Published: November 05, 2009 10:45 pm      

Project Destiny proving effective

Faith-based program celebrates 2nd year

When Phillip Hite was released from prison in February, he was on “12 or 14” cancer drugs to treat his lymphoma. He was given enough medications from the state to last 15 days.

“They give you 15 days of meds, but no doctor,” said Hite, who has been in and out of prison for illicit drugs eight times since 1981. “I got a Project Destiny (resource) book from my parole officer on Feb. 23, and with the $25 the state gave me when I got out, I used the book and started calling around trying to find the meds I was on.”

Hite said if not for Project Destiny — which stands for Dalton Entering Servanthood To Inspire a New You — he might not be here today.

Around 75 parolees, parole officers, city and county officials and interested citizens gathered at Dalton City Hall on Thursday evening to celebrate the second year of the faith-based program. It started as the brainchild of former chairman of the state Board of Pardons and Paroles Garland Hunt, and has been carried forward by present chair Gale Buckner, who is a native of Murray County.

“It’s very, very exciting,” said Buckner. “We have parole boards who have ventured out across the state to form faith-based partnerships, and Whitfield County and Murray County have proven to be the standard (for them to follow).”

Hunt said some of the “greatest strides” in rehabilitation of parolees and reduction in the state’s recidivism rate in the past two years started in the Dalton Parole Office.

Beverly Parker is the chief parole officer.

“It has given them the opportunity to have their needs met because they would have no other way to get those needs met — food, clothes, medicines, employment resources,” she said of parolees in the program. “A lot of times these guys have ‘burned their bridges’ with their family and friends, and Project Destiny makes that transition smoother and better.”

Since its inception in October of 2007, there have been just over 382 parolees released to the Dalton Parole Office, said Parker, who added the figure includes releases to both Whitfield and Murray counties.

“Approximately 90 percent of those parolees have benefited in some way from Project Destiny in one or more of the resource areas of personal items, clothing, food, transportation, employment, health, education and counseling,” she said.

Ministers who have shepherded the program spoke of the program’s need and effectiveness.

“If we don’t grab these people within the first 30 to 60 days (of when they get out of prison), they have a tendency to go back,” said Bishop Reuben Graham of True Gospel Pentecostal Church.

The Rev. Danny Cochran of Holly Creek Baptist Church, where Buckner is a member and the first Project Destiny meeting was held, said it was his experience that, “Out of our brokenness, God develops ministry.”

He spoke after hearing the testimony of Reuben Graham’s son, Neal Graham, who spent time in prison for drugs and has started an offshoot program, Prisoners Anonymous.

“I thank God for another day of being clean (from drugs), for another day of being free, and for another day of being saved,” said Neal Graham. “I’ve been there and done that (gone to prison), but what the enemy meant for my bad, God turned it around for good ... we aim to put the parole and probation boards out of business.”

Hite said, “Somebody needs to thank Mildred Patterson and all the people who have worked hard to make this program what it is.”

Patterson chairs Project Destiny and cited helper Mary Thelma Norris, Parker and her parole officers for the time they’ve put into the endeavor.