Who is Churches Embracing Offenders?
- CEO is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) Indiana corporation created in June 2000 that operates exclusively as a charitable, educational and spiritual organization
- CEO provides non-violent offenders a pathway to realize the fullness of their citizenship through the combined efforts of our area’s judicial, social and religious agencies
See the CEO video featuring Buddy Higgins.
How Does CEO Help Non-Violent Offenders?
- Family Unity/Reunification has created four successful programs that alter behavior:
- CEO: Assisting individuals who are recovering from alcohol and substance abuse (12 months)
- Strengthening Families Program (SFP) for teens aged 13-17 (14-weeks)
- Thinking for Change: Assisting offenders to overcome non-productive thinking
- CEY (Churches Embracing Youth): Juvenile offenders (< 18 years) on probation (9 months)
- CEO accepts referrals of non-violent offenders from the state of Indiana correctional facilities into its mentoring and guidance programs that concentrate on readjustment of behavior
Who is involved in the CEO organization?
- Local business professionals, correctional, educational, and spiritual volunteers
- Vanderburgh County Superior and Circuit Court Judges
- Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Department
- Evansville Police Department
- Over 100 area churches
What is the value of CEO to the Community?
- Reducing the recidivism rate for offenders that destroys lives and increases incarceration costs to the community
- Branchville Correctional Facility and other state correctional facilities annually release an average of 800 offenders back into Vanderburgh County
- The Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Department houses about 700 inmates daily; mostly for drug offenses
- Between 2010 and 2017 it is expected that the State’s prison population will increase 21% to 34,000 inmates at a cost of $1.2 billion according to IDOC
CEO Successes
- The 10-year recidivism rate for CEO graduates is 1.1%
- The state of Indiana recidivism rate is 36.1%
- Average INDOC incarceration period is 1,132 days x $54.28 per day = $61,444 per inmate
- 87 CEO graduates (7 were re-arrested & 1 returned to prison) 1.1%
- 86 graduates x $61,444 per inmate = $5,284,184 saved incarceration costs
What is necessary to reduce the recidivism rate for offenders?
- Employment
- Housing
- Mentors
To find out more about participating in CEO as a client, contact your jail or prison chaplain or call the CEO office at (812) 422-2226.
For more information, click here - Churches Embracing Offenders
