Strategies for Successful Release

I recently finished reading When Prisoners Come Home by Professor Joan Petersilia, who is now a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. This book really opened my eyes to the struggles I can expect to face when prison gates finally open for me. I recommend it to readers at change.org, as it vividly illuminates the need for meaningful prison reform.

From this book I became aware of statistics that should concern every American citizen. One is the rapidly growing number of people who return to society from jails and prisons in each year. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that in 2000, American jails and prisons released 606,000 people. By 2005, that number had grown to 698,500 people. The Pew Charitable Trust estimates that by 2011, American jails and prisons will release 750,000 people each year.

What really troubles me about these numbers is that government statistics show that one in three of all released prisoners will face a new arrest within six months. During the first year of release, 44 percent will face a new arrest. Within three years, the government records show that 67.5 percent of all people released from jails and prisons will face a new arrest.

As a long-term prisoner, I cannot help but scratch my head with anxiety and frustration when I read these dire predictions about the obstacles that await my release. They should concern every prisoner and every citizen. Some readers live with misperceptions that anyone can succeed in society if they really want to live a straight life. Professor Petersilia’s book clearly identifies how the obstacles that all prisoners face complicate such possibilities.

The two most reliable factors that can influence success upon release from confinement include employment prospects and community support. Those who languish in prison for years or decades at a time, however, face colossal hurdles in preparing for viable employment prospects and in nurturing community ties because of administrative policies.

By blocking or hindering opportunities for prisoners to prepare for law-abiding lives upon release, it feels as if administrative policies in prisons across America condition failure rather than corrections. It is as if prisoners come to the end of their terms with their hands and feet shackled. Prison gates open and the prisoner drops into a sea of despair. Recidivism rates show that most cannot swim, though the system of corrections shrugs off the failure and calls for more control.

Finding a job is critical to success upon release from prison. Yet those with criminal records face significant barriers to employment. They have lower education levels and minimal work experience. They return to poor communities where unemployment levels are high. They lack networks in legitimate society that can open employment prospects. Another factor that intensifies these hurdles is that studies show employers express reluctance in hiring those with a felony conviction. Professor Petersilia’s book shows that 80 percent of ex-offenders in California remain jobless after being released from prison for one year.

Prison reforms should address this failed public policy of isolating and punishing offenders in ways that condition them for further failure upon their return to society. With 750,000 prisoners scheduled to return to American communities each year, or 2,000 every day, the cost is simply too great for Americans to accept recidivism rates of 67.5 percent. It makes sense for taxpayers to consider prison reforms that will prepare more offenders to return as law-abiding citizens.

Some suggestions would include mechanisms through which offenders could use to earn their freedom. Rather than extinguishing hope, administrators ought to allow policies that would encourage offenders to work toward creating marketable job skills. They ought to support both work- and study-release programs. Instead of erecting barriers that restrict inmate access to telephones and visits, prison reforms should encourage the building of community ties.

Such prison reforms would lower recidivism rates and make society safer. Implementing them would require fundamental change in our nation’s prison system.