Organizers say transitional housing will not accept sex offenders, will have on-site security

Published 12:01 am Monday, August 21, 2017

Once a man has served his time he has a right to come back into society and prove himself, says the Rev. Curtis Moore, pastor of Kingdom Living Ministries.

“And those men coming out of prison are more likely to be successful if they are given structure and surrounded by people who want them to succeed,” he said Saturday at Dalton’s Mack Gaston Community Center.

Moore is also executive director of Oasis of Love, a proposed apartment-style transitional housing for men coming out of Walker State Prison in Rock Spring that would be built on the campus of his church at 3320 Rauschenberg Road near Varnell.

Organizers held the Saturday forum to help provide information on the project to area residents. About 20 people attended the meeting.

“There’s no transitional housing in northwest Georgia,” said Moore. “There’s nothing north of metro Atlanta. There is a need.”

Wesley Johnson, executive director of Project Destiny, said that when he got out of prison he was fortunate to have family to help him reintegrate into society. But he said many people coming out of prison don’t have that sort of support system.

“Oasis of Love can give those people the support and the structure they need,” he said. “And we will be working with them.”

Founded 10 years ago, Project Destiny provides those just released from prison in Whitfield and Murray counties with clothing vouchers to get clothes at Providence Ministries or the Salvation Army, help getting state ID, transportation to job interviews or medical appointments, help signing up for GED classes and other assistance. Johnson said it would work with anyone coming to Oasis of Love.

Oasis of Love would provide a drug-free, alcohol-free environment for former inmates for up to two years where they can live while working in the area.

Randell O’Neal, director of operations at Oasis of Love, says its model is based on a program in Michigan that he worked with and will have on-site, 24-hour-a-day security.

Organizers said they would begin with about 14 men and all will be recruited from graduates of Walker State Prison’s faith and character program.

The faith and character program is voluntary, they said, and to be accepted into the program, inmates cannot have had any disciplinary issues.

The program lasts two years and includes drug treatment, anger management classes, vocational training and GED classes for those who do not have a high school diploma.

Inmates who do not complete their classes or who have disciplinary issues are dropped from the program.

Alan Bonderud, administrator of Walker State’s community mentor ministry, says one key part of the faith and character program is that each inmate has a trained mentor from an area church who works with him.

“Those mentors will remain with them for the entire two years they are at Oasis of Love,” he said.

O’Neal said that Oasis of Love would be a voluntary program and would take only men recommended by Walker State staff and chaplains.

Bonderud said he expects most of the men will either be from the north Georgia area or men who have made connections to area churches that have ministries in the prison.

Tom Pinson, manager of the Gaston center, said one question that he has heard from people is who will pay for the program.

O”Neal said he expects to get state and federal grants as well as private donations.

Several people asked if the facility would house sex offenders. Moore said it would not, noting that state law bars sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a church.

In February, the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners held a public hearing on the project, which would require the county to grant a special use permit and to rezone the property to transitional housing from rural residential. Several members of the community spoke out against the plans during the hearing in the commissioners’ meeting chamber, which was full.

Teresa Cochran said she lived near the church and when she first heard about the project she was concerned.

“I wondered what sort of prisoners they would have. I wondered why they wanted to build there,” she said.

After listening to Saturday’s presentation, she says she feels better.

“I do think they are trying to do the right thing,” she said. “But I’m still not 100 percent convinced.”

A second, formal public hearing on the special use permit and rezoning is expected to take place on Monday, Aug. 28, at 6 p.m. before a joint meeting of the Board of Commissioners and the Dalton-Whitfield Planning Commission. The planning commission will make a recommendation at that meeting. The Board of Commissioners is expected to vote on the permit and rezoning in September.