Redemption Project offers inviting formula

Dwight Tostenson says that, in exchange for a one-time investment of $11,300, he can save taxpayers up to $64,000 a year. In fact, he’s doing it already–by bringing The Redemption Project (TRP) to inmates at state and federal prisons and vastly reducing the number of them who return to incarceration within three years of being released.

 

Tostenson, who founded TRP in 2018, explained his math during a presentation at a meeting of the Waseca Exchange Club on July 28. The cost per year to retain an inmate at state prisons, he shared, is about $64,000. At federal institutions, the cost is $41,000. Statistics show that, within three years of being released, 38 percent of Minnesota state prisoners and about 68 percent of federal prisoners have returned to incarceration.

 

Among individuals who have taken part in the 16-week classes offered by TRP, Tostenson said, the recidivism rate is lower than 15 percent; the cost per participant in the TRP is just over $11,000.

 

Tostenson shared materials which described TRP’s four-part program. It begins with inviting incarcerated individuals to attend a course which encourages participants to examine four virtues: wisdom, courage, self-control and justice. Tostenson explained the course uses the “Socratic” method of teaching; the central tool is asking probing questions and then allowing participants to reach their own conclusions through discussion and debate.

 

“We’ve had whole conversations about whether it’s possible to be an ethical drug dealer,” Tostenson offered as an example. He went on to say it’s gratifying to be present when someone who claimed maybe 10 minutes before that, yes, it is possible, gradually came to the personal recognition that it is not.

 

“We don’t tell people what to think,” said Tostenson, “we focus on teaching them how to think.”

 

Along with asking participants to examine the moral and ethical importance of their personal choices, Tostenson continued, The Redemption Project helps them build relationships with mentors who will be available to them when they return to society. The mentors, Tostenson said, are an important anchor as justice-impacted individuals return to the settings and interpersonal relationships which were part of their lives prior to incarceration.

 

Very importantly, TRP has built partnerships with businesses that willingly employ former inmates and are willing to be flexible about obligations such as meeting with parole officers, random drug tests, and check-ins. Tostenson stated employment is a key element in preventing recidivism, since individuals who cannot earn a living wage are strongly tempted to return to former, usually illegal ways of acquiring necessities. Other support includes guidance in finding housing and navigating other needs upon release.

 

Tostenson said the Redemption Project has worked with more than 300 justice-impacted individuals since its founding in 2018. TRP staff and volunteers have interacted with inmates from a wide variety of security settings–from maximum to minimum–all across the state, including an expanding program at the federal facility in Waseca.

 

As a non-profit entity, TRP is working to build its programs by recruiting volunteers to mentor inmates, employers to hire participants once they are released, and financial partners to fund its operation. Tostenson cited that there are currently 2.4 million people incarcerated in various types of facilities across the U.S. at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars a year per person–and with recidivism rates hovering around 50 percent.

 

“Recidivism is a waste of lives and money,” he said. “We should be helping justice-impacted individuals to change their way of thinking and then provide support as they reintegrate back into society.

 

Doing so, he suggested, would not only reduce crime, but also help returning citizens rebuild their lives with meaning and purpose and save taxpayers a great deal of money.