Works Sited
"About Us." 70x7 Life Recovery. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.
Bent, Eliza. "Law and order: ex-convicts tell their stories on stage." American Theatre May-June 2009: 62+. Student Edition. Web. 15 Apr. 2013
Childerston, Carrie. "70 X 7 Life Recovery." Personal interview. 15 Apr. 2013.
Cooper, Kenneth J. "With Less Money for Prisons, States Ease Rules Against Ex-Convicts - New America Media." With Less Money for Prisons, States Ease Rules Against Ex-Convicts - New America Media. New America Media, 30 Oct. 2010. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.
Flick, AJ. "Search the Citizen." Should Ex-cons Have Their Rights Restored? TucsonCitizen.com, 3 July 2007. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.
Gorski, Terence T. "Post Incarceration Syndrome and Relapse." The Addiction Web Site of Terence T. Gorski. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2023.
"Home." 70x7 Life Recovery. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2013.
Howe, Jeri. "PANELISTS - Survival Skills for Everyday Living." Survival Skills for Everyday Living. N.p., 2013. Web. 19 Apr. 2013.
Johnson, Greg. "Ex-cons Get Little Help upon Release." Penn: University of Pennsylvania. Penn Current, 3 July 2008. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.
Lofland, Lee. "8 Businesses Staffed by Ex-Cons." The Graveyard Shift RSS. The Graveyard Shift, n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.
"National Reentry Resource Center." Reentry Facts. The National Reentry Resource Center, n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.
"Percent of Released Prisoners Returning to Incarceration." Crime in AmericaNet RSS. CrimeInAmerica.net, 2011. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.
"Prison Culture » Prisoner Recidivism and the Revolving Door (Cont’d)." Prison Culture RSS. N.p., 10 Aug. 2010. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.
"Prison." The Interpretation of Dreams. N.p., 2013. Web. 19 Apr. 2013.
"Recidivism." National Institute of Justice. Office of Justice Programs, 12 May 2010. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.
"The Recidivism Solution." Safer Communities Ministry. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2013.
"Reentry Facts." National Reentry Resource Center. Justice Center, n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.
"Reentry Trends in the U.S.: Recidivism." Bureau of Justice Statistics. BJS, 17 Apr. 2013. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.
"Returning Citizens: Challenges and Opportunities." District of Columbia Public Library. N.p., 20 Feb. 2013. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.
Rogers, Danielle. "Quality of Life and Recidivism Risk." Policy Research Associates Corporate. Policy Research Associates, 21 Dec. 2012. Web. 19 Apr. 2013.
"Royalty Free Stock Photography: Stand in Line. Full Length Portrait of Men and Women Standing ..." Dreamstime. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2013.
Servan-Schreiber, David. "The Energy of Anger." Psychologies Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2013.
"Stories of Hope." YouTube. 70x7 Life Recovery, Nov. 2012. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.
Weinstein, Henry. "US Justice System Is 'Broken,' Lawyers Say." US Justice System Is 'Broken,' Lawyers Say. Los Angeles Times, 24 June 2010. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.
Friday, April 19, 2013
2) Employment and Ex-Convicts
2) Employment and Ex-Convicts
Studies have repeatedly shown that ex-felons are less likely to be incarcerated after previous imprisonment if they have a job. Most businesses, however, tend to hire employees with no criminal record before considering ex-convicts (Cooper). And who could blame them? Hiring an ex-felon could be more risky than hiring most other applicants. The sad part is, "Without gainful employment, ex-convicts are likely to end up committing crime that will send them, back to prison" (Lofland). What a terrible cycle. It is very difficult for returning citizens to find employment, and if no one will hire them they often end up returning to prison. Gov. Deval Patrick said, "The best way to break the cycle of recidivism is to make it possible for people to get a job" (Cooper).
5) 70x7 Life Recovery
5) 70x7 Life Recovery
70x7 Life Recovery is an organization at 97 W 22nd St, Holland, MI 49423, which "provides mentorship, employment, job skills/life skills, training and recovery support for men and women who have previously been incarcerated" (About Us).
I had the opportunity to interview Carrie Childerston, the Director of Development at 70x7 Life Recovery, about recidivism in the Holland, Michigan area.
70x7 Recovery has been very successful in there work with ex-felons. When asked about recidivism in our community, Childerston said, "The recidivism rate nationwide, I believe, is 40 percent. In Michigan it's in the 30s, they say around 33, 34... Ottawa county it's 11 percent. It's low. And we would like to believe it's in large part due to the programs that we have here. In our program --in 70x7-- it's 6 percent recidivism rate... That's measured on a three year basis." The difference between the recidivism rates nationwide and in 70x7 is about 32 percent, proof that their program really works.
Childerston stated that when convicts are released from prison, "They do not have good skills to survive on the outside... A lot of them return to the past friendships and the things they did in the past." Falling back into old patterns and habits is usually the first step returning citizens take toward recidivism.
Studies have shown repeatedly that ex-felons are less likely to return to prison if they are employed (Cooper), but Childerston says that finding employment is not as easy as it sounds, "...It's really hard for them to find employment, so what they tend to do then is they go back to the life of crime. They go back to selling drugs or stealing things, often they go back to the same community..."
Here we begin to see a cycle, ex-convicts "...make the same life choices they made before they went in that got them in prison in the first place," said Childerston.
Childerston shared what must be done to break the cycle of recidivism: "The first thing they have to learn to do is they have to learn how to navigate the world they've reentered into. It's changed. They always come back and they expect everything to be the same. People are older, people have moved on, and the economy has changed. So it's a different world."
She says ex-convicts aren't used to making choices or being in charge of their life, "In prison, every decision is made for you... You are controlled. So you spend most of your formative years like that, and when you get out you think: 'well I have to find a job,' but you don't know how to make a decision for yourself."
It's clear that ex-felons often need help when reentering society after incarceration. Childerston said that 70x7 offers skill training such as, "Going to work on time, calling in sick if you're not going to be there, doing the job right the first time, not stealing. To some people stealing is just a way of life.. So they have to learn how to live in society again. We work with them and help them to figure out: what are things you do and you don't do. Simple things, showing up for work, working hard, being honest, not stealing, telling the truth... Even as simple as shaking someone's hand."
When asked how we can prevent more people from committing crimes and becoming convicted felons, Childerston presented a statistic, "70 percent of all children of convicted felons will become convicted felons themselves. So we have to end the cycle of criminal activity in a generation. We have to say to men and women coming out, who do not want their children going in, 'how can you stop the cycle of generational crime in your family? How can you make sure your son and daughter don't end up doing the same things you did?' So we have to equip those men and women to be better parents, how to lead better functioning lives." So preventing crime begins with building strong families.
But employment is only part of what 70x7 does to help returning citizens reach their full potential. "In our program," Childerston explained, "If you want to be in our employment pool you have to accept to mentor relationship --a mentor match-- that you and the mentor meet weekly, and you discuss what's going on in your life with them, you do life together. You have to have... a face-to-face weekly and a phone call weekly. You must do that for 9 months while you're in our employment pool." Childerston says that the ex-felons and their mentors usually remain friends after completing the program. Often the mentor is the first real friend, who really cared and did not have a secret agenda, that the ex-felon had ever had.
Some may ask, 'Where does crime come from? Why is there crime?' As Mrs. Childerston put it, "Crime is the offset of poverty, and poverty thinking." Basically, when people are poor, the sometimes get desperate.
"Housing is a big issue, sometimes they have nowhere to go. Here in Holland they end up in the Holland Rescue mission, but they have to do the program there... Cause a lot of times they come back and they don't have place to live, maybe their family has moved on. Their family relationships are severed."
Ex-convicts face 3 major barriers, one of them is transportation, "Many of them do not have driver's licenses." Said Childerston. She explained that the Holland Rescue Mission has a bike repair program to provide bicycles to those who need transportation, especially to commute to work. At 70x7, they have a car program, "...we do low interest rate car loans," said Childerston, "And we have cars that we will sell to people that are donated, we have them fixed up..." So with bikes and cars, the problem of transportation for ex-convicts is being combatted.
The other two major barriers are employment and housing. 70x7 focuses a lot on workplace readiness while the Holland Rescue Mission can provide food and a warm be to ex-felons. Childerston also said that, "...Just living skills, how to have a functioning life, are... barriers that preclude people from being able to renter society successfully. Organizations that work with them and help them --like ours-- are a huge benefit and wherever they exist you see a lower recidivism rate... But you have to... View the world with their eyes and their experience and its different; because we think 'well, you need a job, can't you just go and apply down at 711 or the gas station.' But the truth is they wouldn't know how even to do that."
Childerston shared what she felt was the heart of 70x7, "...I think what we do by offering men and women who've been on that side of the prison wall, that have been there and said... 'I don't want to have to come back here again.' We offer them an opportunity to never go back again."
Below is a link to "Stories of Hope," a short video by 70x7 Life Recovery.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cjH0CeQrsQ8
1) Ex-Convicts as Returning Citizens
1) Ex-Convicts as Returning Citizens
"Between 1974 and 2002, the number of inmates in federal and state prisons rose six-fold. By 2002, 476 out of every 100,000 Americans were imprisoned, according to Justice Department statistics" (Weinstein). In June of 2009, there were approximately 2.3 million people incarcerated (Bent). About 95 percent of these prisoners will eventually be released back into society (Weinstein). For most ex-felons, this transition is extremely difficult. Ram Cnaan says that person's contacts with society are often severed. (Johnson) Ex-felons return to a different world than the one they left. People are older, things have changed (Childerston).
3) Ex-Convicts Returning to Prison
3) Ex-Convicts Returning to Prison
"Recidivism... refers to a person's relapse into criminal behavior, often after receiving sanctions or undergoing intervention for a previous crime" (Recidivism).
"At the end of 2011, 4,814,200 adults - one in fifty U.S. adults - were on probation, parole, or other post-prison supervision. Approximately 853,900 were on parole.
In a study that looked at recidivism in over 40 states, more than four in 10 offenders returned to state prison within three years of their release.
In 2011, parole violators accounted for 30.8 percent of all prison admissions, 33 percent of state admissions, and 7.9 percent of federal admissions.During 2011, approximately 12% of parolees were re-incarcerated. Eight percent of parolees were re-incarcerated due to parole violations and revocations, and 3% of parolees were re-incarcerated for new offenses." (Reentry Facts).
4) Post Incarceration Syndrome (PICS)
4) Post Incarceration Syndrome (PICS)
.jpeg)
The Post Incarceration Syndrome (PICS) is a combination of mental illness symptoms that have been found to be evident in many currently imprisoned and recently released ex-felons. These symptoms are caused by "prolonged incarceration in environments of punishment with few opportunities for education, job training, or rehabilitation" (Gorski).
"(1) Institutionalized Personality Traits resulting from the common deprivations of incarceration, a chronic state of learned helplessness in the face of prison authorities, and antisocial defenses in dealing with a predatory inmate milieu,(2) Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from both pre-incarceration trauma and trauma experienced within the institution,
(3) Antisocial Personality Traits (ASPT) developed as a coping response to institutional abuse and a predatory prisoner milieu, and
(4) Social-Sensory Deprivation Syndrome caused by prolonged exposure to solitary confinement that radically restricts social contact and sensory stimulation.
(5) Substance Use Disorders caused by the use of alcohol and other drugs to manage or escape the PICS symptoms" (Gorski).
Formerly incarcerated citizens who experience PICS often go through 6 stages (Gorski).
"· Stage 1 of this Post Release Syndrome is marked by helplessness and hopelessness due to inability to develop a plan for community reentry, often complicated by the inability to secure funding for treatment or job training;
· Stage 2 is marked by an intense immobilizing fear;
· Stage 3 is marked by the emergence of intense free-floating anger and rage and the emergence of flashbacks and other symptoms of PTSD;
· Stage 4 is marked by a tendency toward impulse violence upon minimal provocation;
· Stage 5 is marked by an effort to avoid violence by severe isolation to avoid the triggers of violence;
· Stage 6 is marked by the intensification of flashbacks, nightmares, sleep impairments, and impulse control problems caused by self-imposed isolation. This leads to acting out behaviors, aggression, violence, and crime, which in turn sets the stages for arrest and incarceration" (Gorski).
It is becoming increasingly more evident that PICS is a contributing factor to high recidivism rates. Around 60 percent of people who are currently incarcerated have been so before. (Gorski)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)