FailSafe ERA Gala Honors Those Who Give Second Chances, and Those Who Take Them
The April 11 event inducted six recently returned citizens to the Hall of Change.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Tonia Garnett served her final incarceration at Rappahannock Regional Jail in 2024.
It’s not that the correctional system was finally successful at punishing her into changing her behavior, Garnett told attendees at this year’s FailSafe-ERA Second Chance Hall of Change gala, held April 11.
“The reality is, you cannot punish someone into changed behavior, but you can teach someone to change by giving them the right tools,” said Garnett, a survivor of addiction as well as a gunshot wound through the neck. “It was during my final incarceration that I stopped trying to get out of jail and instead said God, change me while I’m here. It was then that I was introduced to Juanita Shanks and the FailSafe Courage to Change program.”
Garnett signed up for and completed the five-week Courage to Change program—the first step in the Right Road Reentry series of programs—while in Rappahannock Regional Jail. She was lucky to get in, she said, as there is often a wait list to participate.
The program guides participants through self-assessment, goal-setting, and proven strategies for success.
“Because of this program, I stand before you tonight as an author, a peer recovery specialist, and a LifeBoard Strategist teaching my peers to rise above their circumstances by building the right structure around them so they can take their life to the next level,” Garnett said.
At this year’s gala, the fourth annual such event, Garnett and five others—Mitchell Ford, Lafabia Johnson, Rod Linares, Jessie Morris, and Malcolm Ruffin—were honored as Agents of Change, joining 34 other returning citizens who are living independently, employed, and giving back to justice-involved individuals and their families.
The gala was a celebration of the honorees and of FailSafe itself, which was founded in 2009 by the “force of nature” that is Juanita Shanks, in the words of board chair Johnny Newman.
Shanks was inspired to establish FailSafe by her own son’s struggles with the criminal justice system. Seventeen years later, it has grown into an organization that in 2024 provided the Right Road Reentry programming to 250 people, supported 43 families of incarcerated individuals, and mentored 137 youth.
This year, FailSafe was awarded $460,000 in Congressionally Directed Spending to support its evidence-based pre- and post-release reentry programs in the Rappahannock Regional Jail. The funding was secured by U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.
Irene Roberts, regional director of Tim Kaine’s Fredericksburg office, told gala attendees that FailSafe is “a testament to the good in our society.”
“We look forward to seeing this model replicated throughout the state, and we’re working on that right now,” she said.
Representatives of state and local correctional systems—including Jermiah Fitz, deputy director of the Virginia Department of Corrections; Edward Simmons, chief area probation and parole officer; and Kevin Hudson, superintendent of Rappahannock Regional Jail—also attended the gala.
“Second chances do not exist without this group of people,” said Marcus Hodges, the gala’s MC.
Fitz said that Virginia maintains among the lowest recidivism rates in the country. About 82% of justice-involved individuals do not get re-incarcerated, he said, and “we remain committed to addressing the remaining” almost 18%.
“We acknowledge that transformation isn’t linear,” Fitz said. “Sometimes it requires a second, third, or even fourth chance.”
Since 2017, the Prison Fellowship has designated April as Second Chance Month, and the month has also been recognized by Presidential Proclamation as recently as 2024 and by Senate Resolution as recently as last year. The resolution introduced for Second Chance Month in the Senate this year states that it is an opportunity for increased public awareness about “the impact of collateral consequences; … the need for closure for individuals with a criminal record who have paid their debt; and opportunities for individuals, employers, congregations, and communities to extend second chances to those individuals.”
At the gala, Fredericksburg City Council member Janaan Holmes read a proclamation declaring April 11, 2026, to be FailSafe-ERA Hall of Change Day, “to honor those who dared to change and commit to remain crime-free to promote public safety.”
The gala’s keynote speaker, Deanna Hoskins—CEO of JustLeadershipUSA, White House Fellow, and former Senior Policy Advisor to the Obama Administration on corrections and reentry—said that while work has been done to improve second chances for justice-involved individuals and to increase representation by these individuals in spaces where policy is made, there is more to do.
Specifically, Hoskins said, work needs to be done on “building the culture and morale of [jail and prison] staff.”
“Right now, we have hurt people overseeing hurt people,” she said.
Until that work is completed, organizations like FailSafe can help people like Garnett recognize the cycles of trauma and re-trauma they are caught in and teach them how these cycles can be broken.
“My thank you is not only from me,” Garnett said. “I thank you on behalf of all the men and women who are rising up after me. I thank you on behalf of the man who is incarcerated in an environment where violence is an everyday occurrence—he’s coming home one day. I thank you on behalf of the woman who was separated from her children and will come home to be reunited. I thank you on behalf of the families who will one day see their loved one transformed because of the people in this room.”
Also at the gala, Jayden Johnson, a senior at Brooke Point High School, received the Eugene Melvin Melchior II Scholarship; and Sgt. Steven Curtis, a deputy in the Stafford Sheriff’s Office, and Deborah Cain received Bobby Dee Anderson Community Service Legacy awards.
Garnett will sign copies of her book Enough is Enough: I Won’t Be a Statistic on Saturday, April 25, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Porter library in Stafford. You can also read Garnett’s blog here.
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