Chad Cuccia, A Success Story of Re-entry

Today, when you talk to Chad Cuccia, there’s a sense of joy and gratitude in his tone that’s obvious and inescapable. 

There’s thankfulness—genuine thankfulness—for his faith, his family, and his job. It’s the kind of gratitude that recognizes everything as a gift, knowing things didn’t have to be this way...because things weren’t always this way.  

He didn’t always have a great marriage and a house full of kids. He didn’t always have a stable career and a household income that placed him squarely in the middle class. 

No, things weren’t always this way. Hardly.

“I didn’t know how to live in society.”

Since the age of 15, Chad, now 50, spent a total of 28 years in prison. His first conviction for armed robbery, his most serious, landed him in a correctional facility until he was 21. "I got messed up with the wrong people at the wrong time. That set a path in life I couldn’t get past.” 

Re-entering society after spending his formative years in prison was jarring. Everything had changed. 

“When I went to jail, everybody was riding bikes. When I got out, everyone was driving. People got married. I was trying to catch up, but I couldn’t. I wanted to get right, but I didn’t know how. I was a scared kid coming back to society.” 

Chad returned to what he knew. Ten months after his first stint in jail, he was arrested and convicted on drug charges and sentenced to twelve years in East Baton Rouge Parish. “When you leave prison, you return to what you know. If you don’t have somebody to help you and lead you in the right direction, it’s a non-winning battle. I didn’t know the right people. I didn’t know how to go about keeping them. I didn’t know how to hold on to a job. I never had a role model.”

He served six years of his sentence and was allowed to perform the remaining six on parole. Yet, the cycle persisted. Another arrest on a drug charge, more time. Another arrest, more time. 

“It got to the point that I was institutionalized. I didn’t know how to live in society. I knew how to live in jail. I wasn’t afraid [in jail], and I wasn’t scared. I was scared when I got out. It was so hard to adjust back. But in jail, I knew how to live.”

Chad’s cyclical story of arrest, release, arrest, release is similar to thousands more nationwide. More than 600,000 American citizens are released yearly from state and federal prisons and re-enter society. And within three years, more than two-thirds are re-arrested, and half are reincarcerated.  

“I [always] wanted to do right,” he said. “I knew where messing up would lead me. But you get to the point where you don’t have stability. I was trying to change. I really wanted to do better, but I didn’t know how to do better.” 

Faith and Work

The difference in Chad’s life was eventually the faith and stability he found at The Life House, a thirty-seven-acre nonprofit transitional housing facility in St. James Parish. The Life House is a year-long residential program that helps men and women (the women’s facility is called The Ruth House) facing addiction, homelessness, and recent release from incarceration, lay the foundations for a new life. 

The program, rooted in Christian principles, focuses on spiritual development, community connection, and career advancement. The year is divided into four semesters, and the first two weeks help residents--called “family members”--obtain all the proper credentialing they’ll need for a future career. 

“[People] are coming out of jail, and depending on how long they’ve been there, they don’t have a stable home or a job,” said Jeffrey Robert, COO at The Life House. “If a man or a woman doesn’t have a stable job, and a life-sustaining wage, what do they have to go back to other than what they have known in the past? So, transitioning to get work skills, spiritual development, career advancement, and connected back to the community is paramount.” 

The Life House partners with local businesses, like Brown & Root and Picou Building Company, to get their “family members” back into stable employment. They also work with the town of Sorrento, St. James Parish, and Ascension Parish. 

The local businesses that partner with them also benefit tremendously. 

“They are very, very good employees,” said Richard Reed, Superintendent over personnel at Brown & Root, and former staff member at The Life House. 

Nationally, the numbers bear this out. The Second Chance Business Coalition found that 85% of HR and 81% of business leaders said that individuals with criminal records perform the same or better than employees without criminal records. Moreover, a 2016 Center for Economic and Policy Research study found that preventing people with a criminal record from re-entering the workforce costs the U.S. economy between $78 billion and $87 billion in projected economic output.

In a time when good workers are in short supply, organizations like The Life House help fulfill the staffing needs of local businesses. Yet the benefits of these working relationships go both ways. 

 “Typically, we’ll hear that our people will completely change the atmosphere,” said Justin Landry, a Director for the Men’s Life House. “They’re going to show up, be clean, and work hard.”

Chad first heard of The Life House six years before he attended, but the courts never granted him the opportunity to enter the program. The judges said that he didn’t qualify for rehabilitation programs due to multiple offenses, and because he was convicted of drug dealing, not merely possession. They separated the dealing from the addiction. Desperate for a change, he bondedout of jail and enrolled independently.  

“Chad was a model family member,” said Landry. “He excelled. He became a house leader. He worked hard, served the Lord, and never had any infractions.”  

Through Life House, Chad got a job in the maintenance division at Brown & Root, where he continues to work today. Due to the nature of his charges, he had to spend three months in jail after he left The Life House. Brown & Root held his job for him.  

“They took care of me,” Chad said. “I got out on a Sunday and back to work on a Tuesday...Stable work means everything. You have to set up foundations for your family. You got to set foundations and goals. You got to be able to accomplish things. Without work, none of that is possible.”

Family Reunited 

While Chad was in The Life House, his long-time girlfriend, Kate, was going through The Ruth House. Together, the couple has twins, and they lost custody of their babies during their tumultuous years together before the program.

However, the couple graduated from their respective programs on August 3, 2022. They were then married on September 10, and moved into their home together on September 15. Then, on October 7, 2022, Chad and Kate were reunited with their twins. 

“We’ve seen transformation after transformation,” said Jeffery Robert. “Children are reunited with their fathers and mothers. Family restoration. It’s all very possible. It happens all the time. People [just] need the opportunity. The transition to where they aren’t doing it alone when they’re coming out.”

“Everything I did, I chose to do it,” Chad said, speaking of his past. Yet, he knows that the past is now gone. A new life, a new family, and a new future have emerged. 

“I don’t even want to look back anymore. God released me from all that. I thank Him every day,all day long, at work. I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for Him. He’s the center of our family. He’s worked so many miracles in my life. When I see things today, I see things clearly. It’s not as cloudy as it was. I see a path.” 

A Testament for Louisiana

Chad’s story shows just how powerful effective reentry programs can be and why supporting formerly incarcerated individuals in finding work and redemption is so important. It affords the chance to find a solid standing in society again. It also provides dignity and a way to produce for themselves and their families.