Norfolk County Sheriff opens center to help people build stable lives after incarceration

The Norfolk County Sheriff's Office on Friday will open a center to offer support services to men who are transitioning out of the county jail, to help them re-enter society and rebuild their lives.

The HOPE Center in Braintree will provide services including substance use treatment, 12-step recovery meetings, peer support and mental health support groups, and food, housing and employment assistance.

The name stands for "healing, opportunity, purpose and engagement," according to Sheriff Patrick McDermott. He said the goal of the program is to reduce recidivism by focusing on issues that lead people into criminal behavior.

"It's things like food insecurity. It's things like not having a job, not having a place to sleep at night. These men are leaving our facility, and they're very much unsure of what their next day, 10 days, month is going to look like," McDermott said. "If you can stabilize a job for these men, if you can stabilize their housing and get their mental health and substance use issues resolved, or at least in check, that actually puts people on the right path toward success."

John Keegan is preparing for his release from jail and will utilize the new center.

"When I walk out the door, everything's going to be prepared for me," Keegan said. "Not like I'm walking out the door and here's the world, and I have to get all this stuff done and I get overwhelmed, you know what I mean? And then I just give up."

The 56-year-old from Braintree has been serving time in Norfolk County, and before that in Florida, for crimes he said stem from his struggle with substance use. After previous releases from jails and prisons, he struggled.

"I walked out the door several times before, and just the world just hits me right in the face, you know?" Keegan said. "When I get out there, and that's when I relapse, because my head starts thinking — I get scared, to be honest with you. ... And then when I get scared, that's when I turn to drugs."

Keegan started receiving help from HOPE Center staff a couple of months ago, during the center's soft launch.

"These people really bend backwards to help me," he said.

Through the assistance he's receiving, he plans to move into a halfway house, get a job and work to pay off all of his court fines in order to "take responsibility" for his actions, he said.

The program is modeled on one that opened more than 25 years ago in Hampden County. McDermott said when he toured that program's center, he "fell in love with the concept."

Funds from the sheriff's office budget are paying for the center's start-up. The department has started a nonprofit organization, called NSO Cares, that will raise continuing operating funds for the program, according to McDermott.

Three staff members have been hired for the HOPE Center so far. Support meetings and other programming will be held on site, and the program is building partnerships with nonprofit organizations in the community to provide certain services. Members of the general public who are struggling will also be able to get assistance at the center, according to McDermott.

"Every individual person is going to have an individual plan," McDermott said. "There's no cookie-cutter approach to this."

The sheriff's department has identified more than 300 employers that are willing to hire formerly incarcerated people referred by the center. And it's built a partnership with the New England Carpenters Union for people to take part in its apprenticeship program after leaving incarceration, McDermott said.

There are currently 360 people incarcerated at the Norfolk County House of Correction and Jail, according to the sheriff's office. That's down from more than 700 people. Approximately 1,500 men were released from the department's custody in 2023.