What happens to inmates after they get released from prison or jail? Or after someone is convicted of a felony?

Mark Wester is glad you asked.

As the executive director of Embrave, formerly called ComCor, he said he comes across many people in his line of work who don’t know much about the community corrections system.

Part of his job is educating the masses.

But he’s also been leading the nonprofit Embrave, one of two community correction facilities in Colorado Springs, toward improving outcomes for people transitioning from incarceration or illegal behavior to becoming upstanding citizens who enjoy their lives.

“I often call community correction a community-based legal accountability system,” he said, one that answers the question of how the county and state deal with crimes over time.

“A good middle ground that covers the gaps” is how Jenner Behan, acting client service director, describes the program.

People who are found guilty of committing crimes in El Paso County usually stay in El Paso County to undergo rehabilitation and restitution. In doing so, “They remain to be productive citizens, taxpayers and close to their families,” Wester said.

After a guilty verdict, courts either place convicted felons on probation under rules that must be followed, or send them to a community correction program, or sentence them to prison.

Some enter community correction as a condition of parole or probation. Others who are on probation but aren’t doing well under the more lenient model can be ordered to a community correction center.  

The average length of stay at Embrave is 286 days, Behan said.

Upon being released from prison, and in some cases from jail, one of two routes awaits.

“When you walk out that gate, you’re either on your own and follow up with a parole officer or you are ‘stepped down’ from someone controlling your movements 24/7 to community correction, where you have a little more freedom but someone is watching you and paying attention,” Wester said.

Embrave is authorized for 245 residential beds, and the other center in Colorado Springs, Community Alternatives of El Paso County, is authorized for 243 beds.

The facilities often exceed those numbers because of wait times for sentencing, for jail beds and for open community correction beds. Waits sometimes last one to three months, officials said.

Each organization is splitting $14.4 million in funding this fiscal year that began July 1, which is the limit under TABOR, Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. While some Colorado counties have eliminated TABOR, El Paso County voters have not.

In a presentation last week, Wester told the 4th Judicial District Community Corrections Board that overall statistics are looking better at Embrave.

Staff turnover at his organization has decreased from 60% at the end of 2025 to 27% through June 30 of this year, he said.

Escapes, or “unauthorized absences,” also are down notably. With an annual baseline of 146 escapes and a goal of 139 or less in a calendar year, halfway through this year there have been 48, with projections of ending this year with under 100 escapes.

That would be a reduction of about one-third, which Wester calls “a solid impact.”

Also declining are escapes in the first 90 days of people being in the facility. There were 51 for all of last year and just 13 in the first half this year, he reported.

What’s changed?

A new peer support program seems to be helping, Wester said.

A “client response team” comprised of clients who are advancing in their treatment coach clients who are in a crisis or struggling and encourage them to stick with it.

Sara Baldwin, who has a past criminal record and an addiction she overcame, has worked as the senior peer support specialist at Embrave for two years. She believes the peer support program is powerful and makes the community safer.

“It’s opening the door to empowering the individual, finding their strengths and honing in on those, instead of the shame and regret people feel when they’re locked in,” she said. “We try not to come from a place of judgment.”

Some clients have felony DUIs on their record, others were convicted of burglary, theft, assault or homicide.

Embrave also has instituted greater accountability, according to Wester.

“If someone escapes, we really are reluctant to bring them back into the program,” he said. “We’re being more encouraging and holding them responsible at the same time. There’s less room for error and fewer chances to fail — and we seem to be making gains with that approach.”

A policy review committee also is in place, for residents to give feedback on new policies. “We find clients have greater ownership of their treatment when they participate in that, and it’s helped as well,” Wester said.

People walk away from community corrections facilities for various reasons. The centers don’t have barbed wire or razor fences and allow people to leave during the day to go to work. Between 75% and 85% of clients are employed.

“A lot of times when people walk away, they’re worried. They’ve used drugs and had a hot UA (urine analysis), and they’re worried they’ll get terminated,” Wester said. “Or a boyfriend or girlfriend is involved, and they want to be with them.”

Some get scared about being in a facility, which is why the first 15 days are crucial for would-be escapees to be talked out of doing something risky, like leaving, he said.

An escape triggers a warrant for the escapee’s arrest, and then it could be back to square one, which could be reincarceration.

Community Alternatives of El Paso County saw 14 escapes in June, Steven Owens of Community Alternatives of El Paso County or CAE, told the committee last week.

“That’s high for us. We’re looking at it,” he said.

For some reason, “Everyone who came in on a certain day escaped,” he said.

And of six clients CAE accepted from the county jail on June 23, just two stayed. The others scattered, Owens said.

“We were scratching our heads. We don’t know what happened.”