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National Recovery Month is observed every September to promote and support treatment and recovery practices for Americans suffering from substance use and mental illness. With a permanent theme of “Every Person. Every Family. Every Community,” Recovery Month serves as a reminder that recovery is for everyone, and that everyone can live healthy and rewarding lives.

According to the National Institutes of Health, about 45 percent of incarcerated individuals in local jails and state prisons simultaneously struggle with substance use and psychological disorder. With addiction being so common in jails and prisons, addressing substance use disorders within correctional facilities helps guide individuals towards recovery and lowers the risk for relapse after release.

At ViaPath Technologies, we understand that support from loved ones is a key factor when showing up for those struggling with behavioral health and substance abuse. That’s why we are committed to providing incarcerated individuals with the support they need to help improve the individual’s wellbeing during and post release.

Through our Inspire Tablets, we are able to offer helpful tools and resources that help incarcerated individuals heal from recovery and adopt new habits. The resources that we have made available can be accessed by individuals inside of a correctional facility and post-release:

  • Breaking Free from Substance Abuse assists individuals in achieving and maintaining recovery from dependence on over 70 different substances.
  • Through an exclusive partnership with Dr. Christian Conte, a mental health specialist in the field of anger and emotional management, we are able to provide unique content and videos via our Inspire Tablets, that focus on helping incarcerated individuals address their mental and emotional health.
  • Peace Education Program from the Prem Rawat Foundation is a program with 10 thought-provoking themes helping participants discover a renewed sense of purpose, including how to use their own inner resources and lead more fulfilling lives.

For you and your formerly incarcerated loved ones, there are many national organizations and initiatives focused on recovery treatment paths and living a substance-free life: ·

  • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) – Provides information and resources on beginning a journey to recovery and finding local substance abuse and mental health treatment.
  • Addiction Resource – Provides relevant information related to addiction and addiction treatment, helping individuals and their families who struggle with addiction, substance use disorders, and mental health disorders by providing up-to-date, accurate, and evidence-based information, connecting individuals with treatment providers, and facilitating initial assessments.
  • Rehab Spot – Provides information on overcoming addiction and finding a treatment based on a person’s location, budget, and needs, specifically focusing on properly managing traumatic experiences, such as incarceration, as those affected often try to escape their pain through drug or alcohol use.
  • Sunshine Behavioral Health – Offers information on how people in recovery can still receive treatment and support during quarantine and shelter-in-place orders.
  • Volunteers of America – Provides hundreds of human service programs including housing and healthcare for America’s most vulnerable groups, including returning citizens and those recovering from addictions.

If you or someone you love are looking to start on the road to recovery, SAMSHA’s treatment locator can assist in matching your needs with the right treatment option. Recovery is a journey, but every journey begins with a single step.

About ViaPath Technologies

ViaPath provides advanced communications, technology and management solutions that facilitate meaningful connections, provide educational opportunities, and enable successful reintegration for previously incarcerated individuals. ViaPath is headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, with an employee presence throughout North America. To learn more, please visit viapath.com. 

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National Suicide Prevention Month is recognized every September to help educate on a crisis that is plaguing people of all ages, genders, and nationalities. Across the United States, suicide is the tenth leading cause of death for all age groups, and the second leading cause of death among adults 25 to 44.  

Suicidal thoughts can affect anyone, and there is a dire need for an increased focus on suicide prevention — both inside and out of corrections facilities.   

To help make a positive impact, ViaPath Technologies partners with several organizations to provide individuals with resources designed to improve mental health and overall wellness during incarceration. Plus, ViaPath also offers multiple communication options, promoting connections to keep people together even when separated by incarceration.  

Through ViaPath’s Inspire Tablets, incarcerated individuals have access to applications that promote positive attitudes and increases morale by providing the opportunity to read books, watch movies, listen to music, play games, take educational courses, read religious texts, and meditate.   

  • A partnership with Dr. Christian Conte, a mental health specialist in the field of anger and emotional management, provides unique content and videos to the tablets, focusing on the mental and emotional health of incarcerated individuals.  
  • ViaPath Technologies’ partnership with CypherWorx helps to leverage over 30 mental health and suicide prevention programs, giving incarcerated individuals at nearly 2,000 correctional facilities across the country access to vital resources. 
  • Breaking Free from Substance Abuse assists individuals in achieving and maintaining recovery from dependence on over 70 different substances.  
  • The Peace Education Program from the Prem Rawat Foundation, offered on our ViaPath Inspire Tablets helps improve mental health and well-being by renewing a sense of purpose in participants.  

For returning citizens or family and friends that are suffering, there are many resources and organizations ready to help.  

  • The Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24/7 for those that need assistance for themselves or a friend or loved one.  
  • The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention offers resources for suicide prevention, including resources focused on diverse communities.  
  • Give an Hour is a national network of professionals who volunteer their time to provide free and confidential mental health care to specific populations, increasing the likelihood that those in need receive the support and care they deserve.  
  • The nation’s leading community-based nonprofit focused on suicide prevention, Mental Health America, is dedicated to addressing the needs of those living with mental illness and promoting the overall mental health of all Americans.  

 If you or someone you know is in an emergency, dial 988, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255), or or dial 911 immediately.  

About ViaPath Technologies

ViaPath provides advanced communications, technology and management solutions that facilitate meaningful connections, provide educational opportunities, and enable successful reintegration for previously incarcerated individuals. ViaPath is headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, with an employee presence throughout North America. To learn more, please visit viapath.com. 

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This September 20 is recognized as the 2nd annual National Crime and Intelligence Analyst Appreciation Day, encouraging us all to show appreciation to intelligence analysts throughout the nation, honoring their dedication and commitment to the work that they do every single day. 

“We cannot say enough about the more than 150 analysts employed with ViaPath Technologies,” said Mitch Volkart, Vice President of Intelligence. “Due to the sensitive nature of this work, these dedicated professionals often operate under the radar and without recognition…but not today.  Today we all pause and say ‘thank you.’” 

The ViaPath Technologies FUSION team provides security services to government agencies across the United States through the development of actionable intelligence and digital forensic services. Leveraging technology and data, experienced analysts operate tenaciously to ensure safe and secure communities. 

Intelligence analysts work to make sense of all the data points and transform them into intelligence that can be acted upon to help prevent crimes, solve cases, slow the influx of contraband and keep people safe. Here are a few examples of our Fusion analysts in action:

  • After conducting a mobile forensic extraction on a contraband cell phone, a contraband smuggling scheme was uncovered, packaged drugs were confiscated, the conveyor was apprehended, and several individuals were successfully prosecuted
  • Analysts identified a threat and effectively shared the intel, leading to hundreds of suboxone strips being seized from a civilian with multiple weapons, and a contraband phone being retrieved from a unit in a facility
  • Intelligence analysts utilizing multiple systems helped to determine an escaped inmate’s whereabouts, leading to his apprehension within a few hours of escape

ViaPath’s team of intelligence analysts are at the core of the Fusion Services team. Trained and fully certified, our analysts:

  • Work on-site at correctional facilities or remotely from our National Intelligence Center (NIC) or National Computer Forensic Laboratory (NCFL)
  • Act as a force multiplier to support cases, run reports, and analyze complex data sets
  • Provide a wide range of intelligence support to investigators to help prevent crimes before they occur and solve them after they happen
  • Analyze data to help shut down in-facility crime and create environments more conducive to offender incarceration and rehabilitation

The critical role that analysts play at ViaPath Technologies does not go unnoticed. We are extremely proud of the role our analysts play in bringing safety to correctional facilities and their surrounding communities.

About ViaPath Technologies

ViaPath provides advanced communications, technology and management solutions that facilitate meaningful connections, provide educational opportunities, and enable successful reintegration for previously incarcerated individuals. ViaPath is headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, with an employee presence throughout North America. To learn more, please visit viapath.com. 

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ViaPath Technologies’ Digital Forensic Florida Team, led by Shannon Black (Forensic Intelligence Supervisor), recently competed in the Annual “Capture the Flag” contest, hosted by Cellebrite.

Capture the Flag is a global cybersecurity, knowledge-based competition that tests one’s knowledge and skills in targeted cyber-attacks with the sole purpose of creating a safer digital world.  

The contest involves extracting and analyzing multiple digital devices and includes a series of knowledge-based test questions. The team was able to complete a total of four digital extractions that included one Android, two iPhones, one PC, while also successfully completing the testing process.  

Digital competency is at the core of any successful forensic team, and the ViaPath Forensic Team successfully completed the multi-day event placing in the Top 5% of over 2,000 entry participants.

This is a major accomplishment for the ViaPath Forensic Team and demonstrates their hard work and dedication. We are proud to congratulate them for their performance in the 2022 Capture the Flag competition and appreciate all their contributions here at ViaPath Technologies. 

About ViaPath Technologies

ViaPath provides advanced communications and management solutions that facilitate meaningful connections, provide educational opportunities, and enable successful reintegration for 1.6 million incarcerated individuals. ViaPath is headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, with an employee presence throughout North America. To learn more, please visit www.viapath.com.

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This Father’s Day, millions of children from coast to coast will make plans to travel, visit, or call their father or the father figure in their lives. Tragically, more than 18 million U.S. children, 1 in 4, are without a biological, step, or adoptive father in their lives.

Fathers are critical to the developmental success of their children. On aggregate, those without a father figure in their lives fall short of their peers who come from two-parent families. Children without a father at home account for over 60% of youth suicides, 90% of homeless and runaway youths, and more than 70% of all high school dropouts. These children experience higher levels of juvenile delinquency, substance abuse, and aggression as compared to their peers.

For many of these children, it may also be the case that their fathers have been or are incarcerated. Among parents who are incarcerated, 92% are fathers. The number has grown fourfold over the last 40 years. The impact on the families left behind is immeasurable and often difficult to repair as family members grieve the temporary or permanent loss of an incarcerated person.

For the betterment of children at home, staying connected is key to limiting the negative effects of an incarcerated parent.

Distance, time, and access to a means of communication all play a role in keeping families connected with their loved ones serving prison sentences. A 2015 Prison Policy Initiative report found that more than 60% of inmates in state prisons are serving out their time more than 100 miles from friends and family. And among those who are less than 50 miles from home, only half receive a monthly visit. It takes time and effort to travel long distances to visit loved ones, and despite the barriers to in-person visits, research clearly shows that family engagement provides positive effects for both children and incarcerated people.

Thankfully, a technological revolution in corrections facilities has occurred today, in large part due to the coronavirus pandemic. Lockdowns of federal and state prisons shut off incarcerated people from family visits and critical social support services, making the need to establish communication with loved ones all the more urgent. While friends and family members used FaceTime or Skype during the pandemic to stay in touch, incarcerated people were left behind without equal access. Now, after the implementation of computerlike tablets within prisons, those people have a wide array of online communication tools to stay in touch with loved ones, pandemic or not.

Family engagement when a loved one is incarcerated serves a dual purpose. Connection allows families and children of incarcerated people to feel the presence of their parents and stay updated on their children’s lives. It also allows incarcerated people to reintegrate into society more easily. A 2011 study by the Minnesota Department of Corrections showed a 13% lower risk of recidivism in inmates who received prison visits versus those who did not receive them. The study also found that the risk of re-conviction dropped by 3% with each additional visitor received by the inmate.

Staying in touch with loved ones is key to the success of reintegration. While there is no replacement for in-person visits with loved ones, technology has enabled corrections facilities to travel light-years from where we started. For Father’s Day, let us all remember those without father figures in their lives and encourage those who may have fallen out of touch, for any number of reasons, to connect with their loved ones.

Tony Lowden, former White House executive director of the Federal Interagency Council on Crime Prevention and Improving Reentry, is vice president of reintegration and community engagement for ViaPath Technologies. He is also the pastor and spiritual adviser to former President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter. 

About ViaPath Technologies

ViaPath provides advanced communications and management solutions that facilitate meaningful connections, provide educational opportunities, and enable successful reintegration for 1.6 million incarcerated individuals. ViaPath is headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, with an employee presence throughout North America. To learn more, please visit www.viapath.com.

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May has been recognized as Mental Health Awareness Month for over 70 years and is a time to raise awareness about mental and behavioral health issues. There are resources and tools available to you and your incarcerated loved ones all year round; the support doesn’t need to stop at the end of the month. 

In 2022, the National Alliance on Mental Illness reported that 2 in 5 people who are incarcerated have a history of mental illness (37% in state and federal prisons and 44% held in local jails). Nearly 66% of women in prison reported having a history of mental illness, almost twice the percentage of men in prison. However, less than a quarter of these individuals receive treatment during incarceration. As a loved one of an incarcerated individual, it’s important to talk about the challenges, stigmas, and needed solutions around mental illness.  

ViaPath Technologies offers several resources to help address the emotional and mental health of your incarcerated loved ones. These resources can also support successful reintegration when it is time for their release.  

  • Dr. Christian Conte – ViaPath partners with one of the country’s most accomplished mental health experts in the field of anger and emotional management to provide exclusive content for incarcerated individuals and correctional institutions. 
  • Breaking Free Group – since 2020, ViaPath offers the “Breaking Free from Substance Abuse” digital program on tablets to assist in achieving and maintaining recovery from dependence on over 70 different substances. 
  • Free Mental Health Resources – available through ViaPath tablets, incarcerated individuals living with mental health concerns can access a variety of free resources that include cognitive behavioral health therapy, parenting while incarcerated, mindfulness-based substance abuse treatment, anger management, and more. 

For the family and friends on the outside, there are many national organizations focused on getting help for individuals suffering from mental illness, ensuring their safety and well-being:  

  • NAMI Stepping Up Initiative – Brings together mental health organizations, substance abuse organizations, and law enforcement associations to divert people with mental illness from incarceration into treatment.  
  • Mental Health Channel – A free online network of inspiring documentary videos on various mental health topics. 
  • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) – Provides a location-based list of substance abuse and mental health treatment.  
  • Give an Hour – Offers free and confidential mental health care to all populations through a network of professional volunteers.  

Additionally, ViaPath recognizes the importance of maintaining connections when addressing mental health and continues to offer our free weekly communications program allowing incarcerated individuals consistent contact with their loved ones to receive support and aid in maintaining a positive outlook. 

“Just because no one else can heal or do your inner work for you, doesn’t mean you can, should, or need to do it alone.” – Lisa Olivera 

Prioritizing mental health is essential to overall wellbeing. ViaPath Technologies encourages everyone to reach out to your loved ones to give and/or receive support.  

The information provided in this post is intended for your general knowledge only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment for specific medical conditions or diseases. Please consult your healthcare provider with any questions or concerns you may have if you are experiencing depression or any other medical condition. ViaPath Technologies does not control or take responsibility for the content or information on any external website not managed by ViaPath.

About ViaPath Technologies

ViaPath provides advanced communications and management solutions that facilitate meaningful connections, provide educational opportunities, and enable successful reintegration for 1.6 million incarcerated individuals. ViaPath is headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, with an employee presence throughout North America. To learn more, please visit www.viapath.com.