Eargle was paroled and released from Riverbend on July 7. Initially, he moved in with a friend, but he says he wore out his welcome quickly. He has since moved in with another friend and says he is now working 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., five days a week, at a local paint factory. He says he has kept that job for nearly two months now. As is the case with many ex-convicts, Eargle has had a tough time entering the workaday world.
Few programs exist to assist inmates as they adjust to life outside the prison walls.
Photo by Tennessee Department of Corrections. Steven Womack, the award-winning Nashville mystery writer who taught writing in the prison system for years, has seen the pattern repeated again and again. Both as a teacher and an adviser, he has come to know the often insurmountable struggles that inmates face when they return to the real world. Nashville Scene . Info Booth .