Anita Wiest

Anita has had a particular passion for working with individuals in the criminal justice system since 1976 when she volunteered with the Seventh Step Foundation at the Maryland State Penitentiary. Throughout her career as a licensed social worker and addictions specialist, she has worked in Baltimore City public schools, Harbel Prevention and Recovery Center and MedStar Health. In 2007, upon moving to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, she worked in the outpatient addictions field until taking a job at Eastern Correctional Institution. There, she worked with incarcerated individuals facilitating groups as well as release planning services. She also, with the support of many others, introduced peer recovery specialists to the carceral setting by training and supervising incarcerated individuals in recovery to use their skills and compassion to help others. Upon her retirement in 2019 she has advocated for criminal justice reform as a member of the Maryland Alliance for Justice Reform (MAJR). Her work with Prepare takes her back to ECI where she facilitates workshops to assist the men in preparing for their parole hearings and seeking assistance in reentry services. She believes it is organizations such as Prepare that make our communities safer. Without direction and support, persons returning to the community after years and decades of incarceration are more likely to fail and reoffend. Most everyone she has ever met in prison seeks to do better and she wants to be involved in helping them with that process.