Justice reform: will we or won’t we?

Last month, I wrote about Senator Jim Webb’s newly updated prison reform bill.  Alas, soon after, Webb announced he wouldn’t be running for a second term.  Which leaves me wondering: will a combination of  the Senator’s lame duck status and Congress’ need to focus on more pressing issues (wars, spending cuts, etc.) , push national justice reform again to the back burner?  

Or will the action, as some – like the folks at Right on Crime - suggest, come more at the state level?  That’s certainly been the trend lately.    Last week, Georgia approved a bill that would set up a similar commission that will recommend reforms to that state’s prison system.   Meanwhile, the House in Oklahoma passed what’s being called the “most significant prison reform package in decades.”  Among other measures, the bill would make terms run concurrently and enhance the ability for sentences to be served within the community. 

In addition, Ray Hill’s  the Prison Show  in Houston will be putting some artistic emphasis behind the need for change in our justice system when he hosts the Prison Reform Film Festival next month.

Women’s issues

I’ve worked almost exclusively with female offenders over the past couple of years.  So  I know their experiences in the justice system are very different than those of men, who make up the majority of offenders.   So I was happy to see NPR’s Kojo Nnamdi Show devote a segment recently to the unique challenges women face in terms of serving sentences and reentrying society.  There was also an interesting piece on Russian prison reforms are helping women.    

Facebook Follies

In my employment skills classes I caution students to be careful about the personal information they share on sites  like Facebook or Myspace. It’s standard procedure for many employers to turn to social networking pages or places like  Twitter  to find out more about a job candidate or who they’re  hanging out with.   Everyone’s heard stories about how ill-advised boasts or drunken photos have cost people jobs .

Nor are  employers or job recruiters the only people who might be looking at what you post.   As a recent article suggests supervision officers may soon find it easy to track someone’s post-release behavior online, including whether he or she is still associating with criminals.   This particular article even goes so far as to suggest how probation and parole officers might document what they find  in order to have evidence in a revocation hearing.

Another reason it might be worth keeping an eye on your site, and what you and others post there.

 The bill was passed by the House last year, but held up in the Senate  over concerns about how it would be financed. In an interview last week, Webb’s spokesman Will Jenkins said the Senator ” never wavered in his commitment to reform and was determined to press on this year.”  The fact that Webb  has several Republican co-sponsors, Jenkins added, “has opened the door for compromise.”

Will he get it?  Conservatives have recently embraced justice reform, most notably through Right on Crime, an organization pushing for fiscally responsible change  at the local and state levels. Their goal is to recalibrate an incarceration-heavy system that has led to diminishing returns in terms of safety and effectiveness.  Mark Levin of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a signatory for Right on Crime, said there are good things about Webb’s bill and that he believes the commission could be financed  using current corrections funding.  “ I’d hate to see the proposal held up over costs,” he added.

Beware, the pressure for quick fixes

Still, its passage will likely come down to whether legislators have the patience for a detailed review or feel the need to  press for more immediate reforms.  To that end,  a newly released report from the Council of State Governments Justice Center, provides a preview of where they might start.  The report, which grew out of a 2009 request by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va) to hold a summit on proven ways to both serve justice and reduce crime and recidivism, offers a useful summary of what works and what doesn’t.

 The report takes on a state system that costs more than $50 billion annually.   Apparently, only Medicaid increased faster as a proportion of total state budgets.  Meanwhile correction spending grew at nearly three times the rate of spending on higher education.

At the same time, the authors caution that pushing fiscal austerity alone will lead to ill-advised policy decisions.  Already, they note:   

Although many states and localities have made successful strides in prisoner reentry, elected officials in growing number of jurisdicitons are finding budget pressures and other conditions make it practically impossible to finance, on a large scale, strategies necessary to make someone’s transition from prison to the community safe and successful.  

 

1. Focus should be on people most likely to re-offend.
2. Programs should be based on scientific evidence and have measurable outcomes.
3. Efforts should be made to improve community supervision.
4. Place-based strategies should be emphasized.

• Drug treatment in the community is  more effective than while in  prison.
• Prison education programs work, (yeah!), but  community based programs have more an impact on recidivism rates than those based in prison.
•  Cognitive behavior therapy that is action-oriented is the more successful in changing behavior and reducing recidivism than fear tactics and emotional appeals, talk therapy or other client-centered approaches.
• Focusing services, resources and attention to certain high crime areas will have a bigger payoff in terms of reducing crime and recidivism.  Probation and other reentry service offices located in where the individuals live have been found to be more effective.    

What’s Out : Being tough on crime by throwing people in prison.                                             

What’s In:   Being smart about crime by putting serious offenders behind bars and finding alternative and more cost effective punishments for nonviolent offenders.

It’s true.  For the first time in more than thirty years, we’ve got both the left and the right calling for a more sensible way to deal with crime in the U.S.   Two years after Senator James Webb,D-VA  became the lone wolf decrying the nonsense of the U.S. imprisoning people at a rate five times the world’s average, even conservatives have embraced the need to do something to repair a costly and ineffective system that doesn’t make us any safer.

I’ll admit I was a little skeptical when I first started reading about  Right on Crime, the conservative organization backed by such Republican luminaries as Newt Gingrich, William Bennett and Grover Norquist.   After reading their proposals, however, I’m encouraged that a platform being advanced by the folks who usually campaign to lock up lawbreakers no matter the cost, may actually lead to some real change.   For one, they make no bones about laying out what the problem is and how we got to our current state of diminishing returns:

Under the incarceration-focused solution, societies were safer to the extent that dangerous people were incapacitated, but when offenders emerged from prison – with no job prospects, unresolved drug and mental health problems, and diminished connections to their families and communities – they were prone to return to crime.

All of this, is of course, true, and something that most people can agree on regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum.  Obviously, the reason we’re looking at it now is primarily budgetary.  It’s just too expensive to put so many people in prison.  But if that can spur reform, I’ll take it.

One of the provisions I’m most intrigued about is the conservatives desire to deal with the whole issue of negligent hiring suits, which make so many employers reluctant to hire parolees.   Reducing the potential risk of such lawsuits could  go a long way towards bringing down recidivism, since people with jobs are less likely to commit new crimes.   The challenge is to see whether this will change how employers behave in a labor market with double-digit unemployment.  

In two recent New York Times opinion pieces, author Tina Rosenberg also emphasized that” prisoner re-entry has become a hot topic in the field of corrections, largely because of the increasing number of people being released (many as states cut back on budgets).  She also did a great job of describing the challenges faced by returnees and describing the patchwork nature of reentry programs — highlighting a few like the renowned Delancey Street residence in San Francisco and Fortune Society’s Fortune Academy (known as “The Castle”), which work.  There’s also a piece here citing programs in states like Michigan, that have been successful in helping ex-inmates find jobs. 

What do you think is going to happen in terms of criminal justice reform?   Earlier this month, Senator Webb and The Prison Fellowship sponsored a symposium at George Mason on “Undoing the Effects of Mass Incarceration.”  The State of Louisiana recently announced it’s going to take the plunge to reform it’s prison system.  Will this all be a lot of talk or will/can the country follow suit?

I’ve been bad about posting  as I’ve tried to get off to a good start workwise in the New Year.   While I get up to speed, here are  some of articles I’ve come across that might be of interest to ex-offenders and others who work with returning citizens: 

On starting over:   There’s  an interesting piece in the Washington Post Magazine that  tells the story of  49-year-old Louis B. Sawyer, who spent 25 years in prison and the challenges he’s facing trying to start life over.   The writer does a great job of showing the multitude of challenges from housing, to finding a job, rebuilding trust that former felons face. 

On the unintended victims of high incarceration rates:   A growing number of children are facing life  with an incarcerated parent, according to an article in California Watch.  A recent study by non-profit Justice Strategies found that 1.7 million children in the U.S. now have a parent serving time, and as a result suffer the emotional trauma that goes along with that.     A shout out  to Piper Kerman for tweeting this one.  For more information you can also refer to the National Resource Center on Children and Families of the Incarcerated at Family and Corrections Network.

On mental illness in prison:  Proof that this isn’t just an American problem.  A recent study of a the Central Prison in Bangalore, India found that nearly 80 percent of inmates suffered from either mental illness or substance abuse. 

On our flawed system:   New York Magazine and The Philadelphia Inquirer received the John Jay /HF Guggenheim Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Awards, according to the Crime Report.   In the New York Magazine article, “I Did It,”  Robert Kolker told the story of  Frank Sterling, who served19 years in prison after making a false confession.   The Inquirer looked at the growing problems with Philadelphia’s criminal justice system in its “Justice Delayed, Dismissed, Denied” series.

It was heartening to hear of  President Barack Obama praising Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie for giving Michael Vick a second chance following  the quarterback’s release from prison. 

“He (Obama) said, ‘So many people who serve time never get a fair second chance,’ ” said Lurie, who did not indicate when the call occurred. “He said, ‘It’s never a level playing field for prisoners when they get out of jail.’ And he was happy that we did something on such a national stage that showed our faith in giving someone a second chance after such a major downfall.”

You can’t get better press than that.  Even allowing for the fact that Vick, as a gifted athlete, is a unique case, his comeback does demonstrate the possibility of redemption and the importance of letting individuals take a crack at starting over.  What would be nice now would be to see Vick play a broader role in helping other ex-offenders start anew. 

They’re going to need it.   Despite an apparently rosy holiday retail season, the jobs picture hasn’t improved and the indicators are not encouraging.   A recent study by Rutgers University, which followed unemployed workers for 15 months noted that only a quarter had found new jobs and most of those were for lower pay and benefits.   “The Shattered American Dream: Unemployed Workers lose Ground, Hope and Faith,” found that  despite optimistic projections by some economists, many see the changes in the job market as structural and long-term.  New York Times columnist Bob Herbert does a great job of explaining the disconnect here.

One can only hope our leaders wise up  and  take some action to spur real  job growth sooner rather than later — and that in the meantime,  enlightened employers with good stories to tell like Vick’s get the word out.   

Do you know any you’d like to share?

     Gilda Radner, actress and comedian (1946-1989)

I hate endings, too.  I’ve never been good at them and there’s never a perfect time.  But with the New Year coming, I’ve decided to take a break from teaching at the jail.  

Part of what  made the decision so difficult was that I don’t feel as if I’ve finished anything.  I’ve graduated plenty of students in nearly three years of teaching employability skills, but it’s unclear how many have been successful finding jobs.  And  unfortunately the supply of new recruits never ends.

For a number of reasons, however, it’s time to step away for now.  I’ve been stretched thin with work and other responsibilities.   I was also starting to feel burnt out, which in teaching is never a good thing.   Perhaps a break will refresh me and I’ll return. Or perhaps I’ll find a different way to help. I don’t know.   I just feel it’s time to talk to people on the outside and pursue some other projects I’ve been putting off.

In any event, I plan to continue the  Out and Employed blog as a resource for my former students and others looking to start over. I hope you’ll  forgive my absence and look for me to start posting again in the New Year.

A:   First of all, congratulations for moving on with your life and continuing to pursue your education!  That’s no small accomplishment and you should take pride in the fact that you’ve addressed your own issues and remained focused on the future.

As to your question: if psychology is what you love,  don’t give up your dream.  Getting licensed as a psychologist, even with a felony, is not impossible.  Dr. Paul Fauteck, an ex-offender turned forensic psychologist, who has answered questions on this blog, is living proof of that.   I also checked with the Indiana State Psychology Board and although drug offenses might be a bar to getting licensed,  there are no specific provisions in the statute that would automatically disqualify someone with your record.   Further, officials also consider how much time has passed since a conviction and what you have done since then. To get more information, I’d recommend  sending them a note detailing your specific circumstances at the email address provided.     

Note that  licensing requirements for psychologists and other professions vary by state.  In Texas, for example, a felony would bar you from practicing as a psychologist.  In California, a felony might get in the way as well, unless you have obtained a certificate of rehabilitation.  So you might want to check out the National Directory of Psychologists for information about licensing requirements in other states.

That said,  whether you stick with Computer Information Technology or go back to psychology is entirely up to you.  They’re both good options.  Certainly, CIT is a hot field and if that’s what you prefer, it may be easier initially to find a job.  But there are plenty of positions out there for psychologists, as well.   I guess what I’m trying to say is that — no matter how bad the economy is — finding a job quickly shouldn’t be your main criteria. I’m  no career counselor, but as someone who went into accounting because it was practical, I can attest to how miserable it can be to work in a field you don’t enjoy for the sake of money or security. 

So my advice would be to follow your heart on this one.  Good luck and please let us know what you decide.

And readers, have any of you struggled with these kinds of choices, or licensing issues?  How did you handle them?  What’s been your experience?

The study,  Incarceration and Social Inequality ,  conducted by sociologists Bruce Western of Harvard and Becky Pettit of the University of Washington, appears in the MIT journal Daedalus.  In their research the authors found that the social inequality produced by mass incarceration was so enduring for 3 reasons: 

1.  It’s invisible in that prisoners aren’t typically included in employment and other statistics, 
2.  It’s cumulative in its impact,  and
3. It affects not only adults but their children, spanning generations. 

•  Of men aged 20 to 34 — the largest chunk of the prison population incarceration rates have grown the most for the least educated populations.  In 1980, 10 percent of African Americans in this age range who hadn’t completed high school were incarcerated, today that rate is 37%.  Similarly, in 1980 less than 1 in 50 White dropouts were incarcerated, by 2008, that rate was had climbed to 1 in 8.
•  The incarceration rate for black men born between 1975 to 1979  nearly quadrupled from the rate for those born twenty years earlier.  
•  People who have been incarcerated and fall into the lowest income group, have the least mobility of anyone.
•  The impact of conviction goes beyond the person sentenced to a prison term  to adversely affect their children.  How many kids  have a parent who is incarcerated?  Nearly 2 percent of white children, 3.5 % of Latino children and 11 % of African  children.  

This  dovetails with what legal scholar  Michelle Alexander talks about in her recent book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Era of Colorblindness.  Alexander’s argument, well- supported by research, is that the unprecedented rise in people being sent to prison since the 1970s is creating a permanent underclass.  Individuals end up being punished in perpetuity, she says,  as their records are often to deny them employment, housing and other opportunities that might help them rebuild their lives.

You can read the full report here.    

Right now we’re discussing how to answer interview questions in my class.   It’s always a challenging part of the course since talking about your past can be difficult if you have a criminal record. 

I’ve dealt before with the importance of knowing what you’re going to say and being honest. 

But what about the part of the interview where the employer turns the tables and asks if you have questions?   While I recommend having at least a couple to ask, there are also some areas where you should never go.  Below are a few of  these questions and the reasons to avoid them.  

 1.  How much does the job pay?  Save it for after an offer is made.  At this point you should be focused on the job, not the money. 

2. What are the benefits?    Again, post- offer is better.

3. How much vacation time will I get?    You haven’t even started the job and you’re asking about time off?

4. Can I work from home?      This is a privilege you earn after you’ve demonstrated what you can do.

5.  What kind of company is this?   Shows you haven’t done your homework.

6.  What do you like least about this employer?     Could demonstrate a negative attitude.

7. How much help will I get?     Sounds lazy.

8.  How did I do?      Puts employer on the spot.

9.  I don’t have any questions.      Sounds like you’re not interested enough in the job.

What should you ask?   Questions about what the training will be like, future expansion plans for the company, routes to advancement and the interviewer’s personal experience with the  company are all fair game.  Many candidates also ask if there is anything to indicate they might not be a good fit for the job.  The answer may give you an opportunity to refute any doubts the employer may have.

What does it take to get a job with a record?   When I teach, I allude to factors like  knowing your strengths, having a plan, dealing with setbacks and never giving up.  But it’s not often that I get an opportunity to show this in action.

Recently, however, a reader wrote in with a story that allows me do just that.  Although he didn’t want his name used, this man, who I’ll call Thomas, agreed to let me share his experiences on the chance that they might help someone else.

When I first heard from Thomas he admitted he was desperate:  

 I’m hoping maybe you can suggest something that I’m overlooking ….I ’ve now been a year and a half with no job.  I can’t even get a reply to my Pizza Hut delivery driver application.  Right now it is 4:25 AM and I can’t sleep because my nine year marriage is about to collapse primarily because of the job situation…..

Thomas had been convicted nearly 20 years ago.  He’d done his time, made reparations to the victims and then moved overseas.   There, miraculously, he says, he was  hired at the second place he applied for a job, even after he’d told the employer about his  conviction.  Within two years he’d been promoted to supervisor and then to a more senior position.  This led to a better job at a Fortune 500 company. 

His troubles began when he moved back to the U.S.   Even with his work experience, no one would hire him.   When he wrote me he’d given up on his former profession and was considering going to truck driving school.   He’d found a cheaper program in a nearby state and  gotten a small veteran’s scholarship and a  loan to pay for part of it.  Yet he still wasn’t sure how he could afford living expenses.  He wasn’t writing to ask for money, but to see if I had any ideas on how he could finance it.  

I sent a note of encouragement and some suggestions.  He thanked me and I didn’t expect to hear from him again.   

Two days later, he emailed.  He’d called the school and gotten an offer of work study.   He’d contacted parishes and re-entry organizations in the area to find leads for a place to stay. He figured he could cut meal costs by relying on local food pantries, use free internet at the library and cut travel costs by using http://www.gasbuddy.com   He’d also investigated trucking firms to see which ones were receptive to hiring ex-offenders.  His only concern was he might have to hold off till the next class sesssion because time was running out and he didn’t want to set himself up for failure.   So he also got in touch with some former colleagues he hadn’t talked to in years and three of them agreed to be references.  Then he began looking for jobs.

Two weeks later, I received this note:

I got a job offer yesterday.  After reading a study that said 90% of people would not consider hiring someone with a violent felony conviction, I was getting pretty discouraged, but then it dawned on me that if 90% don’t that still means 10% do…so logically then it is just a numbers game.  Assuming that the study was accurate, that means that submitting 100 applications will result in 10 people who are willing to give an ex-con a try.  I have to admit, that after 30+ “No” answers, it takes a certain amount of determination to believe that the “Yes” is still lurking out there…but it was.  Fortunately for me, I didn’t have to go all the way to 100.

 It turned out the position for which he was hired hadn’t been advertised.  He’d simply seen a new business opening and gone to apply.   “The job was one that I had no direct experience with,” he said, “ but I decided to apply anyway because what is the worst they could do…tell me “no”?”

Obviously, things didn’t happen overnight for Thomas.  But what I like about this story is that even when he was asking for help, he was helping himself. He was  researching possible options before asking for suggestions, and he kept on doing his homework afterwards.  When truck driving school seemed like it might not work, he went to Plan B, contacting references and looking around for potential jobs.  He also went beyond employment ads, contacting companies directly and ultimately finding a job that hadn’t even been advertised yet. 

My hat is off to him, and to everyone else  out there who refuses to give up.  

 Is there something you can do to jumpstart your job search today?