Re-entry Failure … Again

How important is reintegration of a released felon to the community? Politicians and social science researchers will tell you it’s the single most important issue facing the criminal justice system. Over ninety percent of the men and women who end up behind bars find their way back to their communities. Even as crime rates have decreased over the past twenty years, the number imprisoned have steadily risen. The cost to house an inmate in prison continues to dramatically increase as well. Re-entry, the success or failure of a released felon returning to society, matters.

            

Why then is it such a failure in here? The Governor announced his re-entry initiative with much fanfare at the beginning of his term. Millions were set aside for the program. Ten facilities were labeled as “re-entry centers.” Cognitive counselors were employed; “productive citizenship” curricula designed; computer programs installed to test and measure each offender’s risk of recidivism. And the result? Two thumbs down.

            

Like much about the Governor’s term, his re-entry initiative looked a lot better on paper on day one than in reality with less than six months remaining in his term, a term that is now defined by corruption and scandal and a Governor trying to survive the remainder of his term without being indicted.

            The “hole” here is in “7” building. The officers refer to it as “Building 3c.” See, the re-entry building, the one with 180 guys within eight months of release, is in 3 building (both A side and side B). Every week there are brawls in 3 building; drug use – not just weed, but crack, and heroin, and pills, - is rampant. There is wine making and cigarettes, extortion, gang attacks, and female officers being “gunned.”

            

They haul them out four and five at a time, throw them in solitary for ten, twenty, even thirty days. Then, it’s back to “3” building. Why? Because every incarcerated offender (except the college students) must go through the “cognitive community.”

            

The problems with re-entry programming are clear. Unfortunately, DOC like most bureaucracies, is slow to admit problems, and even slower to adapt. Unless change comes and comes quickly this Governor’s re-entry initiative will be added to the pile of failed prison initiatives that has plagued the commonwealth since Governor Allen sold the voters a snake oil called parole abolishment.

            

First, there is no incentive for guys in “3” building to pro-actively participate. You get down to eight months and screw up and they yank what little bit of good time they give you and guess what – you spend an extra twenty to thirty days here. Model inmates earn a max of 4.5 days per month (54 days a year). Screw up and you earn none. But, your sentence stills runs and you still get released. You want men and women behind bars to be motivated to participate in re-entry programs? Change Virginia’s good time earning process. Make it possible to substantially shorten your sentence by working, training, and participating in programs from day one. Then when you get to your last eight months you can have a lot to lose: all that accumulated good time.

            

Second, for guys who screw up; ship them off this compound even if they’re in re-entry. Prison sucks, but compared to the violence and filth at higher levels, this is relatively easy time. Guys who aren’t in re-entry and are caught sexually harassing female officers see their security level rise and they soon are moved to a level 3 or level 4 facility. The same rule should apply for re-entry residents. You want to masturbate in front of a female officer; you should get tagged as a “sex offender” and shipped.

            

Third, the folks running the programs have to come from a world outside of DOC. The head of the re-entry program here is an overweight blowhard named “Lewis.” He’ll tell guys anything they want to hear, then he sneaks back to his office and fires off memo after poorly worded memo directly contradicting himself. Prison is an environment where trust is hard to build. It is even worse when the folks tasked with re-integrating offenders to society repeatedly lie.

            

And, why aren’t those staff members held accountable for the nonsense going on under their noses? Lewis and his staff would be let go for the pitiful results resonating out of 3 building if this was a profit or loss operation. Instead, they walk the grounds of this Shangri la without a care in the world.

            

Finally, as I have harped on in a number of blogs, offenders don’t need touchy-feely “cognitive community” programs. They need real treatment programs to address alcohol and drug addiction problems. There has to be real work and life skills training including basic financial literacy training.

            

One billion dollars annually. That’s what the commonwealth spends on corrections. And while the crime rate comes down, the incarceration rate goes up. Worse, the recidivism rate doesn’t change.

            

Governor McDonnell correctly saw the need for change in this broken, life-destroying system. He lacked the political courage needed to radically transform the process. His is just another in a series of failed attempts at breaking the cycle of recidivism.

            

When will it finally be fixed? Only when enough politicians are willing to speak the truth to voters. Things inside the walls must change.