Staff members of Suffolk County Sheriff Steven W. Tompkins’ Richard P. Pacitti Re-Entry and Transitional Center presided over the graduation of nine returning citizens who were part of the third and final cohort of the Nurturing Fathers Program for 2023. During the nine-week training cycle, the men received training from Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office program instructors Frantz Dorcena and Adjie Burnett. The program curriculum is instrumental to the participants as they prepare for re-entry into society, supported by new techniques and training about how to be better fathers. During the graduation ceremony, which was attended by family members of the men in the program, each Nurturing Father Program participant read a statement that he wrote to his children and family. Each statement reflected participants’ recent growth and new commitment as fathers, and they were entitled “The Father I Choose To Be.” John O’Neil, Nurturing Father’s Program Director for the Family Nurturing Center in Dorchester, presented the graduates with their diplomas and offered words of inspiration and congratulation. “The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department and Family Nurturing Center of Massachusetts have enjoyed a very successful five-year partnership,” O’Neil said. “In that time, over 200 fathers have completed the Nurturing Fathers’ Program while residing at the South Bay [House of Correction] facility. Of those 200- plus fathers, fewer than 10% have recidivated since the program has been in existence. That is a testimony to how well the program is run, and also to the fact that these men genuinely want to be better dads.” cohort