Checking a patient’s vital signs, rewiring a house and fixing a broken diesel engine are just a few of the lessons a Lowndes County Adult Detention Center inmate can now learn while incarcerated.
While they learn these skills through the lenses of virtual reality headsets and controllers rather than truly hands-on, Sheriff Eddie Hawkins said the hope is for those skills to translate into stable careers.
“We’re trying to help them meet (job) qualifications,” Hawkins said. “What that’s going to do for us is it’s going to … keep people from coming back to jail, because if we keep them working, … they don’t have time to go out and commit crimes. That’s the whole goal of this.”
Those VR courses are one of several initiatives that are part of the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office’s newly created Pathway to Peace program, which seeks to curb recidivism and address root causes of early pathways into crime in the county, Hawkins said.
On the early-prevention side, deputies will teach classes in county high schools about DUI awareness and conflict management. At the jail, inmates learn skills for careers in trades or take lessons to later earn a general education development degree.
LCSO will have targeted enforcement in designated high-crime areas this summer as part of the initiative, Hawkins said.
Hawkins said he dreamed of starting a similar program about six years ago, but the COVID-19 pandemic threw the plan on the back burner.
And that’s where it stayed until earlier this year.
“A goal for myself this year was to get this program up and going and get it off the ground,” Hawkins said. “I met with my staff at the beginning of the year, and we started rolling this out. … We’re really excited about it.”
To jump-start classes at the jail, LCSO bought $18,000 worth of virtual reality headsets and courses for inmates to learn through the jail’s computers.
“The virtual instructor that they’re hearing is guiding them step by step through the process, and if they don’t do something right, the process backs them up,” Hawkins said. “… And once they complete it and understand it, then they get that certificate of completion to help build a resume on.”
The department’s inmate canteen fund covered the costs of the equipment, Hawkins said. A county’s inmate canteen fund is generated by purchases made at the inmate commissary and can only support initiatives for inmate welfare, according to Mississippi law.
Along with those online classes, the detention center offers classes with a part-time instructor to prepare inmates to take the GED test.
Hawkins hopes to eventually partner with local businesses and industries to provide inmates who complete those programs with job opportunities.
“We’re looking for community partners that want to come in and help do things like life skill classes, mock interviews, help build a resume, things of that nature,” he said. “Some of these guys that come to jail (and) they’re good people, they’ve just made bad decisions.”
Beyond the jail
Since January, the department has rolled out a drinking-and-driving awareness class, which has been taught in Lowndes County School District’s three high schools.
“We go to the schools with the golf carts and set up the cones, and we put the goggles on (students) so they can drive through the course and see what it’s like to be impaired,” Hawkins said.
While driving under the influence has been the focus of initial classes, Hawkins said he’d like to expand next school year and address other subjects like conflict resolution and general life skills.
Hawkins has been coordinating with LCSD school resource officers to develop a mentorship program for students they’ve identified as at-risk.
“We’re getting with the counselors in the schools and some of the teachers to identify those students … and try to mentor them and steer them in the right path,” Hawkins said.
Lt. Rhonda Sanders said the department June 22-26 will host its first Sheriff’s Youth Leadership Academy for 25 at-risk high-school students.
The goal of the program is to teach students skills in leadership, civic responsibility and teamwork, so they succeed when they go back to school in August, Sanders said.
“One of the goals (is for the camp) to be a deterrent, just in case they have the peer pressure of someone trying to get them to break the law,” Sanders said. “They have gone through a week of (this camp) and can say, ‘Okay, now this is wrong. This is something we learned that week at the sheriff’s office, and it’s something I shouldn’t get involved in.’”
Starting this summer, Hawkins said the department is increasing enforcement efforts and patrols in “high-crime areas” of the city and county.
“We’re going to be checking warrants,” Hawkins said. “We’re going to be checking for drugs (and) guns. … We want to reduce violence in our community. … By saturating the area and putting a lot of concentration and more deputies on the street to be able to address that, is only going to enhance us getting the problem solved.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 33 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
