Students at Indiana State University got a look this week at some of the challenges inmates face, even after their jail time is up.
The Re-Entry Correctional Simulation included four fifteen-minute segments, each intended to represent a week of the first month out of incarceration.
Students started out with a packet of information about the character they would play, including a name, the crime they were charged with and financial resources.
Anissa Williams is Reentry Affairs Coordinator for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. She says not every student was given the same information.
"If they have their social security card and birth certificate, means of identification, they'll re-enter a lot quicker, possibly," Williams says. "However if they don't have those pieces of identification, it's going to be very difficult for them to get services, a place to live or even a job."
The students then had to complete tasks like pay rent, buy groceries or find a job. Some had to visit parole officers, or even begin work on their GEDs.
At the end of each "week," program organizers would gather the students and check on their progress and remaining resources.
Kaviana Brown-Williams is a senior studying criminal justice at ISU. This is her second time participating in the seminar. She says it's a valuable resource, and everyone could learn from it.
"I'm in criminal justice, so I know what it takes and what happens before and after," Brown-Williams says. "But there's a lot of people who grow up and don't have to realize, they don't really know consequences."
All of the participants were junior and senior students studying criminal justice. Williams says once they graduate, they'll be the ones working with people trying to re-enter the community.
"So our hope is for them to have a better understanding of what people who have already paid their debt to society will experience once they come up," Williams says.
Inmates also participate in the seminar, to show students exactly what they need to accomplish once they start the process of re-entry.
