Jobs for ex-cons

My husband and I were talking this weekend about starting a business. I was gung-ho to start a bakery so that we could employ former offenders, since one of the biggest issues that leads to recidivism is lack of legitimate employment. Plus, I just made a wedding cake and, riding on the high from that success, I thought maybe I could adopt a Hot Bread Kitchen model but instead of immigrant women (my how my interests have changed!) employ formerly incarcerated individuals who might not be able to get other jobs. My husband was also excited about the idea, but instead of a bakery (where inventory could easily be ruined by a mishap) we would start a local furniture making company-- lease an old industrial building and woodworking tools, and use reclaimed wood to make furniture that could be sold locally and on the internet. We could use it as an apprenticeship for ex-offenders and a training ground for how to be employed, build relationships with in-prison training programs, and help with reentry planning by providing employment right out of prison. Plus, we could make cool bookshelves and sell them to Brooklyn yuppies (who would DIE over the concept).  In this economy, I also know that there are grants and tax breaks available for new businesses and for retraining and employment. So, there you go.

It's a pipe dream at this point, but this article in the Crime Report is good to keep on the reading list for making this a reality- it points out the pitfalls of typical offender employment programs and the need to address criminal thinking and not just employment as people come out from prison.  

Prisons rethinking isolation

The NYTimes this weekend had a piece on on solitary confinement. One of my favorite quotes from the piece was this:


Mr. Epps, who is also president of the American Correctional Association, likes to say prison officials started out isolating inmates they were scared of but ended up adding many they were simply “mad at.”


The United States has the world's highest prison population. In recent years, we've also been using solitary confinement for smaller and smaller infractions, which, studies show, leads to much more harmful outcomes for the individuals. We are so focused on "punishing the bad guys" that we forget that the "bad guys" will eventually need to stop being punished and return to society. Solitary confinement especially seems like something so damaging, and incredibly unnecessary for the majority of the prison population. This article details some horrific things that can happen to people psychologically in isolation- and prison guards are poorly equipped to understand or handle the situation. 

Threat to Families: Mass incarceration

I've been thinking about it, and I think that this election cycle I am going to be a one issue voter. I'm not going to agree with anyone 100%, and most campaign promises are just a lot of hot air and nothing can be done on the issues anyway. But I do think that our elected officials could do much, MUCH more about mass incarceration, and I think that the movement is growing to the point that some action steps will be taken in the next few years.

So, the biggest threat to families in American today-- I don't think it is gay marriage, I don't think that it is abortion, or any other hot button issues. The biggest threat, in my opinion, is mass incarceration, especially of young African American men (one in 9 between the ages of 18-35). Hear me out-- Those are fathers away from their families, unable to support them or create strong relationships. When they do come back, their families have moved on without them, often times ashamed of the stigma brought on them. Or if they aren't, the kids grow up thinking that it is just a part of life for a man to go away to jail or prison, continuing this cycle. Those men not only lose out on lost wages while in prison, but also can be legally discriminated against due to their criminal record, making in near impossible to find a decent job. In many poor, predominantly African American communities, the relationship between the police and the community is poor. Kids grow up getting stopped and frisked for no reason, their parents carted away to jail, their houses torn apart for a drug bust, and the police doing nothing about stopping the violence. Doesn't make people really want to grow up to follow the law when you're viewed by the law as a criminal anyway.

It's not just on the individual and family level though, where mass incarceration takes its tole on families and communities. The government spends more money on prisons than on schools. Imagine what could happen if that money could go towards school, community programs, parenting programs, instead of prisons? In addition, the majority of the inmates are there for non-violent drug offenses. i am not excusing drugs but... domestic violence offenders, who are much more dangerous to the community (in my opinion) are often let go because there is no space in the local jail due to a low-level marijuana offender there on mandatory minimum charges. That doesn't seem right.

Not very coherent, but just something i've been thinking about lately. I'm pretty sure Mitt Romney isn't going to address this. but then again, Obama has just bolstered the war on drugs, so he might not be a great candidate either.     

The most depressing, counter-intuative line

"Kansas, a conservative state that successfully introduced bold corrections reforms, cut its prison populations between 2005 and 2008 enough to close some facilities. The trend was reversed from 2008 to 2010 because budget pressures led the state to reduce funding for post-release drug treatment and supervision." Inside Criminal Justice, Jan 2012

The Kansas prison population dropped! Reforms were working! People weren't re-offending as much! And then, in response to cuts in the budget, they cut the things that were working-- post-release drug treatment and supervision. Why? I have no idea. But someone probably a politician, said oh, that looks like we are coddling prisoners.

People! The best thing for ALL of us is if we reduce re-offense! To do that, we have to start looking at jail and prison not only as punishment, but reform and education! We need to believe that people can change and can understand the impact of their behavior and then let them out and have them try it. because they are going to bel let out at some point anyway (most of them at least), so why not help them become better citizens?

Mental hospital prisons?

Article on the Inside Criminal Justice website today highlighted the huge problem of the mentally ill getting caught up in the criminal justice system and prisons becoming de facto mental hospitals, which they are not equipped to be. 

I've found this in my own research in the Bronx. While mental illness manifests in about 5% of the general population, nearly 20% of those who come through our doors in the Bronx for misdemeanor offenses are found to flag for possible mental illness. And that is just for those who don't present severe problems that would land them in the Mental Health Court. Many of them are also frequent offenders. Sometimes, jail or prison is the only place stable enough for people to get consistent care, but those places aren't equipped to handle the volume of mental illness they do see, and the real struggle is what happens to people after they leave. In addition, as pointed out by the article, solitary confinement and the jail environment often exacerbates already existing mental problems. A big, tough issue that we really need to address and i'm not sure how.

Federal Crack sentences reduced!

Folks, this is GREAT news! And i'm not just saying that because I'm reading Michelle Alexander's fantastic book The New Jim Crow about racism in the criminal justice system, especially the war on drugs (okay, maybe). But it really is a great move for the federal government to reduce mandatory sentences for crack. The sentences have been overly long and punitive compared to other drugs, and the African-American community has felt the impacts of this policy most severely.

So, what will this do? Will this reduction in sentences lead to a crack epidemic a la the 1980s? Not likely. The individuals in prison who will be affected by this (an estimated 12,000 prisoners) will be able to be released early from their sentences and return to their communities. But these folks are criminal! you might be saying to yourself. Yup, they broke the law. And they were sentenced to jail for their crime. But that sentence was deemed to not fit the crime and so they will be released earlier (depending on their charges) because they have already paid the price for their crime. Will they be rearrested? Well, it depends on so many factors. According to the numbers (which i'm not citing here), 70% of people released from jail recidiviate within three years. That is huge. Sure, some people are hardened criminals and fall back into that, but others simply have no other resources. They've been locked away and their families have moved on. They have no support at home. They can't get a job because they've not only been out of the workforce but they've been in jail. There are no reentry programs to help people coming out of jail. But you know what? Those are problems they would still be facing at the end of their 37 month longer term. They've served the appropriate time for their crimes.

Plus, this reduces the federal prison population, freeing up space for violent offenders and saving money for other things, like drug treatment and alternative to jail programs (ha! I wish). 

Justice for Juveniles

Judge Lippman, New York's Chief judge, is kind of awesome. So, I don't know if you aware, but New York state is one of two states (along with North Carolina) that charges juveniles 16 and over as adults for all crimes. Most other states have the legal age of adult at 18 and those under 18 go through family court. There are a couple of benefits to this. For one, in Family court, your record is sealed, which means that a dumb mistake at 17 isn't going to haunt your employment opportunities for the rest of your life. Second, Family Court provides more opportunities for social services and intervention. When a juvenile is arrested and charged as an adult, studies have shown that this leads to more arrests later on. it is more costly in the short run (when we're looking at it from a budget deficit point of view) but in the long run WAY less costly for the state and society. I support this, and I've excited that my agency will be involved in running some pilot projects as we await for this to pass through the state senate. In fact, i better get back to running those numbers for the Bronx right now... looks like we have 585 16 & 17 years olds who could've been affected by this since January of this year.

Read the article in the NYTimes here.