TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - The jailhouse treatment program where former Gov. Jim McGreevey counsels inmates has earned a spot at the Sundance Film Festival and accolades from the U.S. Justice Department.
McGreevey is spiritual counselor to as many as 40 women who are taking part in a pilot program at Hudson County Correctional Center to reduce recidivism - and therefore lessen crime. The program aims to address the problems that keep them returning to jail: drug dependence, difficulty finding jobs, lack of decent housing, inadequate education and absence of counseling.
The program is rare in a county jail, where the revolving inmate population is usually seen as too transient to benefit from scarce rehabilitation dollars. Midway into its second year, the Community Reintegration Program caught the attention of the Department of Justice, which cites it as a model, and a filmmaker in New York, whose documentary about it was chosen for screening at Sundance this month.
"There is an intrinsic value and beauty to the women that needs to be recognized and lifted up," McGreevey, 55, told The Associated Press during a recent interview.
"My ladies," as he affectionately refers to the inmates he advises, have been locked up for crimes including manslaughter, gun possession and drug dealing. Many are affiliated with gangs. Three-quarters have addictions. Most have pasts stained with sexual violence. Nearly all have been through the criminal justice system before.
"Fall to Grace" by filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, a daughter of House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, intertwines the ex-governor's story with the stories three women he counseled. Pelosi shot the 48-minute documentary over 18 months with a hand-held camera at the jail, on the streets of Newark and Jersey City and at McGreevey's home.