Ten years ago, Richard Frey never imagined he’d be speaking at a podium in the Luzerne County Courthouse rotunda.
“I would’ve called you a liar,” he said Tuesday at the probation graduation in Wilkes-Barre.
Back then, he was under supervision at the county’s day reporting center for paroled offenders, he said. On his first try, he didn’t successfully complete probation.
Addressing a crowd of fellow graduates, he’s now a certified recovery specialist and set to finish college next semester, he said.
“The county and the state of Pennsylvania need more programs like this,” Frey said.
When offenders are eligible, reentry programs offer them therapy, drug and alcohol treatment and job coaching as they transition to life after incarceration. Frey said the support was indispensable as he got his life back on track.
Reentry coordinators called the names of 60 probation graduates, most of whom attended the event, to receive certificates of completion from the county and its contractor, GEO Group. The company runs reentry programs with state prisons and county jails in Luzerne, Lackawanna and Lycoming. GEO also manages for-profit detention centers throughout the U.S.
As keynote speaker, Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Jennifer Rogers acknowledged the long road the graduates traveled in reentry.
“It’s really hard to put in the hours in anger management class or parenting education or substance abuse counseling or therapy,” she said. “It’s a big task to find a new job or learn new life skills or decide to go back to school. But guess what? You did it.”
Matt Shoener, lead therapist at the Luzerne Reentry Service Center, worked with the graduates to maintain probation compliance. He offered the attendees a final piece of advice on Tuesday.
“Success is dependent largely on how we respond to challenges, not the challenges themselves,” Shoener said. “Just remember, your thoughts create your reality. You won’t always be able to control what happens to you or prevent the world from being a cruel or unfair place, but you can always find new ways to think and respond.”
The county has partnered with GEO since 2010. The non-residential center at 125 Wilkes-Barre Blvd. is meant “to help alleviate prison overcrowding" at the Luzerne County Prison, according to a company statement.
