By Mike Christen
The Daily Herald
COLUMBIA, Tenn. — Columbia’s Centerstone office makes strides forward in helping the incarcerated fathers of the Maury County Jail deal with the struggles of fatherhood as the organization celebrates its second graduating class of the “Inside Out Dad” program.
The “Inside Out Dad” program is a 12-week evidence-based course designed to improve the relationships between incarcerated fathers and their families though an examination of family history, parenting skills and communication.
“There is a trust there,” said instructor Brian Loging, describing the sessions as a safe place where inmates can share their true thoughts and emotions compared to the rough and sometimes dangerous environment of the Maury County Jail.
Core lessons of the program as seen in the course’s Fathering Handbook include showing and handling feelings, children’s growth, men’s health, co-parenting and fathering from inside jail.
“A lot of it is on choices,” Loging said. “We describe good mental health as the ability to choose and adapt to the pressures and the stresses of life in ways that do not harm themselves or others.”
Beginning in March of this year, Loging has taught four sections of the course to the residents of the Maury County Jail, with about 100 inmates having gone through the program.
He teaches the course with his own personal motto in mind:
“Good choices make good men and you have to be a good man to make a good father,” Loging believes. He repeats this phrase to the the inmates at the start of each course.
The program currently has close to a year-long waiting list, a sign that it has been well received, with residents recommending it to one another and sharing the importance of the class, Loging said.
“The whole atmosphere has changed,” Maury County Sheriff Bucky Rowland said regarding the jail.
Over the past 13 months, the Sheriff’s Department has been working to develop and improve programs for inmates, including the high school equivalency program HiSet and addiction course Celebrate Recovery.
“This is just one of the ways we are trying to counter crime and repeat offenders, to break that cycle,” Rowland said of “Inside Out Dad” program.
Fathers are selected to participate based upon their time of release and the age of their youngest child. The program currently only accepts fathers with children two years old or younger, Loging said.
Centerstone also works with inmates on preparing for life outside of jail. They work with the South Central Tennessee Workforce Alliance on finding employment for inmates before their release along with finding suitable housing as well.
“We are helping them think dutifully about when they get out, where they are going to go and what they are going to do to help them stay out,” Loging said.
The class’ curriculum was developed by the National Fatherhood Initiative and is the only one of its kind in use through 24 state departments of correction in the country.
Funds are provided for by a grant through the federal government to reduce infant mortality rates. The grant also concerns reducing trauma and adverse childhood experiences, Centerstone Project Director April Scott said.
“We thought, ‘What better way to cure mental illness than to prevent it from ever happening?’” said Scott.
The first inmate to have completed the course will be released on parole this coming November. The organization also offers similar programs for fathers outside of jail as well.
“If we can get them stable and get them back into a rhythm of good choices and a good life, being part of a good family, then we are able to pull them in and say ‘now you see what good choices can do and how easy it is to become a better father,’” Loging said.
Centersone plans to expand the program by bringing in community leaders and successful graduates of the course to lead classes, Scott said.