Lowndes County’s ‘Pathway to Peace’ program aims to tackle crime through education, enforcement, and rehabilitation
LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Since Lowndes County Sheriff Eddie Hawkins took office in 2020, it’s been a goal of his – a three-phase program to build a safer community that focuses on education, enforcement, and rehabilitation.
6 years later, he is finally getting to see it all come together.
With his 35 years of experience in law enforcement, he says he was aware of the problems Lowndes County was facing.
Through the “Pathway to Peace Program” at the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office, Hawkins hopes to reduce crime, prevent violence, and create meaningful opportunities for individuals to succeed and change lives.
Sheriff Eddie Hawkins knew he wanted more for Lowndes County. In looking at how the department could help make a difference, he wanted to start with the youth. – the future of the community.
That’s why the first phase of the “Pathway to Peace Program” is Education – Prevention through opportunity.
“Our deputies are getting into the schools and are going to do classes like conflict resolution, de-escalation, and anti-bullying to let these students know right from wrong,” Hawkins said. “We’re also going to help the older students who are about to graduate with things like job preparedness. A lot of students may not have an opportunity to go to college. There is plenty of opportunity here in Lowndes County with all the industry coming to town for jobs, workforce, education paths that they can take to where they can get a skill and a good-paying job here in Lowndes County.”
By establishing a foundation of education and early intervention, he believes the cycles of violence can be broken before they begin. He is working to provide resources for mentorship, life skills, support, career development, and engagement to build trust.
“We see so many young people who try to settle their differences by picking up a gun,” Hawkins said. “Once they pull that trigger, that’s a final decision. It affects their life and everyone’s life around them because they are shooting at somebody. We want them to make better choices, better decisions. By doing education, it’s one step we can do to help prevent some of these acts that are being committed out here in the street.”
Phase 2 is the enforcement stage, using strategic crime reduction.
“Where we go out in our communities where we’re having a lot of problems with high crime, high drug areas, and we’re looking for violators that are committing offenses involving drugs, guns, or gangs, and we’re going to hold those people accountable,” Hawkins said. “We’re going to bring them to justice, build a good case on them, present it to grand juries and get indictments and hold these people accountable.”
But what happens once they get to the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center? That opens the door for phase 3 – Rehabilitation – creating a second chance to help inmates change their lives.
“We have a lot of people here who are good people, but they have made some bad decisions,” Hawkins said. “We want to be able to give them a second opportunity so that if they need a GED, we can help them get that diploma so that they are more marketable. They can go out here in the community and apply for a job and hopefully get that job.”
Along with earning GED’s, the department has a new virtual workforce training system which helps inmates learn a trade.
They can explore and be trained in a variety of career paths, including: plumbing, diesel mechanics, electrical engineering, and nursing.
That way, they will have skills when they leave the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center.
Once modules are completed, it gives them a certificate that they can put on a resume.
“Our ultimate goal here is to cut down on recidivism and keep people from coming back to jail. We want these people to be good, productive citizens in our community and stop committing crimes.”
A couple of the trustees got to try out the virtual learning system.
They say having these opportunities means a lot to them.
“If you don’t have the skillset of life skills when you re-integrate into society, you’re not going to be successful,” said Charles Honaker. “So, this is a great program, the way that it’s set up and how the sheriff is trying to help us for a second chance.”
“It’s developing life skills that I can teach to my kid eventually when I’m reunited, and just things that don’t lead me back down the path that I’ve always chosen,” said Jonathon Shumaker. “Education is key to power. Without knowledge, you can’t advance in today’s innovations. You’re just stuck in the mud, it seems like.”
“Yeah, like he said, knowledge is power, and the more you know, the better you are going to do,” Honaker said.
Ultimately, Hawkins hopes this plan helps break a rough cycle through opportunity and becomes a pathway to peace.
“We want to start somewhere, and we want to make a difference,” Hawkins said. “We feel like this is a step in the right direction to where we can do that.”
The department is looking for community partners to be involved with the “Pathway to Peace Program,” helping with resumes, mock interviews, and more, to help give someone a second chance.
If you are interested in partnering or volunteering, call the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office at (662) 328-6788.
The department has hired an instructor to come and teach the GED classes. The department has also been in contact with EMCC to help as well.
Since Hawkins took office, the department was averaging about 25,000 calls for service a year. Last year, they had roughly 13,700 calls for service a year. The jail population was averaging 285 inmates per day. Today, there are about 115 inmates in jail.
The “Pathway to Peace Program” is funded through the inmate commissary and is no cost to taxpayers.
