The headset comes on and Jeff Pryor is ready to change lives. He begins a video call into a prison, with an inmate hoping to make a smooth transition out of incarceration.

For the past 11 years, he’s operated a prison re-entry program in Broome County, helping give inmates a second chance they often need.

What You Need To Know

  • Current inmates or the formerly incarcerated can complete classes in anger management, journaling and job training

  • The classes are free to those wishing to participate

  • Program Director Jeff Pryor was once an inmate himself, and learned there weren't enough programs to help him adjust, so he created one himself

 

“To watch somebody have nothing when they walk out the prison doors, to be able to flourish when they get their first job, complete their drug treatment, get any mental health under control they might have or get diagnosed with and then to begin putting their families back together, for me personally, there’s nothing more rewarding,” said Jeff Pryor, prison re-entry program director.

But Pryor’s work goes far beyond video calls. He leads an anger management class for individuals fresh out of prison who are looking for that second chance. It’s another aspect of the re-entry program, and it all begins with lessons he once learned himself.

“Everything we do is a choice. Everything, every interaction, every instance, every single thing we do in life, there is a choice. To do it, or not to do it,” said Pryor.

For Pryor, this mission hits close to home. He was once sentenced to 20 years in prison on a drug charge himself, but ended up serving three years of that sentence. He later changed his life around, eventually earning his master's degree in social work.

Pryor realized there weren’t many programs to help the formerly incarcerated adapt back into normal life, so he started his own.

“I designed this program in 2010. I’m still here because I love what I do. I designed the jail re-entry program in 2018. I couldn’t get funding until 2019. We’re going into our fifth year starting January. That’s why I’m doing this,” said Pryor.

For Pryor, his passion all started while working as a tutor in a prison in Indiana.

“I was able to see firsthand some of the devastating effects trauma has had on individuals, so I wanted to make sure when people came home into Broome County, where there was no program, that I would put a program in that would be superior to what I know was available in other counties," said Pryor.

Today, dozens of inmates are being given a second chance at life thanks to Pryor’s work, and he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.