Winter 2024

Peer-To-Peer & The Transformation of Corrections: “There’s Nothing More Important Than Life”

There is a movement taking hold within the confines of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). Like the first pebble that gives way to a landslide, this movement started small, but as it grew, it picked up momentum, spilled into other units and fundamentally impacted corrections as we know it.

The life coach program empowers inmates to change their thinking. Started in 2020, the life coach program uses the power of peer-to-peer education, leveraging inmates’ past traumatic experiences with crime, gangs and addiction to build credibility with their peers. From those shared experiences, inmates become more willing to embrace rehabilitative programs.

These new peer-to-peer programs comprise a “Mind, Body, and Soul” approach, where all aspects of an individual’s being – their thinking patterns, their physical health, and their spiritual well-being becomes an important part of rehabilitation. In doing so, what was once a liability to public safety on the outside can potentially become an asset for positive change on the inside.

“I took somebody’s life and I hurt people, because I was careless in that gang violence,” said Rudy Castro, life coach at the Polunsky Unit. Now, I can go and talk to gang members. And they’re more likely to talk to me than to talk to somebody that’s never been in a gang.”

Castro, an ex-gang member, experienced a spiritual awakening when his dying mother pleaded with him to change his ways so she could see him one last time before it was too late. Now, as a life coach he uses his previous experiences to help others change their thinking and behavior.

But for those who enter TDCJ’s gang renunciation program, some have a fear that poses a huge barrier.

“There’s a threat in gangs that if you get out, you’ve got to die,” Castro said. “I got out and nothing traumatic happened to me. I’m walking proof that you can do that and succeed at doing that.”

Today, when other confirmed gang members see Castro, they have visual proof that life beyond the gang is possible and are more likely to take that initial step to leave that life for a better one.

“I want to help the gang member. I want to help the dope fiend. What society counts as the worst of the worst, the reject, I want to help because I was the worst individual,” Castro said. “I was at the bottom of the barrel. And that’s where I was found, so that’s where I want to go back to.”

Many of the day-to-day interactions between life coaches and other inmates comes while they are tier walking, where life coaches councel through the cell bars, directly to other inmates. In this work, they foster relationships by consistently attending to the mental and spiritual well-being of those in need, while connecting inmates with therapeutic communities and programming offered by TDCJ.

TDCJ has taken its mission to the next level, forming therapeutic communities within housing units that focus on clean living and healthy choices. At the Polunsky Unit, that has translated to the establishment of an incentivized section for inmates classified as G4 custody, and the impact has been profound.

“We had one Incident Command System in 11 months. No staff assaults, no fires, no floods. On a G4 pod,” Curtis Gambill, another life coach at the Polunsky Unit reported. “During the big lockdown last September, we had 47 of 47 inmates pass their drug tests. Twice.” These figures offer proof that there are individuals in prison who want better for themselves, which translates to wanting better for their families.

“We have 7,000 graduates of life skills now,” Gambill said. “We’re having conversations with students. Those students are having conversations with their families and with their children. They’re teaching them what they learn and reconnecting with their families.”

Those ripple effects are exactly the intention of these peer-to-peer programs to heal broken communities on the outside by rehabilitating inmates on the inside, and there’s no end in sight. As of August 2024, there are 200 life coaches at 55 facilities and more are on the way with every passing year.

Our Assignment May Change, But Our Ministry Remains the Same

Not all places in need of peer-to-peer support throughout the agency look the same or have the same needs. Consider the Pack Unit, a unit that is mainly comprised of elderly inmates, many of whom do not have family support or a release date that encourages rehabilitation.

“These people have time and they’re thinking to themselves, ‘Man, I’m never getting out. I’m going to die in prison,’” said Michael Ray Smith, a field minister at the Pack Unit. “So, we were walking into a situation where hopelessness was so pervasive throughout this facility that people did not want to get up and go to church, come to classes, put in for events, talk to people, or go to medical. So, we had to address that first.”

But, unlike at the Polunsky Unit, relatability didn’t go far with establishing credibility with the older inmates.

Rotolet McGee, another field minister at the Pack Unit, said, “coming here, was more of a challenge because you have a lot of older guys saying, ‘Man, y’all are little kids. Y’all can’t tell us what to do.’ So, our time didn’t hold a lot of weight. Consistency and living out who we are and loving on people is how we built credibility.”

Beginning in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic offered Smith and McGee the exact kind of environment to show that level of compassion to their fellow inmates and prove to them that they were there for the right reasons.

“A lot of these guys are elderly and have preexisting medical conditions, so they couldn’t get down and clean under their bunks,” Smith said. “We would clean under their bunks so that they could see the love of Christ acted out.”

Consistent care and compassion were the keys to building long-lasting relationships, which sparked a marked increase in program participation and attending medical appointments, and just like at the Polunsky Unit, the impact rippled outward.

After the pandemic ended, the Pack Unit sponsored a Family Day event where family members spent the day with their incarcerated loved ones. Everybody on the unit got involved.

“The education department allowed us to use their tables and chairs. Laundry made sure the clothes were pressed. Unit artists were spraying shirts. The craft shop provided gifts. The kitchen captain provided snacks and meals. It felt like a community because everybody got involved,” McGee said.

The impact of Family Day went far beyond some chairs and snacks for inmates.

“People saw that there is more to life than prison,” Smith said. “You have something to look forward to. Just keep pushing.”

I Feel Like I’m Making a Difference Now

All these efforts to reach inmates on a peer-to-peer basis compound over time, because graduates of these programs then go on to be agents of change themselves. For instance, at the Polunsky Unit, there has been a growing trend of G2 security inmates sending I-60s and requesting to be placed in the G4 incentivized section, many of whom cite the changes they have seen in those graduating the program as a motivating factor for wanting to join themselves.

“We’re in the augmentation stages of it now,” said Chris Carter, Director of the Chaplaincy and Volunteer Services Division. “How do we continue to grow it? We’ve proven that it’s impactful. It’s proven that it’s sustainable. So now it’s time to continue to grow it.”

Currently, the Correctional Institutions Division is actively expanding incentivized housing. Polunsky has already established two more sections of incentivized housing, growing the population from the original 47 to 144 total participants, with plans to add another section. Life coaches play an integral role in this process as they act as leaders for other inmates to look up to and gain valuable insight from.

All these initiatives provide officers with a new set of tools to effect change within the prison environment. Officers are finding that redirecting behavior towards positive change seems to enact longer lasting change than punishing negative behavior.

“Now, we’re streamlining more to rehabilitation,” Captain Cathleen Cooper of the Polunsky Unit said. “It’s prison; they’re paying their dues, but this is where we fix what’s wrong.”

“Fixing what’s wrong” highlights the critical role that life coaches and field ministers play. After all, they speak the same language, share in the same experiences and pull from similar histories as those they help. But it also creates space for officers to take a more active role in rehabilitation. Officers now can lean on peer-to-peer instructors when necessary and play an active role in recommending specific programs to inmates in need.

“I opened up and can see the big picture now,” Captain Cooper continued. “Redirect the behavior versus correcting behavior through disciplinary. The chance to be part of rehabilitation is exciting.”