The Daily Times, reporting on the Delaware, Maryland and Virginia area relates the work of The Way Home – a program started by St. Martha’s Episcopal Church of Bethany Beach, that supports those released from prison.
Arthur White and Jim Sivley could pass for typical blue-collar workers, their shoulders broad and their hands weathered from years of hard labor.
In fact, most who passed them on the street probably wouldn’t give them a second thought. And that’s what they want: To be just like everyone else.
But in many ways, they’re not. Both White and Sivley are convicted felons. Both men spent time in multiple state correctional institutions, both were released on parole, and now both are living under the same roof while they try to adapt to their newfound freedom.
With the aid of a Georgetown-based group called The Way Home, White and Sivley are working to turn their lives around. The two men are occupants of a transitional home in Millsboro where, through support from their group and each other, they strive to put their past behind them and create a new life for themselves.
To help former inmates ease back into society, The Way Home reaches out to prisoners.
The program, which began as a prison bible study program out of St. Martha’s Episcopal Church in Bethany Beach, has grown into a private non-profit organization assisting prisoners upon their release.
According to The Way Home, more than 20,000 inmates are released from Delaware prisons each year. Within three years, half of those released find themselves back in prison. In a 2007 study, the New England Journal of Medicine determined inmates, in their first two weeks after release, are 12 times more likely to die than people of similar age, gender and race. Causes of death are typically related to drug overdoses, cardiovascular diseases, homicide and suicide.
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