Gerry Boren is the city manager for the City of Diboll, Texas. The city has a close relationship with the Diboll Correctional Center.

“They’re a great partner,” he says speaking of the Diboll facility and the offenders who do community service. “We love when the guys come out and help us, and we love to participate with them through community events.”

Offenders who qualify to be out in the community do various projects around the city.

“One of the things we have to do every year before the season starts is prep the ball fields by picking the weeds, dragging the fields, lining the fields for the baseball. They help with that. They also will help around the community such as help us with city hall doing some work. It saves a lot of labor time. It saves money, saves the tax dollars.”

Gerry says MTC’s mission of helping offenders prepare to re-enter society is praiseworthy.

“I love that mission, because what we’ve learned is that isolation is not good. We need to get them [offenders] out into the community, let them know that there’s a life outside of just those walls.”

And the city of Diboll puts its money where its mouth is.

“One of the things that the city of Diboll has is a policy, you know, that we’ll take the risk. If someone is looking for a job in the city of Diboll and I have an opening and they’re qualified, we don’t weigh that past incarceration, and we’ll take the chance. Because everybody needs a second chance.”