Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

How Three States Are Beating the Prison Population Boom

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maricopa(Photo: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

New Jersey, New York, and California are the leaders in a new ranking of states that have successfully reduced their prison population.

By

Rebecca McCray is a TakePart staff writer covering criminal justice and legal issues. She is based in New York.

For years now, American prisons have seen remarkable growth that has made the U.S. the global leader in incarceration rate, with 2.2 million people in prison. The massive growth has left officials scrambling to find ways to pack more prisoners into overcrowded existing facilities, while others are experimenting with policy tweaks to save money and reduce prison populations. Now, a new analysis has ranked the states that are succeeding in doing that.

New Jersey, New York, and California took the lead in a ranking of the 34 states that reduced their populations between 1999 and 2013. The new analysis, released by criminal justice reform group The Sentencing Project, shows that as states embark on a variety of policy and practice shifts and experiments, some are seeing real—if modest—results.

The decrease in prison populations occurred alongside a steady decline in crime over the last two decades, demonstrating that states are able to simultaneously cut their prison population without impacting public safety, reform advocates say. The violent crime rate fell by more than 25 percent in each of these three states between 2006 and 2012, while fewer people were being put in prison.

While it would be nice if we could point to one state’s magic formula for success, it’s not that simple. Instead, a complex variety of economic, social, and environmental factors played intothe crime drop nationwide, according to a February study conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute. The study found that CompStat-style computer programs, which police departments use to collect crime data, have contributed to the decrease by helping the departments identify crime patterns and better focus their resources. But putting people in prison? Not so much. Less than 1 percent of the property crime decrease could be attributed to incarceration—and locking people up had a negligible impact on violent crime, according to the Brennan Center.

Peter Wagner, director of the nonpartisan think tank Prison Policy Initiative, was quick to point out that it isn’t time to pop the cork and celebrate success just yet. “New York and New Jersey still have some of the highest incarceration rates in the world,” Wagner told TakePart. “There’s a long way to go here.”

Here are a few things The Sentencing Project says the states did right:

New Jersey Tackled Its Parole Problem

After a lawsuit targeted the state’s parole board in 2001 for its lengthy backlog of parole hearings and failure to meet deadlines, parole approval rates in the state rose from 30 percent to 51 percent and have continued to rise, which means more people are being released. The introduction of drug courts has also meant that more nonviolent drug offenders are being diverted away from prisons and jails and put into alternative programs. In 2002, 1,600 drug offenders were spared from incarceration because of these programs. Drug policy reform has also played a key role in reducing the state’s incarceration rate. After reviewing its strict “drug free zone” law, the state decided to exempt low-level offenders from prosecution under the law and passed a bill to loosen mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders. These reforms reduced New Jersey’s state and federal prison population by 28.7 percent. As of 2013, there were 28,595 inmates in New Jersey’s state and federal prisons.

New York Reformed Its Rockefeller Drug Laws

New York’s Rockefeller Drug Laws, enacted in 1973, fell under close scrutiny after the prison population swelled thanks to the introduction of severe mandatory penalties for drug offenders. In 2009, then Gov. David Paterson signed a reform bill that eliminated mandatory minimum sentences in most drug cases, offered diversion to treatment programs and alternatives to prison, and permitted some people who were sentenced under the Rockefeller laws to be resentenced. The state also reduced prison admissions by shortening probation terms for low-risk offenders. These reforms reduced New York’s state and federal prison population by 26.7 percent. In 2013, there were 58,024 people in New York’s state and federal prisons.

California Heeded the Supreme Court’s Word

The dramatic drop in California’s prison population between 2010 and 2012 was driven by a 2011 Supreme Court order requiring the state to cut its prison population by 37,000 prisoners. That order resulted in a “realignment” policy, which involved the transfer of thousands of state prisoners to county jails, and the release of some offenders on probation. While county jail populations have increased as a result, The Sentencing Project said the net effect still resulted in a reduction of the incarcerated population. Since their peak in 2006, California’s state and federal prison populations have shrunk by 21.8 percent. As of 2013, there were still 152,155 people in California’s state and federal prisons.

Long Road To Project Longevity, By Charlie Grady

Posted by jgrant
Long Road To Project Longevity, By Charlie Grady
Reprinted from Prisonist.org, Apr. 11, 2015
We met Charlie Grady when he became the Bridgeport Project Manager for Project Longevity. He became a regular at the Bridgeport Reentry Roundtable and in very short order we were all enriched by his breadth of experience. – Jeff
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On a hot summer night in the year 2000 in a suburban neighborhood of Hamden, CT. A narcotics Detective sits at the kitchen table with the young man who rented the house that CT. State Police and the FBI had just raided. The house has been turned inside out during the search for heroin. Over $10,000 worth of the drugs were found tagged and bagged. The man, Freddie Williams Jr. is handcuffed and overcome by emotion as the Detective talks and he listens. Freddie begins to speak and acknowledges the drugs are his and that he knew what he was doing was wrong on many levels. After about 45 minutes the Detective is heard to say if you truly want to change, I will help you because I believe you have just turned a corner in your life right here and now.

That Detective was me and after a short court battle Freddie Williams Jr. and I took a journey together and changed his life. Today he owns his own 18 wheeler truck and several homes and travels the country. Despite being an ex-offender he has been able to be a successful example of change and I’m proud to call him my friend. As of this date I can honestly say that I have helped more people change their lives for the better than I have had to imprison due to their own life’s choices. Since Freddie, there have been countless others that I have worked with to help them be better in this life.

At 8 or 9 yrs old I saw my first dead body, a female prostitute that had been strangled with her own nylons. My father a police officer told me to stay in the car but of course I didn’t and I saw what he tried to protect me from seeing. I grew up with drug and alcohol addiction in my family like most Americans and had to always make choices on how to live my life. I was one of the fortunate ones with guidance and insight that helped me make good decisions and choices.

At 14 yrs old while hanging out with my slightly older but much “wiser in the streets” cousin. I was confronted with what is probably the most profound moment in my adolescence. “To smoke crack or Not to smoke crack”….. That was the question?? I recall literally feeling as if I were at a crossroad. I turned right and my cousin turned left. He still struggles today with his addiction and I chose to abstain. I have fought over 25 yrs keep drugs off our city streets and will continue to do so as long as I’m able.

I wasn’t poor growing up, nor did I have to struggle but I never took what I had for granted nor did I feel superior to anyone. I make it a point to treat everyone with the same degree of respect that I want in return. My father and many of my uncles were cops. Not just cops but a very special breed of cop, they were “beat cops”. Back then cops was an acceptable term all around. My father knew everyone and everyone knew his name even if they didn’t know him directly. I recall that he would deliver toys and food to families that had nothing in New Haven. I was a child but he would take me along to share in holidays with those families in the spirit of giving. To this day I’m still very close with many of those families. I had great examples of how to be a doer so that’s what I plan to always be… a doer.

I retired in 2002 from a very privileged 21 yr. law enforcement career and worked in private industry for eight years in security and investigative positions. In 2010, the US Attorney’s Office hired me to be the District of CT’s first “In house” Federal Investigator and in July 2012, I went on to become the Project Manager for Project Longevity Bridgeport. The work I do today is just a continuation of my public service. I have always recognized that I should help those less fortunate than I while I have the ability to do so. If I didn’t it would be a waste of a gift and opportunity. I have been blessed to work with an incredible group of people throughout the state and especially in Bridgeport. This city is a community that works very hard to shed any past negativity and uplift each and every resident. It is thru this positive energy and love that I receive from this special breed of people makes it easy to go to work every day and help bring about change. I will forever remain humble and know that we all need each other to survive and together we will forever overcome adversity.

“For me there is no greater feeling than believing in someone and having your belief validated” – Charlie Grady
__________

Charlie Grady is a life time resident of CT, with a very diverse background. He is a highly decorated retired police detective and federal task force agent in CT. He was awarded “Officer of the year” several times for his dedication to community affairs in CT. He also founded a youth group in the Town of Hamden in 1993 called “Highwood Youth Association” that focused on helping local youth at risk. In the mid 90’s, Mr. Grady created and hosted a local talk show called “Black & White in Focus” that dealt with race relations in CT. He is an accomplished professional film, stage, and television actor and has appeared in major motion pictures and popular television shows such as “Law & Order,” “Guiding Light,” and “All My Children.” Mr. Grady also spent many years conducting corporate investigations for a Fortune 500 company here in CT.  Most of his 27 year law enforcement career has been spent investigating violent crimes, homicides, and drug and violent gangs throughout the state and nationwide. He has also dedicated his life to educating police officers and civilians on the methods and dangers of illicit street drug trafficking, gun trafficking, as well as prescription fraud & diversion. His list of accomplishments and dedication the to community and law enforcement made him the ideal candidate to be the first US Attorney’s Senior Investigator for the District of CT. While serving in that capacity Mr. Grady was a very active participant in the US Attorney’s Community Outreach Team and helped to produce the educational film “5K Motion.” The film deals with women’s roles in gun violence among many other social issues. In 2013, Mr. Grady was chosen to head Bridgeport’s “Project Longevity” initiative. Mr. Grady continues to conduct public speaking engagements statewide on a multitude of topics based on his varied life experiences.  
To reach Charlie Grady: (203) 696-3049, cgrady@project-longevity.org

Malta Justice Chair John Santa To Be Honored At Bridgeport Child Advocacy Coalition Annual Breakfast on April 30th in Bridgeport

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Malta Justice Chair John Santa To Be Honored At Bridgeport Child Advocacy Coalition Annual Breakfast on April 30th in Bridgeport

Bridgeport – The Bridgeport Child Advocacy Coalition (BCAC) has announced that it will host its 30th annual Breakfast on Thursday, April 30th, 7:30am, at the Bridgeport Holiday Inn.

This year’s speaker is Bob Herbert, a senior fellow at the think tank Demos and the author of Losing Our Way: An Intimate Portrait of a Troubled America. Previously, Herbert was an opinion columnist for The New York Times, where he established himself as a leading voice for the working poor and middle class.

At the breakfast, which traditionally draws about 300 people, two local people will be honored: John Santa from the Malta Justice Initiative, will get the Cesear Batalla Community Service award and Fran Rabinowitz, interim superintendent of schools will get the Jan Park Child Advocacy award.

More information about the event can be found at www.bcacct.org.

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Barack Obama Commutes Sentences of 22 in Drug War Overhaul Effort

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By BYRON TAU

 President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of nearly two dozen drug offenders, including eight people who were serving life sentences, the White House said Tuesday.

The 22 people granted clemency by the president were currently serving time for offenses such as distribution of methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin. One man, Francis Hayden, was in the midst of a life sentence for conspiracy to grow more than 1,000 marijuana plants.

The White House said that changes in federal drug laws in recent years made many of the commutations a matter of basic fairness and justice.

“Had they been sentenced under current laws and policies, many of these individuals would have already served their time and paid their debt to society,” White House counsel Neil Eggleston wrote in a blog post. ”Because many were convicted under an outdated sentencing regime, they served years — in some cases more than a decade — longer than individuals convicted today of the same crime.”

Mr. Obama also took the step of writing a letter to each of the commutation recipients, encouraging them to make the most of their new freedom.

“I am granting your application because you have demonstrated the potential to turn your life around,” Mr. Obama said. “Now it is up to you to make the most of this opportunity.  It will not be easy, and you will confront many who doubt people with criminal records can change. Perhaps even you are unsure of how you will adjust to your new circumstances.”

The commutation are part of a renewed push by Mr. Obama to roll back some of the harsher aspects of the decades-long federal war on drugs.

Last year, the Obama administration announced a new clemency initiative aimed at releasing nonviolent drug offenders who have good prison records, pose no threat to public safety, and have no ties to organized crime or gangs

Mr. Obama also recently sat down for a conversation with television producer David Simon, one of the creators of HBO’s “The Wire” and a critic of the country’s drug policies.

“There is an increasing realization on the left, but also on the right, politically, that what we’re doing is counterproductive,” Mr. Obama said. “Either from a libertarian perspective, the way we treat non-violent drug crimes is problematic, and from a fiscal perspective, it’s breaking the bank.”

The president has also expressed interest in pursing a bipartisan sentencing reform, a cause that has united both progressive and conservative groups in recent years.

Conservatives, led mainly by megadonors Charles and David Koch, have joined liberal groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union to lobby Congress to overhaul sentencing and take on mandatory minimums.

Some Republicans in Congress, however, have expressed skepticism about the wisdom of criminal justice reform.  Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has been a vocal opponent of a bipartisan effort to reduce the federal prison population by eliminating mandatory minimum sentences.

“The reduction in prison populations is not really so much about cost saving as cost shifting from prison budgets to victim suffering,” Mr. Grassley said last year.

Mr. Obama’s action immediately drew praise from the advocacy group Families Against Mandatory Minimums.

“We are thrilled that President Obama is making good on his promise to use the powers granted him by the Constitution to provide relief for federal prisoners serving excessively long mandatory minimum sentences,” said Julie Stewart, president and founder of Families Against Mandatory Minimums. “We hope and expect to see more commutations granted through the end of his term.”

The news was first reported by the Huffington Post.

CT-N Video: Malta Justice Initiative/The Justice Imperative Legislative Breakfast, The Capitol, Hartford, CT, Mar. 26, 2015

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CT-N Video: Malta Justice Initiative/The Justice Imperative Legislative Breakfast, The Capitol, Hartford, CT, Mar. 26, 2015

CT-N Video of Malta Justice Initiative Legislative Breakfast

 

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Jailing teens criminalizes them

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 This piece was posted last August 2014. But I was struck at how little progress has been made in this effort. And yet progress has been made. So I am asking… what are we doing? Babz Rawls Ivy, Online Editor and Content Curator.

Gratuitous cruelty in jails and prisons raises the question, Why are young people incarcerated in the first place?

6August 25, 2014 6:00AM ET

The blows rained down on the four teens as the officers swarmed over them, attacking them with batons, broomsticks, even their radios. After leaving the boys with head trauma and chest contusions, the officers later reported that they had been attacked, suggesting the response was justified. This was, after all, a place full of dangerous people: New York’s Rikers Island jail, where there are no children — just inmates.

It was one of the many scenes recounted in a disturbing new report by the Department of Justice (PDF). The documentation of brutality against detained youths forms a backdrop to the media images of police clashes that have emerged from Staten Island, New York, to St. Louis — where two cases of black men dying at the hands of police have recently highlighted a grim pattern. Rikers represents the nadir of the “broken windows” style of law enforcement — the tough-on-crime method of cracking down on smaller violations, such as vandalism, in order to prevent more serious social disorder. That approach, fraught with racial bias and prone to excessive police aggression, starts on the streets of poor urban neighborhoods and leads all the way to the jail cells where state-sanctioned violence and official impunity conspire to produce, as the investigators put it, “broken people.”

The city has begun responding to the report with the departure of the Department of Correction’s top investigator, along with promises to reform the facility’s management. But administrative tweaks won’t resolve the injustice at the core of Rikers; the only way to fix it is to dismantle the system from top to bottom.

The study focused on Rikers’ population of 16- and 17-year olds, who are housed in separate units alongside the massive adult detainee population. New York is one of only two states (along with North Carolina) where 16- and 17-year-olds are criminally charged as adults (PDF). Since Rikers primarily holds people awaiting trial, three-quarters of its detainees have not been convicted. Yet its roughly 500 youth inmates, largely black and Latino young men, are criminalized from the moment they set foot inside and, as the report documents, face gratuitous cruelty, imposed in the name of maintaining “order.”

Orwellian tactics

The abuses described in the report border on obscene. Vicious beatings, pervasive intimidation and weeks or months spent in punitive isolation cells known as the box.

Dogged by reports of extreme violence among both staff and inmates, correction officers have argued that the staff is overstressed and that youths are instigating violence. While it’s true that this is considered a hard-to-manage population — many of these teenagers have mental health issues or have experienced violent trauma — the staff behavior documented in the report is not only excessive but unconscionable.

According to the report, some staff have forced teens to “strip down to their underpants and walk down the dormitory hallway … when they misbehave.” Some retaliated against kids by physically battering them or tormenting them by spitting in their food or throwing out their belongings.

The investigation found that officers — far from acting merely in self-defense — often deliberately provoked and escalated confrontations rather than trying to deter violence.

The oppression is enforced by Orwellian tactics. After brutalizing a child, according to the report, “staff often yell ‘stop resisting’ even though the adolescent has been completely subdued or, in many instances, was never resisting in the first place,” to falsely portray the child as the aggressor.

Many of these youths come from backgrounds of trauma and instability. Why shunt them to a place designed to break them even further?

Staff were often inexperienced and inadequately trained to deal with troubled youths. Constant turnover exacerbated the volatile environment for staff and inmates alike. During the last term of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, according to The New York Times, reports of staff violence against detainees nearly doubled even as the population shrank. Amid the abuse scandals and widespread political pressure for reform, correction authorities sought to revamp training and reduce violence, but the efforts have been hobbling and piecemeal.

Meanwhile, the portion of inmates diagnosed with mental illness (PDF) now amounts to about half of the youth population. The rates are higher among the population in solitary confinement, which included 15 to 25 percent of imprisoned youths in 2013. Under New York City’s jurisdiction, Rikers maintains punitive isolation for children and adults, though state prisons across New York have banned the practice for minors and other vulnerable populations, and human rights groups have universally condemned it as a form of torture.

The Justice Department has recommended numerous reforms, including stronger oversight, accountability measures and specialized training for correction officers and administrators, and even a separate facility with specialized youth services.

But Rikers can’t be fixed merely with more discipline or oversight. The institutional breakdown of the jail must be traced back to the question of why those kids are in there in the first place — because they shouldn’t be.

Alternative methods

As a first step toward dismantling the excessively punitive criminal justice system, lawmakers can reform the legal structure so that 16- and 17-year-olds, at least, are treated as children, not adults. Providing children with adequate legal representation would also help ensure that they are not jailed just because they cannot afford bail or are unfairly deemed a flight risk. Instead of jail cells, the city can build on proven alternative-to-incarceration initiatives by placing youths awaiting trial under supervision — with supportive social programs — within their communities.

Even when youths are convicted of a crime, research tells us that rehabilitative approaches are superior to the wholesale cruelty meted out by conventional prisons. Alternative programs that focus on holistic social services can help stabilize young people’s home lives and provide long-term support without further traumatizing them with incarceration. Court systems across New York State have launched alternative judicial institutions, such as mental health courts, drug treatment courts and so-called diversion programs for adolescents, which provide them with community-based behavioral or group therapy.

Warehousing someone in a city jail can cost more than $165,000 annually. Preventive programs not only save taxpayer money but also enable young people to stay connected with and contribute to their families, schools and communities, which in turn could help reduce the high rates of recidivism that plague youths caught up in the current system.

Many of these youths come from backgrounds of trauma and instability. Why shunt them to a place designed to break them even further? The walls at Rikers stretch well beyond the island. They reach into county courtrooms, through the ravaged streets of Chicago and into the rioting suburb of Ferguson, Missouri. These sharp social divides are all staked on a false premise of security. The opacity of the prison system blinds us to the youths on the inside. Yet when our most vulnerable are under siege, we’ll never see real public safety; true security comes through empathy and moral clarity.

Michelle Chen is a contributing editor at In These Times, an associate editor at CultureStrike and a blogger at The Nation. She is a co-producer of “Asia Pacific Forum” on Pacifica’s WBAI and Dissent magazine’s Belabored podcast. She studies history at the City University of New York Graduate Center.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera America’s editorial policy.

The National Hire Ex-Felons Campaign, By Bob Pelshaw

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The National Hire Ex-Felons Campaign, By Bob Pelshaw

Reprinted from prisonist.org

The Relationship Between Felons – Jobs – Employers – Crime
As an employer I never thought about this issue until becoming a convicted felon myself. I served ten months at Leavenworth Federal Prison Camp for a mistake nearly all businessmen have done: I “robbed Peter to pay Paul” in the height of the Great Recession. I’m not justifying it, and I didn’t intend to commit a crime. Don’t worry, I didn’t rob anyone, there was no theft, Ponzi scheme, conspiracy, fraud, or anything as exotic as that. I was convicted of making a false statement by temporarily, and stupidly, misusing SBA loan funds. The project opened and all the loan funds got to the venture, but it regrettably failed and I defaulted on the loan. Before sentencing I was often told that if I could pay the debt the charges would go away. My lack of money created the situation that got me labeled as a convicted felon.

While at Leavenworth I was surprised to learn how many men committed crime for economic reasons like basic survival, family support, or the lucrative earnings. “Common sense” tells us many ex-felons return to crime to support themselves when they can’t find a job with a livable wage.

Could employers not hiring felons be contributing to higher crime and recidivism rates?

Many people could leave crime forever if employers would consider hiring ex-felons. For those ex-offenders and persons at risk to offend that can’t find a job,  I point them to my book “Illegal To Legal: Business Success For (Ex) Criminals” which shows how to use life skills to start a business and become an employer hiring ex-felons.

The National Campaign To Hire Ex-Felons will launch this Spring. It seeks to educate employers and hiring managers on the free Protections, Resources, and Substantial Bottom-Line Benefits that are available when they hire ex-felons. The brochure “The Ten Bottom-Line Benefits To Hire Ex-Felons” is the bedrock of this Campaign, and is included below. Its also a free download, or brochure purchase, at www.illegaltolegal.org on the Job Resources page. Please share this information, and look for the launch of the Campaign!

Ten Bottom-Line Benefits To Hire Ex-Felons
We don’t want to appeal to your humanitarian side and play the “everyone deserves a second chance” card. Instead, here are ten fact-based bottom-line benefits of hiring felons.

1. Show me the money! Substantial tax credits are available for hiring felons, and the programs are very easy to use without a lot of red tape. Check this site for the Federal Work Opportunity Tax Credit www.doleta.gov/wotc. Some states even provide partial wage reimbursement, additional tax credits, and other training funds for employers that hire felons. Check your local state’s Department of Revenue and Workforce Development Office for programs where you live.

2. I need some assurances. How about some free insurance for you? Employers that hire felons can be eligible to obtain a free fidelity bond funded by the Federal Government to protect you against employee dishonesty or theft. Look for the contact in your state at www.bonds4jobs.com. More importantly, credible studies clearly indicate that ex-felons out of prison seven years or more have no higher rate of committing a crime than non-felons.

3. Does that come with a guarantee? Yep – especially if someone is on probation. Ex-offenders on probation often have to keep a job and perform well at work as a condition of their release from prison. Most parolees are drug-tested by their probation officer or halfway house regularly at no expense to you. Most parole officers and halfway houses welcome contact with employers of supervised felons, and they will even refer you more workers if you let them know the type of person you want to hire. A parole officer supervising a felon you employ = added value at no cost to you!

4. What’s the turnover rate? Due to the scarcity of employers that hire felons, many employers that hire felons have surprisingly lower turnover than with conventional hires. As mentioned, parole officers and halfway houses can be a great source of new workers – without the expense and trouble of placing an ad or paying a staffing agency.

5. When’s the last time you felt appreciated? It’s not just rescued dogs from the animal shelter that show loyalty and appreciation: so do most felons you hire. Isn’t a human better than a dog?

6. I can’t seem to find good help. That’s because you haven’t tried hiring felons. Considering them will enlarge the labor pool you can draw from.

7. Don’t contribute to higher crime & recidivism rates. Many ex-offenders return to crime (& jail) because they can’t find a job to support themselves or their families. Please consider that employers that refuse to hire felons may actually be contributing to higher crime and recidivism.

8. Good workers are in short supply and recidivism costs everyone. You have a unique opportunity to be on the solution end of this persistent and expensive cycle.

9. Everybody DOES NOT deserve a second chance – but some do.   Those who deserve a second chance are the ones that will demonstrate, not just with words but with their actions that they are sorry for their past mistakes and can prove that their past is in the past. Who wouldn’t want to help that person?

10. What difference can I make? More than you think. Look at the costs of housing one inmate per year, compared to the economic impact of having one more productive tax-paying citizen spending money in our economy (instead of draining costs from it), and you can see hiring ex-offenders makes a HUGE difference. You can help strengthen our economy and impact crime and recidivism by hiring a felon.

Here’s how to help improve Crime, Recidivism, the Costs of Incarceration, and a Lack of Good Workers. Be part of the solution and HIRE A FELON !

Bob Pelshaw can be reached at Pelshaw Group, PO Box 460671 Papillion, NE 68046, (o) 402-932-7777
(m) 402-401-9523, info@illegaltolegal.org,
Facebook, www.facebook.com/illegaltolegal, Twitter: @Illegaltolegal. Link to order Bob’s book, Illegal to Legal: Business Success For (ex) Criminals.”

Criminal Justice & Corrections System in Connecticut at Western Connecticut State University

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Western Connecticut State University: The Justice & Law Club presents
CRIMINAL JUSTICE & CORRECTIONS SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT: A TWO-PART SERIES

Couldn’t Keep it to Myself: Testimonies from our Imprisoned Sisters
Tuesday, March 31, 5:30 p.m. Westside Classroom Building 218

The Justice Imperative: How Hyper-Incarceration Has Hijacked the American Dream
Wednesday, April 1, 5:30 p.m. Westside Campus Center Ballroom

'Western Connecticut State University: The Justice & Law Club presents<br /> CRIMINAL JUSTICE & CORRECTIONS SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT: A TWO-PART SERIES</p> <p>Couldn't Keep it to Myself: Testimonies from our Imprisoned Sisters<br /> Tuesday, March 31, 5:30 p.m. Westside Classroom Building 218</p> <p>The Justice Imperative: How Hyper-Incarceration Has Hijacked the American Dream<br /> Wednesday, April 1, 5:30 p.m. Westside Campus Center Ballroom'
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Churches & Prison Ministry: There’s nobody like that in my church! By Rev. Dr. Harold Dean Trulear

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Churches & Prison Ministry: There’s nobody like that in my church!
By Rev. Dr. Harold Dean Trulear
Reprinted from prisonist.org, Mar. 23, 2015
Harold Dean Trulear and the Healing Communities team will be holding a workshop on Sat., March 28th, 9 am – 3 pm at the Holiday Inn, Bridgeport, CT. For info & tickets, contact: Rev. Aaron Best (203) 870-5914. Dr. Trulear and I will both be giving workshops on May 29th at this year’s Correctional Ministries & Chaplains Assn. Summit, Wheaton College, IL. – Jeff
___________ 
“So far, so good…”The sentiment echoed in the back of my mind constantly, as I surveyed the faces of others on my cell block. I felt enough shame for being a Christian in the jail. The fact that I had once pastored one of the largest churches in the county compounded the shame, and drove me to a suspicion of every other inmate as I tried to avoid an embarrassing encounter with someone who knew me.It came crashing to a halt with one word. “Pastor.”

I told the inquiring young man I did not know what he meant. The inquisition, however, had just begun.

“I used to play drums for your choir.” I did not recognize him until he told me his mother’s name. She had been on my staff.

“I am so glad you’re here!” That made one of us.

“I told God that I wanted this experience to be a changing point in my life…and if that was to happen, he needed to send someone to guide me. Now here you are!”

I do not for a second believe God sent me to jail for any reason other than to save my life. But the young man’s sentiment reflected two realities: first, that there are inmates who want to and will change if they have relationships with someone who believes in them and second, that there are a number of incarcerated people who are already connected to houses of worship.

“There’s nobody like that in my church!” So respond more than a few Christians and church leaders when I explain to them that our ministry, Healing Communities, helps congregations minister to their own members affected by incarceration.

“We already have a prison ministry!” I often receive that response when I talk about how we need to connect our congregations with the prison populations.

Both responses reflect flawed thinking.

In the first case, it is virtually mathematically impossible for a congregation to be completely disconnected from the system of jails and prisons in our country. With over a million and a half men and women in state and federal prison, and another seven million churning through county jails annually, the odds are infinitesimal that a congregation does not have a family with an incarcerated son, daughter, grandchild or parent behind bars. While in the county jail, I met seven young men with connections to my former church. Had they been in the hospital, they would have received attention from the church as a whole. As prisoners, their religious support came from a handful of volunteers from another congregation.

This leads to the second flaw: if Matthew 25 lists both prisoners and sick people why does one group get pastoral and community support, while the other is only a matter of specialized outreach? Indeed, not only do we have men, women and teens with church connections already on the system, but their family members come to church Sabbath after Sabbath suffering with the shame and stigma of the secret: “my son/daughter/grandchild/etc. is locked up.”

Healing Communities USA seeks to equip congregations to engage the prison population by beginning with the families in the church directly impacted by incarceration. We believe that the stigma and shame associated with prison and jail deter families from seeking the support they need in dealing with the pain of separation, sense of loss and/or betrayal, and changes to family dynamics caused by incarceration. By helping congregations create a culture of forgiveness, restoration and redemption, we can support people like the young man I encountered in my county jail, and support his family through the process of his and their ordeal. By engaging the real life experiences of inmates and their families, mass incarceration changes from a public issue “out there” to an amalgam of personal trials “in here.” When we recognize that this reality is before us, we enhance our capacity to become advocates for system and policy change.

When preaching, I often do altar calls for families of the incarcerated. Many pastors show surprise at the numbers who come forward. Many members exhibit a new found empathy toward persons they know, but “did not know that” about them. “Never again,” declared one pastor from his vaunted pulpit, “will a mother from this church have to endure the pain of her son’s incarceration by herself.” And as they walk with her, her son, and others in the congregation, their ministry of advocacy concerning mass incarceration grows, because now, it is personal.

Harold Dean Trulear serves as Associate Professor of Applied Theology at Howard University School of Divinity. He is also National Director of the Healing Communities USA Prison and Prisoner Reentry Ministry. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Morehouse College, he completed his Ph.D. Degree with distinction at Drew University. He also serves as a Fellow at the Center for Public Justice in Washington DC, and is a member of the Executive Session on Community Corrections at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.Dr. Trulear serves on the pastoral staff of Praise and Glory Tabernacle in Southwest Philadelphia, and has served in pastoral and youth ministries in Pennsylvania and New Jersey for close to forty years. His columns and features on religion and criminal justice have appeared in The Crime Report of John Jay School of Criminal Justice, Prism Magazine, The Living Pulpit and The Capital Commentary, and he has written over one hundred scholarly articles, book chapters, field reports and book reviews. He is a contributing editor to: Ministry with Prisoners and Families: The Way Forward (Judson Press, 2011), George Kelsey: Unsung Hero (Andover Newton Theological School, 1996).Named by the Center for American Progress as one of fourteen Faith Leaders to Watch in 2014, Dr. Trulear has helped to organize chapters of Healing Communities USA in over thirty cities across the country, and in partnership with several denominations.

He can be reached at hdtrulear@msn.com, (202) 806-0640

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