Grace Village Graduate: Tawny Glass

According to a study done by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Since 2010, the female jail population has been the fastest growing correctional population, increasing by an average of 3.4% annually.”

According to a another study done by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, “More than a third (36.8%) of all prisoners who were arrested, within 5 years of release, were [rearrested] within the first 6 months after release, with more than half (56.7%) [rearrested] by the end of the first year.”

The likelihood of those prisoners being rearrested increases if they have no strong and stable support systems upon being released.

Grace Village Women’s Restoration Center, a non-profit Christian based program in Perry, Georgia, is that strong and stable support system for many women in the middle Georgia area.

Grace Village accepts women from prison and off the street, and helps them to reintegrate back into society at their own pace.

The women are provided a fully furnished studio style apartment, where they reside for 3 to 9 months while they work on themselves without the often-overwhelming hardships and fears of the outside world.

In an interview with one such Grace Village graduate, Tawny Glass, having that time to work on herself and then reintegrating into society and facing those hardships are being explored. Things like how she learned to be still and focus on other things besides drugs.

She really had that time to focus on herself and heal, and when she graduated from the program she was all the more equipped to handle life as it came at her.

Glass has many jobs at the Cox Catering company housed on the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter that hosts the Georgia National Fair every year in October.

As her first job out of Grace Village, she was given a chance that many felons have a hard time getting. She rose in the ranks and is now the third in command below the owners and the manager who referred to her as his “number 1.”

Glass works hard, and it is clear that she is exhausted from working so hard. But it is also clear that she is happy with the changes she has made in her life, and being able to get away from the drugs and the people that landed her in prison.

That is what these reentry programs are all about, giving people a chance to figure out how they can make their lives better without the distractions that can often make them feel that going back to their old life is their only real choice.