Benevolence Farm welcomes first resident

Jan. 31--Mellissie Davis-Smith spent 15 years behind North Carolina prison bars.

Not all at once, she points out.

She was sentenced to time for violating probation, got back out, then got more time for violating parole.

As the weeks crept closer to her final release date in December, 31-year-old Davis-Smith knew when she left prison, she'd have no support system in place to help her get on her feet, stay sober and work toward reaching her life goals.

Flipping through a notebook of post-release resources in the library at Swannanoa Correctional Center for Women, she found Benevolence Farm.

She is now the organization's first resident.

"She was aggressive," said Tiffany Bullard, program coordinator of Benevolence Farm, based at a home on Thompson Mill Road in Graham where the organization will continue housing women who have just been released from prison.

Bullard meant that in a complimentary way. She and other staff members saw that Davis-Smith was taking lots of initiative to square away living arrangements post-release, specifically at Benevolence Farm.

Though the home wasn't planning on opening its doors to its first resident until the first of the year, when staff found out Davis-Smith's release date had been moved up three weeks, Bullard, Executive Director Elly Goetz and Farm Manager Matt Ballard all put their Christmas and New Year travel plans on hold to welcome her in Dec. 13.

The organization, founded by Tanya Jisa, former executive director, expects its second resident to arrive mid-February. Goetz said Benevolence Farm plans to reach its current maximum capacity of six residents in the three-bedroom house this summer.

In the organization's first three weeks of housing a resident, since all of its community partnerships hadn't quite gone into effect and not all staff members were available, Goetz said, community members and neighbors stepped up to take Davis-Smith out on excursions and to meetings, brought meals to the home, and offered their services in general.

"Missy was overwhelmed, I think, with the amounts of food we had," Goetz said.

For now, Cristina Baker, the organization's farm intern, also lives in the house with Davis-Smith.

ON A COLD JANUARY afternoon Monday, Goetz, Ballard and Bullard sat around a table in the basement garage of the rural home, wearing their coats as they worked.

They had vacated the upstairs residence when Davis-Smith moved in and are now working next to tools and other equipment.

In the next six months, Goetz says, the organization hopes to be able to construct a place where the three full-time staff members can work and to have a multiuse space for classes or community work days that doesn't intrude on the residents' living area.

Staff will check in with residents weekly on their goals and how the organization can help them realize those goals.

Currently, for Davis-Smith, those goals include applying and working toward taking classes at Alamance Community College -- possibly for the school's accounting program -- finding a church home, and starting a Narcotics Anonymous group.

Looking toward the future, when she gets out, Davis-Smith hopes to land a job as an accountant or open her own garage as a mechanic.

She held a variety of jobs throughout her 20s --she was a certified nursing assistant, did landscaping and roofing, and had jobs in chain store merchandising -- but struggled to get hired after landing her first felony convictions in 2013.

"It's hard to move forward with a criminal background," Davis-Smith said. "I could work through temp agencies for the same companies that wouldn't hire men. But who wants to work for temp agencies forever?"

Beyond struggling to find work, Davis-Smith, who spent eight years fighting an addiction to pain pills, was largely on her own in trying to stay sober out of prison.

After getting out one time, she attended a 90-day program only to find herself going back to stay with her girlfriend and relapsing the first night she was released.

"It's a miserable life," she said of an opioid addiction that has been hard to shake without a support system.

It was that desperation to find a better way of life -- coupled with her girlfriend's suddenly dying from a drug-related illness right before Davis-Smith went back to prison -- that drove her to find a longer term living situation when she got out this past time.

LIVING ON A WORKING farm, the women who come to Benevolence Farm will, as part of the experience, work to grow produce. Though the nonprofit is funded through grants and private donations, the fruits and vegetables it's now selling for the second year through a community supported agriculture box program help pay for the costs of running the farm, Ballard said.

The residents make $8.10 to $9 an hour for the farm work, depending on how long they've lived at the farm. Eight hours of pay each week goes toward their room and board costs at the house. Any extra money can be used to buy personal items or be saved and later matched dollar for dollar by Benevolence Farm upon completion of the program.

Goetz said Benevolence Farm ideally will consist of a two-year stay for each resident and eventually will involve an internship component through local businesses that also, they hope, will employ some pf the residents once they move out.

After getting through the first year of housing residents, Goetz said, the organization next year plans to begin discussions about building a house that could house around 12 more residents.

Though the organization has been in the works for several years now, after money initially was donated for Benevolence Farm to purchase the house and 13 acres on Thompson Mill Road, it received some pushback from community members concerned about felons living in close proximity.

Goetz said it appears many people in the Alamance County community have warmed up to the idea.

"I think we've been pleasantly surprised at the response we've gotten." she said. "The more we show up, the more people hear about it, the more stories they learn, that changes the way they think about it."

Goetz added that that topics like criminal justice reform, incarceration, recidivism and re-entry are now being discussed more widely.

"It's a bipartisan issue," Goetz said. "No matter what your beliefs are, people are talking about it and trying to look for solutions. They've served their time and are free. We're supporting that process to make them more successful."

Reporter Natalie Allison Janicello can be reached at nallison@thetimesnews.com or 336-506-3078. Follow her on Twitter at @natalie_allison.

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