Transition program aids ex-offenders in starting over

By Sarah Arkin

Published: November 8, 2008

In September, after spending 17 years moving in-between Virginia’s major prisons, Reginald Fitzgerald walked out with $25 in his hand and no clear plan.

“There were things not really in place,” he said. “I didn’t know which way to go or what my next move was going to be … how I was going to eat.”

In 1991, Fitzgerald had left his 1-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son in the care of his mother, who raised them while he was serving time for various charges ranging from larceny to arson.

After leaving prison, Fitzgerald was reunited with his daughter and son but said he found it hard to “survive in a society where things are constantly moving.”

Fitzgerald, however, said he accepted full responsibility for what he had done and vowed to overcome the obstacles.

“When you do wrong this is one of the penalties,” Fitzgerald said. “The same trust I broke with society, I now have to build back with society.”

A few weeks later, he was sitting in a room at Bibleway Worldwide Church with Anthony Bigelow, manager of the Wisdom In Networking Program (WIN), which is designed to provide ex-offenders support for getting back into society.

A little while later, Fitzgerald had found a job with a construction company.

‘A wake-up call’

Bigelow brings to the program a level of familiarity that can’t be duplicated, Fitzgerald said. He, too, has spent time in prison.

Bigelow said he was “in and out of trouble” his whole life. But that changed six years ago, while sitting in church, Bigelow said.

“I had a wake-up call,” he said. “The light was turned on in my head.”

Bigelow enrolled in Danville Community College and got a degree in business management. Getting a job, as it is with most ex-felons, was a different story.

“Just going out into the work field, just trying to enter back into (it) was difficult,” Bigelow said. “I never gave up, I knew the door was finally going to open for me.”

He said much of his dedication was grounded in his faith in Christ, knowing “if you do things the right way and walk upright, good things will follow you.”

And they did.

Bigelow agreed to participate in a focus group of ex-offenders to discuss their lives and challenges. But he was sent to the wrong meeting, and instead ended up at the meeting of those organizing the discussion group. He was invited to sit in on their discussion, and by the end of the meeting, he almost had a job.

Bigelow was encouraged to meet with Bishop Larry Campbell at Bibleway Church, who was trying to start the Wisdom In Networking Program.

“I knew it was a calling on my life,” Bigelow said, “and the rest was history.”

A helping hand

The Wisdom In Networking Program officially began in November 2007 and has since served more than 500 people.

“The first few hours (out of prison) could be very important in a man’s life,” Bigelow said. “When you step outside those doors, there’s nothing in place for an ex-offender.

“There was nobody to give me tools, to say ‘you don’t have to go that route … somebody just to be there for you.”

So instead, reverting to “survival” mode seemed the only option, he said.

Fitzgerald agrees.

“I found out one of the easiest things to do is get (in) trouble,” he said.

That’s where Bigelow and the WIN program offered a unique comfort. Fitzgerald had been convicted of robbery, arson, petty larceny and grand larceny.

“I was accepted, I was not looked down upon,” Fitzgerald said. “By Mr. Bigelow experiencing what I experienced, he was able to ascertain what I needed right then and there. And it was great.”

Learning and working

Understanding is far from the only thing WIN offers. The program provides GED and computer training, help with resumes and interviews, and a hot meal and clothes, too.

Charles Crumpler with the Virginia Department of Corrections, who works with helping ex-offenders transition back into society, said these programs are crucial.

Programs like WIN, those hosted by churches and on the small local levels are elemental, he said in September at a workshop held at the Danville Public Library. Danville, he said, has been “proactive,” with the Department of Social Services reaching out to offenders and letting them know what programs are available.

In 2006, there were 36,688 people incarcerated in Virginia’s prisons, according to the National Institute of Corrections. Virginia’s rate of those in prison was 477 per 100,000, 15 percent higher than the national average. Additionally, 48,144 members of society were on probation and 3,978 were on parole. The cost per inmate in the state was $22,942.

Officials have said about 35 percent of the population in Danville has a criminal record. 

Helping ex-offenders get back into society with gainful employment is a vital component of preventing recidivism, Crumpler said.

Bigelow said WIN has some regular employers it works with, and that because ex-offenders truly need the work, they’re likely to do it well.

“If you’re working, doing what you need to do,” Crumpler said, “you don’t have time to get in trouble. …Let the man work, let him provide.”

Unfortunately, many people do end up going back because they can’t find a way to earn a living, taking them away from their families, and adding costs to taxpayers.

“It’s sad to say we get to know these guys and their families,” Crumpler said.

‘It’s all about your choices’

Fitzgerald has decided he won’t be going back to prison. Much of what eased Fitzgerald’s transition was his state of mind.

“One of the greatest things when you say you want to make change is accepting and taking responsibility for something you know you did,” he said. “You can’t say my environment made me do it or my circumstances.

“It’s all about your choices. When I came out I made a choice that I was not going to return,” he said. The WIN program is “equipping me and I can stay out and be a productive member of society.”

Though the program lost its federal funding a few months ago, Bigelow is confident it will be able to continue its services.

The program, he said, “continues to thrive on the good will of what we’ve got in our hearts to do. God is in this program.”

Contact Sarah Arkin at or (434) 791-7983.