On Friday, June 27, the third class of Incarceration Doesn’t Define Us (I.D.D.U.) graduates from Danville Adult Detention received their certificates of completion during a ceremony in the multipurpose room at 1 Community Way.
Nine participants received their certificate following their eight-week commitment to attendance for weekly training and information sessions about job readiness, housing, education opportunities, budgeting and more.
Friday’s IDDU graduates were Ja’Carre Hairston-Shabazz, Omar Wilson, Don Allen, Ronald Johnson II, Gerald Stone, Riley Adams, Joshua Coles, Timothy Logan, and Brian O’Keith Warren.
Wilson, Stone, and Coles gave testimonies about how the IDDU program has prepared them for the future upon release.
The program now has 116 total individuals who have graduated from fourteen total cohorts. Of those, three of the cohorts with a total of 24 alumni are from Adult Detention.
Director Gene Beasley spoke during the ceremony and told those present about the importance of preparing inmates for life beyond incarceration, and how programs like IDDU positively impacts jail culture.
I.D.D.U. provides resources and assistance to residents who have recently been released from jail or have experienced hardship ease back into the community over an eight-week period.
Since the program’s inception in 2021, Community Relations Liaison Ashtyn Foddrell remains committed to being a reference and resource for all the I.D.D.U. graduates.
The successes of the I.D.D.U. program have been overwhelming, as Foddrell pointed out, because there have been graduates who have returned to school to receive their GED, earn a college degree, and received a commercial driver’s license. Another graduate has also had their CNA license restored to return to nursing full time.
Foddrell was invited to present the I.D.D.U. program at the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police Conference in 2022. In addition, other law enforcement agencies have reached out to her to learn how they can implement a similar I.D.D.U. program in their jurisdiction.