Nov 24, 2009 8:03 pm US/Eastern
Rikers Inmates Thriving While Cooking For Homeless
Program Sets Them Up To Make Contribution On The Outside
Reporting
Cindy Hsu
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Rikers Island Correctional Facility
CBS
On Tuesday evening at Rikers Island inmates were preparing a huge Thanksgiving meal for the homeless.
The program is called "Fresh Start," and it's giving fathers a second chance at life, once they're released from jail.
The kitchen at Rikers was buzzing. The men were cooking 100 donated turkeys for the homeless. They are all fathers, serving a year or less at the correctional facility.
For 10 weeks, they've been mastering culinary arts and will leave jail with a food handlers certificate, giving them a chance at becoming a supervisor, once released.
"I learned different cutting techniques, learned how to make different dishes, all European, African, Indian, Asian," inmate Donell Brant said.
Only the most motivated are chosen for the Fresh Start program, which also teaches computer literacy and parenting skills. In all, 125 men are interviewed, but only 25 are chosen.
Joe Carter is in for petty larceny, and heading home in eight days. He said he won't be back, thanks to the program.
"It gives people a little hope, a little inspiration, a little something to go on, a skill because a lot of guys come home from jail and don't have a skill and they go back to what they was doing because that's all they knew or all they learned," inmate Joe Carter said.
Thomas Bentil served time at Rikers five years ago and is now the program's coordinator.
He said more than 70 percent of men released from Rikers return within a year. But for Fresh Start graduates it's a different story.
"Sixty five percent of our graduates are showing positive outcomes, which means they are either in school, are working, they're in treatment, but most of all they haven't returned to jail," Bentil said.
Bentil and has team follow-up with the graduates long after they're released.
"I see these guys calling me in six months or a year and saying, 'Thomas, my family's back in my life, I'm sober and I'm working,'" Bentil said.
Giving back to the community is a big focus of the program. Irving Williams will be released in a few weeks and this is where he sees himself in a year.
"Giving a lot of the homeless jobs in the food industry. I will become that top chef," Williams said.
On Wednesday morning the men will go to the Church of the Heavenly Rest. They'll deliver the food that will serve more than 1,000 homeless people on Thanksgiving.
This is the first year the program focused on fathers. Organizers said having children gives the men even more incentive to stick to their plan on staying out of jail.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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