KANSAS CITY, Mo. — According to the Second Chance Risk Reduction Program, 4,000 formally incarcerated people return to the Kansas City each year.
Many people, like 49-year-old Desirai Carter, return to society after being incarcerated looking for a second chance, but it's not easy to come by.
“Having it stripped away from you like that, it makes you think a lot, because now all you have is time on your hands," Carter said.
In 2013, Carter, who's a loving mother and grandmother, made a mistake that changed her life.
“Not all felons are bad. We do come across things that we should not do, and that was one of my things,” Carter said, “ I reacted without thinking, and it cost me to get planted in jail for that.”
In total, Carter served about one year behind bars in both Kansas and Missouri. Carter said her conditions forced her to become depressed.
“It tore me down — I’m not at home, I can’t take a shower when I want to take a shower, I’m unable to eat what I want to eat, when I need to eat,” Carter said. "There will be times in there where you will be broke down, so you just go to your cell and go to sleep and you’re just going to let it be."
Carter got off of probation in 2019, and said she wanted a new outlook on life.
Though it wasn't easy, she got her fresh start thanks to the Second Chance Risk Reduction Program.
“I work full time. It’s great to know that you can come home, you have your own money, your own clothes, your own shoes, you sleep in your own bed," Carter said. "I’m around my family."
Brittany Peterson, the lead resource specialist and training facilitator with the Second Chance Program, works to help those formally incarcerated become gainfully employed and financially responsible.
The program also helps people build credit, reunites families, helps people stay sober and become law abiding, tax paying citizens.
“You can make mistakes and do wrong for a long time, but there is going to be a time when the light bulb goes off," Peterson said. "And you may not know what steps you need to take in order to move life forward, and we are here for those supports."
Peterson says the programs mission is to continue to help people like Carter re-frame their lives into something they can be proud of.
“Absolutely anything anyone wants to do, we just have to take the right steps to get you in that door to make you ready to be ready,” Peterson said.
Now, Carter looks back on her life and is thankful she got her second chance.
“You have to continue to let them know that I am somebody, I’m not what I was before; this is who I am now,” Carter said.
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