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Searching For Solutions

Daily News-Record - 6/9/2017

Wynonah Hogan, a 17-year-old homeschool student in Mount Crawford, became interested in the overpopulation at the Rockingham County Regional Jail three summers ago when it was suggested that the problem could be solved with a new jail or annex.

She believed that was the wrong answer and wanted to dig to see if there was something else that could be done that was more fiscally responsible. She started collecting signatures for a petition against the proposal, but was also curious as to why the jail was overcrowded in the first place, hungry for more information to feed the public.

"There are a lot of different opinions and different ideas about what could be done, what needs to be done, what's happening, but everyone agrees on the basic issue that we're having systemic growth issues and that somehow, overcrowding caused by this growth needs to be addressed," Hogan said. "People are looking for change, and it's going in many directions because there isn't one focus yet."

Hogan interviewed over a dozen sources for her project over the course of 22 months, ranging from Harrisonburg City Council members Ted Byrd and Kai Degner (former), Rick Chandler, who's on the Rockingham County Board of Supervisors, former Judge John Paul III, Commonwealth's Attorney Marsha Garst, along with a criminal defense attorney, local activists, two pastors, a mental health worker, two former inmates and anonymous family members of inmates. She also met with the superintendent of the jail, who did not appear on camera.

Together, the project became "Rocktown Justice: Unlocked," a 52-minute documentary she directed with the help of 40 volunteers through her church.

Hogan found that Rockingham County has a recidivism rate between 80 and 88 percent, and that the jail population has jumped from 75 people in 1994 to over 500 today. While the county's total population expanded by 25 percent in 20 years, the jail population expanded by 500 percent in the same amount of time.

"The jail population continues to rise even though national and statewide crime statistics have not risen significantly," she said.

Due to the lack of data from the jail, plans for a new building were abandoned, and instead, 250 spaces were leased at Middle River Regional Jail in Staunton for a 10-year period.

"Unfortunately, we are almost to the point of maximum capacity in those spaces. I think we have maybe around 230 people at Middle River, so we only have 20 spaces or less from that lease, and only two years of that lease have gone by, so there's eight years that we don't have a plan for," she said. "We're back to where we were two to three years ago."

Hogan believes the solution to overpopulation is more rehabilitative programs for inmates with substance abuse and reentry programs that help convicts assimilate back into society to become productive citizens.

"Most of those people coming back are parole and probation violations, and much of that is substance abuse related, so over 90 percent of crimes are affected by a primary substance abuse disorder or alcoholism," according to Hogan. "Also, mental health is a big factor. Forty percent of people in the jail deal with mental illness of some sort, so having more programs that will help people with substance abuse or mental health would be a big step in improving things."

Some minor changes are already in the works, such as changing the jail policy so that inmates do not have to wear the orange jumpsuit in court.

The former inmates she interviewed spoke about the high cost of being incarcerated. The Rockingham jail charges $1 per day for room and board, and the beds at Middle River cost $3 per day.

"It does add up if you're not working a job. Obviously you're incarcerated, so you're not making money," she said. "On weekends, they have only one meal per day, often only two meals per day during the week sometimes, so the food is minimal, therefore they have to buy from the commissary, which is not exactly affordable."

Wynonah's mother, Mary Hogan, noted the lack of educational opportunities at the jail.

"There was a common thread of a sense of despair of not really being able to rise above the circumstances," Mary Hogan said.

"Rocktown Justice: Unlocked" has been shown around the Valley, including at a communications class at James Madison University, Harrisonburg Unitarian Universalist Church, Church of the Incarnation (which is the Hogans' church) and Bridgewater Retirement Community. The documentary is supposed to be shown to students in government classes in Rockingham County Public Schools. The film is also available on YouTube.

Wynonah Hogan hopes her film will be shown on July 22 at the kick-off event for the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Releasing Aging People in Prison chapter. Court Square Theater plans to show the film at a date to be determined.

"Educationally, academically, I felt like it was a 100 percent gain. It was wonderful she got so many opportunities with other people, got to learn things she wouldn't have otherwise," Mary Hogan said. "I was glad to see how it came together. ? For me, it's moving because of the people collaborating."

The 17-year-old will continue using "Rocktown Justice: Unlocked" for community education purposes to support the local RAPP chapter.

"[I want to] expand the YouTube channel with one or two shorter versions of the film with new material and some individual interviews with folks I wished I could have had on the first version," she said.

In helping create better informed citizens, Wynonah Hogan hopes to inspire others to get involved.

"I do hope that it leaves them with a clear impression of the issues that are facing our community and our state and our nation in the criminal justice system," she said. "Things that are happening in our community are really the story of countless communities all over this nation."