(The Center Square) – Imagine you had a proven model for transforming the lives of incarcerated individuals, such that they don’t return to prison and instead lead self-sufficient lives upon release.
Imagine that success rate was 98% and the cost of the transformative program was a tiny fraction of what is spent each year to incarcerate individuals who often return to prison shortly after release.
Now, imagine the state has cut funding to that successful program, despite the overwhelming evidence of the savings to taxpayers and restoration of lives.
That’s the backdrop for why Ginny Burton is about to walk more than 300 miles across the state of Washington.
An email to Burton from May 29, 2025 sent by DOC said in part-
“Regrettably, due to current budget constraints, the Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC) has made the difficult decision not to renew community partnership contracts for community-based reentry services in the next fiscal year.”
Burton was ultimately able to secure $80,000 in grant funding to continue operations over the last year, but without further support, the program is unsustainable.
She is walking to fundraise and bring attention to the program she created after transforming her own life, called O-UT Impact Coalition.
Growing up in a household where both of her parents were addicted to drugs, Burton’s own drug use escalated from marijuana to heroin to crack cocaine.
She was convicted of 17 felonies, including identity theft and assault.
Following a third prison term, she found the courage to turn her life around and upon release she entered the University of Washington, and graduated with a BA in political science with a minor in law society and justice. She also graduated with a newfound determination to help others break the cycle as she did.
“I developed a process to infiltrate the system, to influence the lives of the people who are just like me,” said Burton in an interview this week with The Center Square.
The program she teaches provides incarcerated individuals with the skills they need to honestly address what led to prison, begin to heal and turn their lives around and reintegrate into society once released.
“I’m inside of the Department of Corrections, and of the 55 people who have been released…only one of our guys has reoffended. Over 87% are practicing abstinence-based recovery. That means no medication assisted treatment, no dependence on social services, because they learned to become the strongest version of themselves.”
Dozens of other inmates have completed her program, but are still incarcerated, encouraging fellow inmates to enroll.
“They’re educated. They’re employed. They’re unifying with their kids. They’re all stably housed, and that’s really what I think we perceive that systems are supposed to do,” said Burton.
It is a 26-week program, taught by people who’ve lived it and are successful outside the walls of prison.
The cost is $4,500 per person.
The state currently spends more than $63,000 per year for each incarcerated person and while Washington’s recidivism rate is lower than the national average, approximately 30% of individuals released from DOC return to incarceration within three years.
One of Burton’s alumni is Tone Williams, who this week shared his story with The Center Square.
He’s a free man now, besides an ankle monitoring bracelet he will get to remove in about 48 days, living and working in Moses Lake.
“Once I graduated high school, I joined the Army, which had been like a lifelong dream, for as long as I can remember. I just wanted to be a soldier,” said Williams.
He was stationed at Joint Base Lewis McChord and told The Center Square he got into some trouble and failed a drug test, which landed him in confinement and a major pay cut.
Williams shared he didn’t tell his family at the time because he was ashamed and didn’t want to let people down but said carrying that shame led him down a more dangerous path once out of the military, where he was stealing and selling firearms.
He was arrested in March of 2012, 45 days after his 21st birthday and ended up serving about 13 years in prison.
Williams said he took advantage of educational opportunities and other programs behind bars, even earning degrees, but after transferring to the Olympic Corrections Center in Forks, WA, he learned of Burton’s O-UT Impact program and signed up.
It transformed his mind and heart.
“It works. I don’t know how much more proof you need,” said Williams. The guys that have gone through her program are not going back to prison. I don’t know what more a person needs to see.”
Williams said there’s also no arguing about the cost savings.
“It’s probably the cheapest and easiest method to reduce recidivism. It doesn’t require the hiring of any doctors or psychologists, or psychiatrists. It doesn’t require medicating people and prescriptions. It’s all reward, and they get to say that they helped make this happen. They get to be a part of the solution.”
For the 55 graduates of Burton’s program who are living free productive lives, taxpayers are saving nearly $3.5 million in annual incarceration costs. That’s $10.5 million in savings over just three years.
Eric Barden is a retired Seattle Police Commander who serves on Burton’s board of directors. He told The Center Square, until the public starts demanding better outcomes from the Corrections Department and the lawmakers and agency officials behind policies, nothing will change.
“Without sort of community expectation for better outcomes, and that manifesting in our electives, who are funding programs, that’s the machine that won’t change,” said Barden.
He shared that decades of research have proven that just sending people to prison won’t be enough of a deterrent to keep them from reoffending, without truly transforming their self-worth behind bars.
“It doesn’t work. If it worked, it would have worked and it didn’t. So, we need to tweak our programs and provide people with the tools and resources necessary to be successful once they get out and that starts with allowing them to address those issues internally while they’re incarcerated,” Barden said.
Williams told The Center Square his future looks extremely bright.
“I was at this Lowe’s for two months before I got promoted to supervisor of my department over people that had been there for years. I feel like I’m doing great. I’m healthy. I just bought my daughter a brand-new phone for her 17th birthday. It feels good because I wasn’t able to do those things, so to be able to really provide for them now feels really good,” he said.
Burton sets out on a 307-mile journey across Washington state on July 19 with a goal of raising $250,000 to fund a full year for her program.
She will begin in North Bend on July 19 and end up in Spokane’s Riverfront Park on July 31.
“I’m asking people to join with me to walk with me or sponsor me to start focusing on solutions. Why are we settling for fentanyl and other addictive substances taking over our communities and destroying the fabric of everything we love?”
“We are providing a real solution to problems that seem insurmountable to people who don’t have experience. There’s a way out and this is it.”