hi i am new to the site ..but not new to having my fiance/soon husband in the idoc, he was just released from anamosa in dec 03 to work release in waterloo, which they are terrible there, they would write him up for anything they did not like, and they do not like him. well they said that he had too many wite ups and that he either had to go back to prison or take this program, he took the program to get home faster:thumbsup: the prgrams is in the fdcf called Rivers and i know nothing about it, he left last monday and iam still waiting to hear from him, but before they offered the program they only said he would go back to prison and the bop said they did not want him back ...we are going to write the bop and the gov. because he did nothing wrong to go anywhere so i am very irate:angry: , sorry for venting , its just we were very close to get all this behind us and be a family with our son and im am just missing him very much.
thanks all for listening:rolleyes:
by the way i read about the get together and that would be nice, its is great to have found this site, where others now how eachother feels.

i don't personally know about this program, but i did find an article about it...hope it helps

http://www.humboldtnews.com/News/2003/0619/Local_News/

Prisoners enter RIVERS program
By Meghan Krein

In a prison with the youngest population in the state of Iowa - the average age is 25 - Fort Dodge Correctional Facility may have many of the system's most challenging offenders. In an effort to move such young offenders towards rehabilitation, the director of the Department of Corrections proposed to implement a program that would accomplish that goal. Three years ago, the RIVERS program was born.
RIVERS, an acronym for Redirecting Individual Values, Energy, Relationships, and Skills, is an intensive program that targets young, male offenders. The program is four to six months in length, depending on the offender's progress, and requires that the offender be 25 years old or younger; the average age is 21.

There are three different offender classifications that are eligible for the program, probation or parole violators, shock reconsiderations and general population offenders.

Probation violators and parole violators, also just simply known as violators, are sentenced to the RIVERS program by a judge, usually as their last opportunity before serving "real" prison time. If the violator completes the program successfully, he will be released from the medium security institution and returned to street probation.

If he does not complete the program, due to behavioral problems, he will be removed and sent back to county jail to await a court hearing that will determine his fate. In most cases, the judge will sentence the offender to his original prison sentence and he will return to prison as a general population offender.

Reconsideration of sentence offenders, formally known as shock incarceration, are also sentenced to the program by a judge, or identified as such at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Oakdale. Upon completion of the program, a progress report is submitted to the judge, and he decides if the offender will be given a second chance in the community or not.

If he decides not to release the offender, the offender will serve his original prison sentence in the general population.

General population offenders, or GP offenders, volunteer for the RIVERS program, in exchange for the completion of all their treatment needs and a possible early release. If the GP offender completes the program, the Board of Parole will review his case and possibly release him to the community. Even though GP offenders have the opportunity to benefit a great deal from the program, they also have a lot that they must forego.

Unlike the rest of the prison population, the RIVERS offenders cannot have any personal clothing, tobacco products, candy, soda, televisions, radios, or headphones. They are only allowed to purchase personal hygiene items from the prison commissary.

Upon entering the RIVERS program, each of the offenders is issued a uniform that distinguishes them from the rest of the prison population; green button down shirts, black clip-on ties, blue jeans, and black boots. They also must not have their hair longer than 1 inch and their faces must be clean shaven.

RIVERS offenders wake each morning to a very structured day, one that is filled with activities from 6:45 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. They begin each morning with physical training, which is considered an essential tool in teaching discipline and respect for individuals, as well as teaching about teamwork. After their workout, the offenders return to their four-man cells for cell inspection; during this time a correctional officer inspects each cell. Beds are expected to be made and clothes are to be neatly folded and placed in lockers.

For the next four hours, the RIVERS offenders attend intensive treatment classes, which include Corrective Thinking, Anger Management, Parenting, Substance Abuse Education, Thinking for Success, Victim Empathy, Violence and Relationships, Work Readiness and GED.

"My way of thinking has changed. I not only think about how my actions affect me, but also the people around me. I have also learned that there is no such thing as a victimless crime, and I've learned the value of hard work," Thomas English, a participant in the RIVERS program, said.

In addition to the treatment classes that are offered, Restorative Justice Services works with RIVERS to coordinate a victim offender reconciliation program. This program involves two or more RIVERS offenders meeting with a juvenile, who has committed a similar crime. The offenders and juvenile meet with a panel; consisting of a community member, the juvenile's parents and Restorative Justice staff members.

The purpose of this program is to deter the juvenile from coming to prison, and also to offer the offender a chance to give back to the community.

Dave Adams, a juvenile probation officer for Humboldt and Wright Counties, makes referrals to Restorative Justice Services. Adams refers juveniles, who have been placed on either informal or court ordered probation, with crimes involving assaults, drugs, alcohol, or burglaries.

"I've heard nothing but good things about the program. The inmates don't beat around the bush; if the kid's thinking is wrong, the inmates confront him," Adams stated.

The RIVERS program's staff, which consists of the unit manager, Michael Kane, an assistant unit manager, eight counselors, and 10 correctional officers, is also credited by the offenders.

"The things I like most about the program are the classes, counselors, peers, and mentors. Because, without the help from all of these groups of people, I wouldn't have learned anything about things I had to work on to improve me and ways to keep guiding me in my road of change," Eladio Pena, a RIVERS offender, said.

Kane, helped develop the program's specifics after researching similar programs in New York and Oregon. "It has not been an easy task working with offenders 25 and younger, but I feel we're making a difference," Kane said.

Although, the RIVERS program has proven to be both demanding and rigorous, its rate of success has yet to be determined. Kane is hoping to resolve this issue through a new computer program called ICON. ICON, which was just recently developed, will calculate the program's statistics, including the rate of recidivism, meaning the rate at which offenders relapse into crime.

While the RIVERS program is an instrument used to correct criminal behavior in prison, Kane points out that there are ways the community can help as well, such as becoming a big sister or big brother, parenting foster children, reporting child abuse, learning about diversity, spending quality time with your family, joining a YMCA program, or just becoming involved in something positive.
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thanks:) , yes that has helped, before i wasn't sure what it was about

I know this for a fact (since they tried to get my hubby to go to it and he refused). It's like boot camp, they shave your head and all that good crap. It doesn't always mean you get to go home early either. What they say about the program and what they do are 2 different thing. Sorry but I got to be honest about it.