In 2002, Hamilton County, Tennessee, City of Chattanooga Chief of Police Jimmy Dotson asked that the faith community help them to reduce the number of the same people coming in the system over and over. President Emeritus, Wayne Keylon, Jimmy Dotson, DA Bill Cox, Sessions Court Judge, Clarence Shattuck met each week for a year and prayed for a solution. They came up with Transformation Project. It would be a program available for non-violent substance abuse cases.
Inmates from Hamilton County Jail and Core Civic Silverdale would attend Living Free Support Groups. After an inmate has successfully completed at least one group and served the regulatory minimum time, they were given the opportunity to petition the courts for faith based alternative sentencing to Transformation Project. If permission was granted by the judge, the inmate would be furloughed into Transformation Project. If the former inmate does not abide by the written Transformation Project Agreement, they are sent back to jail to complete their sentence.
Transformation Project has pre-release small groups in Silverdale Detention center, Sequatchie County Jail and the Catoosa County Jail. We work with the Judicial system in Hamilton County.
We have serveral Post-Release Campuses.