Bradenton Bridges gets reprieve

Bradenton Bridge, a women’s transition and work release facility slated to close March 31, will remain open after reaching an agreement with the Florida Department of Corrections, the program’s president announced Wednesday night.Earlier this month, Lori Costantino-Brown, president of Bridges of America, the operator for Bradenton Bridge and six other Florida facilities, received news that the state would shutter Bradenton Bridge and another Broward County facility due to budget cuts.But on Wednesday, Costantino-Brown said, “I’m having a better day.”The agreement includes keeping the Bradenton women’s facility open, but gradually removing 148 slots in two Broward County men’s facilities — Turning Point Bridge and Broward Bridge — resulting in savings of about $2 million per year, Costantino-Brown said. Inmates currently in the facilities will be able to complete their programs.Previous plans to close down the facilities sent shockwaves through Bradenton Bridge, where a news conference was held last week. If the facility closed, all 120 inmates with nonviolent histories would be sent back to prison. “The thing that I consider the biggest victory in this is that nobody is going to go back to prison,” Costantino-Brown said.The recidivism rate for Bridges of America facilities is 1 in 10 inmates after three years, compared to 4 in 10 in three years for inmates who leave state prison without re-entry services, according to a media release.In a statement earlier this year, Florida Department of Corrections secretary Ken Tucker touted the importance of re-entry services, stating that they “act as a bridge between incarceration and life in the community for newly released offenders.”Bradenton Bridge offers inmates counseling, classes and employment opportunities.Manatee County commissioner Robin DiSabatino said she spoke to legislators recently to stop the facility’s closing.“I’m just so thrilled... so grateful for everyone,” DiSabatino said. “It was a total community-wide effort to save this wonderful facility.”On Wednesday night, Costantino-Brown said she held a conference call at Bradenton Bridge, where all the women heard the news.“They were elated,” Costantino-Brown said. “Screaming, hooting, and hollering, hugging, crying, you know, the whole bit.”Shelli DiCostanzo received a call from her daughter, Cassandra, who is an inmate at the center. “She said, ‘Mom, we’re staying open,’” DiCostanzo said. “All the girls were screaming in the background.”DiCostanzo said the program’s salvation is a “big deal.”“Everybody was fretting and fearing and thinking about them,” DiCostanzo said. “It means that she’ll (Cassandra) finish her classes and she’ll be able to start looking for work.”“It’s just such a blessing,” she said.

This story was originally published March 7, 2012 at 8:41 PM with the headline "Bradenton Bridges gets reprieve."