JAMES WOOD –Staff Writer
Lieutenant Chris Cook of the Bedford County Sheriff’s Department spoke during the latest Board of Commissioners Public Safety Committee about his report of the new programs being employed at the jail in the Bedford County Justice Complex.
Cook spoke on the recovery programs in Bedford County and how they have been affecting inmates when they leave jail.
“There’s a lot of other things for them to do to keep them engaged,” Cook said, “but how do we benefit them when get out of jail?”
His plan currently is to focus more on job skills education and starting this year, every new program will have a job skills component added to it to help inmates gain career experience for when they are released.
Starting in April of 2022, Cook began classes that covered a variety of important issues that the inmates are facing in the county including job opportunities, emotional and spiritual wellbeing and the often unmentioned importance of addressing addiction.
In a subsequent interview with Cook, he spoke about the background behind his involvement with the jail and what has come of his plans to help inmates heal and prepare themselves for when they are released.
When Cook started at the old Bedford County Jail decades ago, there were over 80 inmates. When he returned to the job in 2014, the number had ballooned to over 300.
“It was a shocking experience,” Cook said, “I started to learn what addiction looked like in people.”
One of the highlights of the classes is inmates learning to address pre-existing addictions that led them to struggle and eventually land them in jail and the causes of those addictions. According to his account, a variety of people have been brought to the jail such as teachers, nurses, and many other types of people.
“People don’t chose to start addictions,” Cook said, “many people who endured trauma from a young age find ways to cope with it.”
“When addiction begins, there is no logical thinking, only what it takes to cope and survive,” Cook said, “it’s a 100% preventable problem, we just haven’t done anything for them.”
The new programs also have included the starting of a garden program for inmates to participate in. For the past few years, inmates have continued to run and expand a large garden behind the jail facility that have allowed them to invest time into work ethic, self-sustainment, and other important traits that can prepare them for the outside.
“We’re not in the business of warehousing people,” Cook said, “after the classes, recidivism goes from approximately 99% to 5%.”
“Each class facilitates a basic group therapy,” Cook said, “it changes everything including the behaviors of the whole jail to have the chance to have the chance to get into the class.”
Among the most important things that Cook highlighted, the fight against addiction was at the top of the agenda along with the wellbeing of the inmates and health of the community.