The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office has graduated its third class from the Fresh Start program

 The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office has graduated its third class from the Fresh Start program since Sheriff AJ Smith took office in 2017.

Fresh Start is a program that works in prisons preparing inmates for successful reintegration into society.

The program offer jobs, housing and mentoring to help each ex-offender succeed, and not return to prison.

The Franklin County Detention Center is one of the only jails in Florida to have such a program.

The Fresh Start program was created for prisons but the Sheriff's office decided to try it as a pilot program for a jail setting.

The recent graduates, Tobias Rhodes, Billy Dalton and Richard Sands have completed 12 months at the Franklin Detention Center and were released last week for their next chapter in the program.

Rhodes and Dalton will travel to Panama City to live for the next year in a halfway house operated by the Fresh Start program.

Sands will travel to Charleston South Carolina to do the same.

Sheriff AJ Smith said his department will continue to strive toward his goal of bringing a rehabilitation center to Franklin County to serve those on the streets as well as court ordered participants.

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