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Reentry/Rehabilitation

Your Ideas on Prison/Reentry Needed by Candidate for Georgia Governor

 

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Yesterday, we were approached at our movable art display, voter registration and information kiosk in Washington, DC by a policy advisor for a reputable candidate for governor in the state of Georgia. He wants to create a platform for his candidate that will incorporate realistic ideas for prison and re-entry improvements. If you have any ideas for him, please send them to us and we will pass them along. He particularly wants to hear from people who have had experience with the prison system/re-entry process in Georgia. Please email us at [email protected]  

 

"The Safe Streets Arts Foundation, incorporating both the Prisons Foundation and the Victims Foundation, is proud to sponsor the annual From-Prison-to-The-Stage Show at the Kennedy Center and the Prison Art Gallery at 1600 K Street. NW, Suite 501, Washington, DC, three blocks from the White House."

witherspoon 

 

Senate Passes Second Chance Act, Awaits President's Signature

[Courtesy of The Sentencing Project]

Dear Friends,
     

     The Senate passed the Second Chance Act of 2007 late Tuesday, which will ease the re-entry process for individuals leaving prison by providing funding for prisoner mentoring programs, job training and rehabilitative treatment. The legislation, introduced in the Senate by Sens. Joseph Biden (D-DE), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Sam Brownback (R-KS), now awaits approval by President Bush - who in his 2004 State of the Union address advocated for a $300 million Prisoner Re-entry Initiative.  

     The legislation was passed by a voice vote after the Senate adopted a concurrent resolution, H Con Res 270, which included minor changes to the measure. The U.S. House of Representatives voted 347 to 62 to pass the Second Chance Act of 2007 in November.

     The Second Chance Act will help provide necessary services to the nearly 700,000 people leaving prison each year by increasing funding designed to protect public safety and reduce recidivism rates. The bill's provisions authorize $362 million to expand assistance for people currently incarcerated, those returning to their communities after incarceration, and children with parents in prison. The services to be funded under the bill include:

  • mentoring programs for adults and juveniles leaving prison;
  • drug treatment during and after incarceration, including family-based treatment for incarcerated parents;
  • education and job training in prison;
  • alternatives to incarceration for parents convicted of non-violent drug offenses;
  • supportive programming for children of incarcerated parents; and early release for certain elderly prisoners convicted of non-violent offenses.

     The reform bill was widely supported by civil rights, criminal justice, law enforcement and religious organizations and had broad bipartisan support in both the Senate and House of Representatives.

Reception and Screening of "Hard Road Home"

The Prison Art Gallery invites you to a reception and screening of "Hard Road Home," a new documentary about the Exodus Transitional Community prisoner reentry program. Our own music ambassador Dennis Sobin will be performing classical and jazz guitar.

Prisoner Re-Entry: New Mexico Becomes Second State to "Ban the Box;" New Law Bans Criminal History Query on Public Job Applications

Gov. Bill Richardson (D) Monday signed into law a bill that removes one obstacle to employment for people with criminal convictions. The bill, SB 254, the Consideration of Crime Convictions for Jobs bill, will remove the question of public job applications about whether a person has been convicted of a felony, leaving such questions for the interview stage of the hiring process. The bill applies to job application for state, local, or federal public jobs. It does not apply to private sector employers. It passed the Senate 35-4 and the House 54-14. Known as "ban the box," such bills are designed to allow ex-convicts a better opportunity to re-enter the job market. Having a job is a key means of reducing recidivism. The measure passed the Senate 35-4 and the House 54-14. New Mexico now becomes the second state to pass such legislation. Minnesota passed a similar measure in 2009. Some cities, including Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, and San Francisco have passed similar measures as well. "Lots of young people - and old people, too - have that one stupid mistake they made years ago," said Republican Sen. Clint Harden, a former state labor secretary who sponsored the bill. The bill gives them a chance to explain before they are shut out of the hiring process: "Yeah, I had a felony when I was 22, I got caught for possession with intent, I did probation, that was 15 years ago, and I don't do drugs now and yadda yadda," he told the Associated Press late last month. "We thank Gov. Richardson for signing the 'ban the box' bill," said Julie Roberts, acting state director of Drug Policy Alliance New Mexico. "The governor and the New Mexico legislature affirmed their support for people with convictions to be given this opportunity for a second chance. This bill will make our communities safer and keep families together by providing job opportunities to people who need them most." One in five Americans has a criminal record, and Roberts is one of them. She had a drug bust at age 18. "Since then, I've gone to college, I have had internships, I haven't been in trouble for eight years but I still have to check the box," she said. "There's a lot of people like me. This new law will allow individuals who are qualified for a position the chance to get their foot in the door," she said. "As a person with a criminal conviction, this law will not only help me, but others around the state who made a mistake years ago and are now rebuilding their lives." In addition to the Drug Policy Alliance, the bill was supported by the New Mexico Conference of Churches, the Lutheran Advocacy Ministry of New Mexico, the New Mexico Public Health Association, the Women's Justice Project, and Somos Un Pueblo Unido.

Texas Cop Says "Put Addicts in Jail Where They Belong"

Usually, drug warriors at least pay lip service to the idea that we're supposed to be helping people recover from addiction. Drug war supporters frequently feign compassion by touting their support for drug treatment, all the while defending policies that trash the lives of users and make recovery that much harder.

But today, I found a drug warrior that's willing to say what the rest are probably thinking. His name is Wayne C. Williams and he's been putting drug users in jail for 32 years. Williams was so disturbed by an op-ed from former cop/drug policy reformer Howard Wooldridge that he wrote a crazy letter to the Amarillo Globe News complaining that drug addicts don't get punished enough:
Too many people use rehabilitation as a way to stay out of jail or prison.

A person hooked on drugs won't get clean for his family, but only when he hits rock bottom and wants help for himself.

Put addicts in jail where they belong and ease up on the probation, which usually is a joke in itself. [Amarillo.com]
Rarely does one find the sheer cruelty of the drug war expressed with such unabashed self-righteousness. This man is literally insisting that we must smash victims of drug addiction in order to demonstrate the harms of drug use. It just tells you everything you need to know about the drug war and the people who carry it out on a daily basis.

In the war on drugs, one can be diagnosed with the disease of drug addiction merely by being found in possession of drugs. At that point, one is then broken down and stripped of their family and property. They are removed from their job and their home, banished into a dark brutal hole amongst violent thugs and sociopaths, and once every last thing they have has been taken away, they are asked to start acting normal.

It's really a perfect mess as far as public policies go, which is why it's so damned hard to find a defender of the drug war who isn't paid to participate in it.

Charlie Rangel on Reentry, Crack Cocaine Sentencing and the Vote

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), a one-time drug warrior, made brief remarks on the floor of the US House of Representatives relating to criminal justice, including his support for the Second Chance Act (measures to help people coming out of prison to reenter society successfully) and for restoring the vote to people with past felony convictions, and his sponsorship of H.R. 460 to eliminate the harsher treatment that people convicted for crack cocaine offenses currently receive under the law relative to other cocaine offenses (along with other remarks that don't directly relate to drug policy). (Click here to write your US Representative in support of H.R. 460.) Nothing too huge here, but of interest, and good to see that the chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee is focused on things like this.
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