How A Human Service Proffesional Can Help An Ex Convicted Person

Formerly Incarcerated Individuals and the Challenges of Reentry
Past Christina Reardon, MSW, LSW
Social Work Today
Vol. 17 No. 6 P. 16

This group faces myriad challenges, including finding housing and employment, trying non to reoffend, and, perhaps most chiefly, the stigma of existence an ex-offender. Social workers, who volition meet these clients in all settings, tin can back up them on their journey.

September 4, 2014, is a date that Paul Debord remembers clearly. It's the date he was released from prison after 30 years behind bars and stepped into a dissimilar globe—the world across incarceration.

Debord soon discovered that living in this new world was not like shooting fish in a barrel. Health bug hampered his power to maintain employment, and he had spent so much time in prison that his knowledge of some skills he learned while incarcerated had faded. At an age when other people are preparing for retirement, he was trying to plant himself in the community.

"It'due south hard on an ex-prisoner coming out with my record and my age and the things that I've gone through," Debord says. "Information technology's a fight when y'all exit."

It's a fight that hundreds of thousands of people face up each year when they are released from correctional facilities. They find that they may be gratis from prison, but they are non free from the struggles that come with building a new life in the community while trying not to reoffend and enduring the lifelong stigma of being formerly incarcerated.

Information technology's likely that many social workers, no matter their practice setting or area of expertise, volition encounter clients who have spent time in the correctional system. Agreement how incarceration and reentry take shaped their experiences is important to providing services that will all-time promote their success.

"I accept been a first-hand witness to many impressive offenders who, despite long odds, turned their lives around with a circuitous mix of resilience, perseverance, humility, insight, and an earnest willingness to take full reward of social workers' efforts to aid them," says Frederic One thousand. Reamer, PhD, a professor at Rhode Island Higher's School of Social Piece of work who spent 24 years as a member of the Rhode Island Parole Board. "These are amongst the most satisfying moments a social worker can feel."

An Incarceration Nation
In that location are millions of formerly incarcerated individuals in the Us. More than than 641,000 people were released from state or federal prisons in 2015 (Carson & Anderson, 2016), and an average of 590,400 take been released annually since 1990 (James, 2015). (For simplicity and consistency, the term "formerly incarcerated individuals" is used in this commodity. These individuals are often referred to by different terms, such as "previously incarcerated individuals," "returning citizens," and "ex-offenders.")

The population of formerly incarcerated individuals is then big because the United states of america is a globe leader in incarceration. Nearly 7 million people were under the supervision of U.Due south. correctional systems at the finish of 2015 (Kaeble & Glaze, 2016). Country and federal prisons held approximately 1.5 1000000 people, while more than 720,000 inmates were bars to local and county jails. The remaining 4.6 million people were supervised in the community on either probation or parole. These information refer to people in the adult correctional arrangement; on any given day in 2015, in that location were approximately 48,000 juvenile offenders in residential placement facilities such as detention facilities and group homes (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2015).

The number of people under the control of correctional systems nationwide has dramatically increased over the past few decades. In 1980, country and federal prisons held almost 320,000 people, less than one-quarter of the number of people they held in 2015 (The Sentencing Project, 2017). Among the reasons for the shift toward mass incarceration are the "War on Drugs" and the emergence of tougher sentencing standards and longer sentences. Mass incarceration has disproportionately afflicted people of color and people bedevilled of drug offenses (Human being Rights Watch, 2014; The Sentencing Project, 2017).

The shift toward incarceration reflected a changing philosophy well-nigh the role of corrections in society, says Brett Garland, PhD, a professor and caput of the criminology and criminal justice department at Missouri Land Academy.

Instead of seeing corrections as a tool to rehabilitate people committing crimes, it was increasingly seen as a way to protect society by keeping offenders abroad. That has affected not but sentencing but also the amount of money beingness spent on corrections. For instance, state spending on corrections ballooned from $vi.vii billion in 1985 to $56.9 billion in 2015 (The Sentencing Projection, 2017). With and then much money going toward the incapacitation strategy, in that location are fewer resource to assistance people when they are released, Garland says.

For people who are incarcerated, entering prison house tin can exist highly stressful as they endeavor to get used to their new surroundings and navigate prison house culture. However, Garland says, the time earlier release can be just equally stressful, if not more. "They're entering an unknown period," he explains. "They're going from an environment where they're making very limited decisions to one where they're making all the decisions."

Unfortunately, formerly incarcerated individuals often get arrested again. A Agency of Justice Statistics study of prisoners released in 30 states in 2005 found that 2-thirds were arrested within three years of release and 3-quarters were arrested within v years (Durose, Cooper, & Snyder, 2014).

Overcoming Obstacles, Showing Strengths
At that place are numerous interconnected challenges formerly incarcerated individuals face up upon release that brand their journey toward successful customs reintegration extremely hard, if not seemingly impossible. "Our population needs everything, admittedly everything," says Sol Rodriguez, executive director of OpenDoors, a Providence, RI-based organization that provides supportive services to formerly incarcerated people and their families.

1 of the peak challenges is finding employment. Many employers will not hire people with criminal records, and people oft leave prison without the education and basic skills they need to reach and maintain employment, Rodriguez says. Even when formerly incarcerated people notice jobs, she adds, those positions may non pay a living wage or employers may exploit the leverage they have over these employees and subject them to harsh working conditions and excessive working hours.

Closely related to employment is housing. If a person coming out of prison is unable to stay with family unit or friends, it can be hard to detect a place to alive that provides enough stability to maintain employment and take care of other daily tasks, Rodriguez explains. And some formerly incarcerated people who have had bad experiences with shelters choose non to go there after release. "In many cases, they're being released to homelessness," she says.

The formidable challenges formerly incarcerated people face up with employment and housing can be exacerbated if they have mental health and/or addiction issues that were not adequately addressed while they were in prison, says Jennifer Cobbina, PhD, an associate professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. Formerly incarcerated people also can face legal barriers to receiving services once they are released, she says. For case, people with felony drug convictions are banned in many states from receiving welfare and nutrient stamps, and formerly incarcerated individuals often struggle to obtain government-issued IDs.

Gender tin can touch on the postrelease experience as well. Women, for example, are more than probable to have experienced traumas such equally child abuse and interpersonal violence that put them at greater risk of revictimization and recidivism once they are released, in part because these traumas are associated with electric current mental wellness problems and negative coping strategies such as substance employ, says Shannon Lynch, PhD, a professor in the section of psychology at Idaho State University. The pressure to notice a job and housing can be even more than intense for women, as they often are also trying to reestablish a relationship with and regain custody of their small-scale children during reentry, Lynch says.

Debord's feel demonstrates how age tin change people's transitions back into the customs, and this result is apparent for people at both ends of the crumbling spectrum. Laura Abrams, PhD, MPH, has conducted research on formerly incarcerated youths and their experiences in trying to transition into adulthood and the customs at the same time. In many ways, the youths' experiences are similar to adults—for example, they demand a habitation and job—but they besides are trying to establish themselves as adults and effigy out how they want to live their lives in terms of their relationships, education, and other factors that shape their identities. "They want to be seen equally something more than their past," says Abrams, a professor and chair of the department of social welfare at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. "They want to have an identity other than that as a juvie or reckless adolescent."

Factors at the organisation and policy levels play a office, also. For example, people released from prison may have parole requirements they must meet to avoid returning to incarceration. Meeting these requirements may exist difficult when formerly incarcerated individuals likewise are trying to hold down jobs, maintain housing, and reestablish relationships, explains Leticia Longoria-Navarro, managing director of training and programming at Pathfinders of Oregon, which serves justice-involved adults and their families. "There are all these things that they need to complete and navigate that even those of united states with the best skills would have problem doing," she says.

So there is the issue of funding. Many people are released without services that promote successful reentry considering there simply is not enough coin to aid everyone who needs services, Cobbina says. In many cases, she adds, funds are prioritized toward people who are at the highest risk of reoffending, even though lower-risk individuals would also do good from services.

Despite the uphill battles formerly incarcerated individuals face, they should not be written off as lost causes. They have many skills, strengths, and talents that volition help them succeed in the community if they are encouraged and directed properly, says Cheri Garcia, founder of Cornbread Hustle. The Dallas-based organization helps formerly incarcerated people get jobs and trains them in entrepreneurial skills such every bit sales, social media, and making pitches to potential funders. At the end of their training, Cornbread Hustle's participants pitch their business organisation ideas to a panel of investors, with the winner receiving money and marketing support to launch or grow a business organization.

Garcia is passionate about teaching formerly incarcerated individuals most entrepreneurship considering she saw how it changed her life. As a teenager and young adult, Garcia battled drug addiction and was arrested numerous times, although she never served time in jail. Her life started to plough around when she became an entrepreneur and discovered that running a business helped her redirect the energy she had previously directed toward drugs. She tries to assist formerly incarcerated people redirect their free energy in the aforementioned way. In fact, she says their experiences in prison give them many intangible skills, such as tenacity and perseverance, which are the hallmarks of successful entrepreneurs. "Nosotros aid them utilise all of their hustle in a new way," Garcia says. "They don't accept anything for granted. Anyone who has spent years behind bars develops patience and the ability to exist creative."

Debord is one of Cornbread Hustle's participants. He learned how to work with leather in prison and at present runs a small-scale shop in Garland, TX, where he crafts a variety of leather items, from boots and purses to belts and Bible covers. Debord hopes the skills he is learning through Cornbread Hustle will help his business organization prosper. "They actually try to go along your focus on making your dream come true, whatever your dream is and any your passion is," he says.

Rodriguez agrees that information technology'due south important to recognize the courage and fortitude that formerly incarcerated individuals demonstrate. For all the struggles of OpenDoors' clients, there also are success stories, such as sometime clients who accept gone on to law school. "When you lot think well-nigh the amount of strength that information technology takes for a human being to keep moving frontwards [despite the obstacles], information technology actually takes someone who had incredible forcefulness," Rodriguez says. "The odds are actually stacked against them, simply there are miracles that happen, too."

An Opportunity for Social Work
There is reason for optimism almost the hereafter of reentry services. Several observers say sensation of the importance of reentry has increased during the past 2 decades, which has fueled the growth of services and resources aimed at formerly incarcerated individuals. This shift has been specially credible at the federal level, where there has been an influx of funding to help states and local communities provide services to support reentry through programs such as the Serious and Fierce Offender Reentry Initiative and the Second Chance Act Prisoner Reentry Initiative. Although information technology is unclear how reentry funding will fare nether the Trump administration, reentry is an upshot that has historically received bipartisan support, Garland says.

Garland adds that there have been new approaches to reentry that identify it every bit a process that should get-go when a person is incarcerated and recognize the importance of individualized services and collaboration. At that place have been some signs that this type of arroyo can be effective. For example, an evaluation of the Minnesota Comprehensive Offender Reentry Program pilot project showed that information technology improved the chances that formerly incarcerated individuals were able to obtain employment, attain housing, and receive social support in the community. It also reduced participants' take a chance of reoffending (Duwe, 2012).

Rodriguez believes social workers are well suited to serve formerly incarcerated individuals because they understand the interconnections amongst the various needs of this population. Social workers can learn many valuable lessons from the complex histories of formerly incarcerated people and have the chance to brand a pregnant impact in the lives of those they serve, she adds.

Ane of the most important things for anyone who works with formerly incarcerated people to think is that each person has unique needs and is best served when resources and programming are customized and designed in partnership with the person, says Alicia Bradley, LCPC, who works with formerly incarcerated people in Chicago. "Every person coming out should be looked at as an individual," she says. "It shouldn't be the same for everyone, because that doesn't work."

Reamer adds that social workers need to be enlightened of changes in formerly incarcerated individuals' circumstances throughout reentry and adjust services appropriately. "It'south a constant recalibration, constant titrating of what we provide," he says.

Professionals not only need to know how factors such equally trauma, age, gender, and civilization affect reentry but also deliver their services in a mode that finer responds to the touch on of these factors, Longoria-Navarro says. This can be accomplished through learning more about interventions such as trauma-responsive approaches and through collaboration with others involved in services, including law enforcement and behavioral health providers. It'due south also vital to appoint family and friends in services to provide much-needed social support to formerly incarcerated individuals, Longoria-Navarro says.

Self-reflection helps, too. Rodriguez encourages social workers to consider how their own biases may shape how they deliver services and interact with formerly incarcerated clients. "[These clients] are not their offense, and that tin be very difficult for people to understand," Rodriguez says. "People have paid their debt to club and they deserve a risk."

Debord hopes he gets more than chances every bit he continues to navigate reentry. He married in 2015 and recently started a full-time job at a telephone call center to supplement the work he does at his leather shop. He wants people to know that promoting his success and the success of formerly incarcerated individuals nationwide benefits everyone.

"[People in prison] are going to come out of prison house one twenty-four hours. They're going to exist your neighbors. And they need jobs and help. If they don't get a gamble to attempt to redeem themselves, they're going to go dorsum to what they've been doing, and that'due south non proficient," he says. "Fifty-fifty though they broke the law and got in trouble, they're all the same homo."

— Christina Reardon, MSW, LSW, is a freelance writer based in Harrisburg, PA, and an editorial advisor at Social Work Today.

References
Carson, Due east. A., & Anderson E. (2016, Dec). Prisoners in 2015. Retrieved from https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p15.pdf.

Durose, M. R., Cooper, A. D., & Snyder, H.N. (2014, April). Recidivism of prisoners released in 30 states in 2005: Patterns from 2005 to 2010. Retrieved from https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/rprts05p0510.pdf.

Duwe, G. (2012). Evaluating the Minnesota Comprehensive Offender Reentry Plan (MCORP): Results from a randomized experiment. Justice Quarterly , 29(three), 347-383.

Man Rights Watch. (2014, May). Nation backside confined: A human rights solution. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/related_material/2014_US_Nation_Behind_Bars_0.pdf.

James, N. (2015, January). Offender reentry: Correctional statistics, reintegration into the community, and recidivism. Retrieved from https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL34287.pdf.

Kaeble, D. & Glaze, L. (2016, Dec). Correctional populations in the United States, 2015. Retrieved from https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cpus15.pdf.

Office of Juvenile Justice and Malversation Prevention. (2015). Statistical briefing book: Juveniles in corrections. Retrieved from https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/corrections/qa08201.asp?qaDate=2015.

The Sentencing Project. (2017, June). Fact sheet: Trends in U.S. corrections. Retrieved from http://sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Trends-in-US-Corrections.pdf.