Kent County jail offers resources to help veterans ‘move past problems’
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The Kent County Sheriff’s Office says its participation in a state program that offers incarcerated veterans services with the goal of keeping them from ending up back behind bars is a “win-win.”
The sheriff’s office says that since joining the Michigan Incarcerated Veterans’ In-Reach Program last year, it has helped 23 veterans at the Kent County Correctional Facility. MIVIP links veterans to resources with the goal of helping them find stability. They also have a case manager who will follow up with them for a year after incarceration.
Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young, who spent 13 years in the U.S. Army Reserve, said veterans can face specific challenges, physical, mental and social.
“I think it is imperative that as a community, we show the respect for those who served us and understand the challenges that they’ve now taken on for the rest of their life because of their service,” she said. “And we also need to understand how we can help with that. So it’s one thing to feel bad: ‘Oh, I’m sorry that happened to you.’ It’s another thing to contribute to successfully moving past those challenges.”
She said her department may offer contact information to those who are in the jail for only a short time, like overnight, but will bring in resources to those who are there longer.
“Many of them need things like documentation of service,” she explained. “Just giving them that copy allows them to engage additional services. Many of them are eligible for disability benefits or medical benefits through the VA that they have no idea how to engage.”
Many also need housing assistance and help finding a job after they get out of jail, the sheriff said.
The Kent County Correctional Facility is the first county jail to participate in the program, which has generally been run in state prisons. LaJoye-Young said MIVIP has led to a recidivism rate of less than 1% among participating veterans, compared to a rate of about 45% among all inmates.
“Numbers say something, but I think it’s important to people that they understand every time somebody reoffends, there’s generally a victim that they are committing a crime against,” the sheriff said. “So if we can prevent them from reoffending, from coming back into the correctional facility, it’s a win-win. It’s a win for that person (because) they have a better life and it’s a win for our community because we’re safer.”
MIVIP dates back to December 2022, according to a release from the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. Since then, 211 veterans have participated in Muskegon, Carson City, Jackson, Washtenaw County, Saginaw and St. Louis, as well as the Kent County jail.
“There’s one gentleman in particular that really has touched us by letting us know his progress and the fact that he’s continuing to engage in those services and he’s benefited from it and he’s established a good foothold in the community again,” LaJoye-Young said.
She did not have an estimate on the cost to the jail over the past year, but said most programs offered are funded through the county veterans millage or federal grants.
The sheriff’s office says other jails have reached out to MIVIP, and the program is using a three-year grant to expand into more jails.
—News 8’s Meghan Bunchman contributed to this report.
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