SALT LAKE CITY — A volunteer program aims to help inmates learn more about themselves and the decisions they made leading up to their imprisonment.
The SOLID program stands for "Successful Offenders Learning Individual Development," and was partly founded by Alfredo Lolani.
Lolani's road to self-discovery didn’t happen until after he was convicted for aggravated robbery and manslaughter. The former gang member was involved in the shooting death of a man following a botched robbery in 2016.
“Never in a million years did I ever think I would be able to change who I was. To dig deep within myself," he explained.
Lolani said he's been learning life lessons the hard way but through the program has seen big changes in his life.
“I gotta pay my debt to society and I owe that to society and I owe that to everyone else that I’ve affected along the way," he reflected.
Lolani and a few others started the SOLID program as a way for inmates to make lasting changes in their lives and reduce their chances of returning to prison.
Utah Department of Corrections Officer Sasa Karic helped kickstart the program, starting with 80 residents earlier this year.
“If the commitment is in place and they’re doing it for the right reasons, as they say they are, then it will show in the results if we try it," Karic said.
Now, more than 800 inmates are qualified and eager to participate in the program.
"You gotta ask yourself if you want to come here and we’re ready for you and we have an open door policy,” Lolani said. “For those who do there’s light at the end of the tunnel when you come here to the SOLID community.”
Officer Karic grew up in Bosnia and witnessed the devastation of Civil War before his family moved to America. He eventually became a corrections officer and now works closely with those in SOLID.
“There are more things that actually bind us, that we have in common than actually separate us," Karic said. "That’s the message that I essentially do want to convey through the sessions that I do.”
