Clarissa Kell | Daily Press Delta County Sheriff Ed Oswald looks over one of the rooms used for rehabilitation programs in Delta County Correctional Facility recently. The new facility has three rooms for rehabilitative programs. At the old jail, there was not enough room to operate programs.

ESCANABA — Since moving inmates to the new Delta County Correctional Facility in June, Delta County Sheriff Ed Oswald has brought in two rehabilitative programs for inmates to utilize. He plans to introduce more.

The new facility has the space needed to conduct programs — with three classrooms, all different sizes and layouts, dedicated to programming in its own wing within the building. The old jail lacked adequate space for the programs.

According to Oswald, he wants to see inmates leave the facility in a better position to return to society and not commit other crimes.

“We’re trying to make a difference in the facility,” he said. “It’s when we have inmates in here, it’s the time to make a difference. It’s when they’re off drugs, it’s when they’re cleaned up. We want to correct behavior in a correctional facility.”

He added the old jail was just that — a jail. The new facility is a correctional facility.

“The last facility was just a jail — we’re just locking up inmates and keeping them out of the community. We want to make a difference here (at the new facility). We want to correct some behavior,” Oswald said.

The old jail did not have room for programs, which Oswald said was the reason it was felt necessary to have space within the new facility dedicated to rehabilitation of inmates.

Currently, the new facility has two rehabilitative programs — a GED program and an anger management program.

Sgt. Jeff Vallier, who works within the facility, said the first GED group included seven inmates. Three inmates took their GED (high school equivalency) test on Feb. 28. The program initially included more inmates. Some of them were not allowed to continue for various reasons.

The anger management program is called RELAX.

Vallier explained one group of 10 inmates has already graduated from the program. Another class of 10 inmates began the program March 8.

Funding for the programs varies.

Oswald said the RELAX program is partially funded through grants, but the facility pays $100 per inmate to participate.

He added the GED program is completely funded on its own, and does not impact the jail’s budget.

The Delta County Correctional Facility wants more rehabilitative programs for inmates.

According to Vallier, there is another program through Michigan Works that should be starting up fairly soon.

He added the program, which would set up jobs and job training for inmates within five weeks of release, is completely funded by Michigan Works.

Another program in the works is a work-release program.

Oswald said he is currently working with the Delta County Administrator Emily DeSalvo trying to budget a correctional officer position dedicated to the program, which the facility does not currently have.

He explained the officer would be dedicated to monitoring work-release inmates and work on getting inmates jobs before release.

The reason Delta County Correctional Facility does not have a work-release program set-up at the moment is because there needs to be an officer closely monitoring the program for it to be successful and safe for the community, Oswald said.

“Several years ago, we cut out work-release because we did not have … personnel to adequately supervise it,” he said.

Although not currently in the works just yet, another program the facility is talking about is a substance abuse program.

“We’re discussing it at this time,” Oswald said.