BSW student finds her niche with Department of Correction program

Janna Mallay

Dec. 3, 2008 -  When Janna Mallay started her practicum with the Department of Correction, she wondered how readily offenders would accept her as a new staff member at the Plainfield Re-Entry Education Facility.

She quickly discovered her new “students,” were eager for any help she could provide as they readied themselves to leave the correction department behind and return to the community.

Mallay, a senior in the Indiana University School of Social Work BSW program, had previously worked as an intern with the Warren Township Trustee’s office where she handled calls from ex-offenders looking for help after they had been released. The trustee’s office had little it could offer them. Mallay realized how important it is to work with offenders before they are released to help ensure they don’t end up in jail again.

When an Indiana University School of Social Work advisor DeeEllen Davis mentioned the re-entry program at Plainfield, Mallay jumped at the chance to work there.

The clients at the re-entry facility wear street clothes and have more freedom than the institutions they were formerly housed in. The offenders, who can hone skills that will help them after their release, have to apply to be considered for the program. If they are selected, they have to follow strict rules at the education facility or face being kicked out of the re-entry program and sent back to where they had been serving their prison sentences.

As part of her practicum, Mallay helped teach several classes at the center, including one on domestic violence. Because of class-time limitations, she expected to serve in a teaching role and go over the basics of domestic violence.

But her “students,” had other ideas. She found the class of about 16 men, were eager to discuss their personal experiences. “I didn’t realize they would be so upfront with their issues,” Mallay said.

That’s when she fell back on her social work training. “I was in the teaching mode in the beginning and then switched to the social worker mode.”

The students wanted to share their own stories and the class had to establish time-limits to allow everyone a chance to make comments. The class, which lasted five weeks, looked at domestic abuse from the victim’s as well as the abuser’s point of view.

As the class progressed, some students realized they too had come from an abusive family situation. Up until then, they simply thought the way they had been treated was how everyone treated each other. “The number one thing they wanted from the class was knowing how to defuse situations,” she noted.

Mallay recalled one student who spent 20 minutes talking to her about what had happened to him and ended by telling her, “This has really helped me.”

While she was surprised by the desire of the students to share personal details, Mallay was able to use her social worker skills she had learned to deal with the situation, asking things like, “How does that make you feel?”

She also utilized her School of Social Work classes that taught her how to work in group settings to ensure everyone felt they had a chance to participate.

 Mallay taught two other classes as well, a conversational Spanish class and another class based on the book, “House of Healing,” which deals with the inner-self and how to break down walls a person may have created to keep others out.

Her role at the re-entry education facility is in essence what drew her to social work to begin with, Mallay explained. She felt drawn to social work because of her passion for working with people and organizing. “It was something that I felt I could do that I was good at.”

While Mallay had no previous experience working with the Department of Correction, she was so taken with her work there, she would like to continue there. “I would love to work there,” Mallay noted. “I really like corrections. If I can work in that (field) it would be great.”  Having someone turn to you for advice and help is very gratifying, “but it’s also a lot responsibility,” she added.

Besides, where else can you give a heartfelt goodbye, by telling someone, “I hope I never see you again.”