. However, the programs were not stopped altogether.
“During lockdown, we have what we call alternative assignments. Therefore, it’s not going to stop the programs, so to speak,” Carter explained. “Their programs, their treatment assignments, they’re just in a different way. They have phase-specific assignments. For example, if you have someone in an orientation phase and a treatment program, they receive orientation-related curriculum and assignments.”
Aside from the life coach positions, there is a peer support coach program, which according to TDCJ’s website “the focus of the program is to develop qualified peer support specialists to work within the correctional and community substance use treatment setting.”
“After the initial 46-hour class, trainees will undergo 500 hours of supervised work experience, followed by an exam and a 25-hour practicum to demonstrate proficiency in the peer support domains. Upon successful completion, the trainee may be eligible to receive peer support credentials through the Texas Certification Board,” the website explains.
“We’ve learned to utilize that. That’s in addition to our intensive treatment programs. So we work hand in hand to kind of our goal is to help the entire person, mind, body, and soul,” Carter said.
By showing successes like Miller-El, Ramirez, and Minster, TDCJ hopes to create a domino effect where others are inspired to choose a positive path.
“There are a lot of opportunities that you can change your life on this unit because I did, I changed my life on this unit,” Minster said.
“It’s just it’s overwhelming to see that we live in a time where as that you can actually do things to give back to your fellow man,” Miller-El said.