HELENA — A simulation led by the Montana Department of Corrections puts participants in the shoes of someone recently released, facing tough choices around jobs, housing, and supervision. The goal is to build understanding, showing how difficult a fresh start can be without the right support.
(WATCH: Montana Department of Corrections gives the community a look at challenges after prison release)
The event simulates the first thirty days after release, and participants are given the profile of a former inmate and a list of tasks to complete, including finding housing, securing identification, and attending treatment and counseling.
For Leadership Helena member Lynn Voss, the experience was frustrating at times as he took on the role of “Jeremiah Johnson.”
Voss shared, “Just even knowing what place to go to for any particular items is so difficult.”
Participants moved from station to station, trying to complete requirements with limited time and resources.
Despite the challenges, Voss says persistence paid off: “I was successful this time, third time’s a charm.”
More than 2,000 people are released from Montana state prisons each year.
Organizers say the struggle seen in the simulation mirrors reality for many leaving incarceration.
Katie Weston, the Montana women’s prison warden, said, “If every day people struggle in an event like this, it is an indicator that maybe we are asking a lot of people.”
Weston says without support, the odds are stacked against them. “Individuals, when they release from incarceration, who do not have equal opportunity, are likely going to return to incarceration, and we want to break those cycles,” Weston noted.
The goal is to spark change in how the community responds. Weston expressed, “If one individual leaves this event and says, ‘I think I’m going to start hiring individuals with a criminal background,’ then I think that we won.”
Organizers hope the experience leads to more opportunities and fewer returns to prison.
