MANSFIELD, Ohio – Around 80 inmates at the Richland Correctional Institution were able to reconnect with their families Monday during RiCI’s Day with Dads event.
This is the third time the institution has held the event, which first took place in 2010.
“Richland Correctional Institutional is a reintegration-based facility,” Warden Maragret Bradshaw said. “Offender reintegration requires providing programs and activities to prepare an offender to return to society as a law-abiding citizen.”
She added that a core component for successful reintegration into society is reuniting families.
“The Day with Dads event is an opportunity for inmates to strengthen ties with their children by participating in various activities with them,” she said.
More than 160 children and 80 adults visited with approved inmates, who were selected to have an opportunity to spend the day with their families because of good behavior and other criteria.
Day with Dads activities included arts and crafts, face-painting, cornhole, softball, basketball, football, ping pong, skee ball, putt-putt golf, trick or treat, and a bounce house.
A DJ provided music during the event, which was held in RiCI’s recreational center and on the surrounding grounds, while inmates and their families enjoyed a cookout for lunch.
Additionally, 40 staff members volunteered to help with the event.
“This is very important because reintegration includes family unification, and this is a prime example of that,” said Warden Assistant Rossi Azmoun, who added that a high-volume of inmates are able to return home after incarceration.
“If we’re giving them the tools to prepare themselves to become law-abiding citizens, then that’s fantastic. Today is an example of an opportunity to do that,” he said.
Giving inmates those kinds of tools prevents them from returning back to a correctional institution and curbs recidivism, which is one of RiCI’s main goals, according to Labor Relations Officer Roy Steward.
“We have a high turnover, so we have to program correctly because sometimes a guy is only here for six months,” he said. “We try to get them as much programming as possible because, again, the department’s goal is to send guys home and for them not to come back.”
Family ties, he said, are a huge reason why rehabilitated inmates don’t return.
RiCI opened in 1998 and spans 78 acres. The institution houses approximately 2,600 inmates, who are cared for by 420 staff members.
The institution offers several special programs, including its Pound Puppy Program, Reintegration Housing Unit, Commercial Driver’s License Program, Recovery Residential Unit, and Roots of Success environmental literacy program.
