(Philadelphia Public Record, May 14, 2009)

OUT OF JAIL – BUT INTO WHAT?

by Tony West

Philadelphia has launched a quiet experiment to deal with one of its most troubled minorities: criminal offenders who were convicted but are now back on the streets.

On Jul. 1, 2008 Michael Nutter launched the Mayor’s Office for the Reentry of Ex-Offenders, fulfilling a campaign vow. This fledgling agency has now enrolled about 500 clients. Most of them are on probation or parole, although MOREO is not limited to this group.

“Our target population consists of individuals with significant needs who have been out of prison for less than three years,” explains MOREO Acting Director Carolyn Harper. “Research has shown this is the group most at risk of recidivism.”

The 500 persons who have been placed in this program so far are a drop in the bucket of the criminal-justice system’s huge human output. About 40,000 Philadelphians are recently released from prison – roughly one in every 30 city residents. While some are better off than others, as a group they face a sea of troubles.

“Some of their needs are housing, substance-abuse treatment, mental-health and behavioral-health treatment, literacy, medical care, anger management, family reunion and employment,” Harper details.

These are serious social needs that affect other citizens besides ex-offenders, and a host of government and private agencies provide programs to serve them. (How well these needs are met is another question.) But ex-offenders commonly emerge from behind walls with a package of several big problems at once – and no one to coordinate their service. Overwhelmed by staggering caseloads, Adult Probation & Parole Dept. officers have little time to mentor their charges.

MOREO is trying to find a way to do just that. It is a pilot program that hopes to learn how to pull together what society needs to turn ex-offenders’ lives around with a “managed reintegration network.”

It’s a mission of compassion in part, but it is chiefly driven by the brutish facts of criminal justice. Despite enormous outlays on police, courts and prisons, more than half of ex-offenders are soon rearrested – beginning the costly cycle of social harm anew. With government budgets exhausted, society literally can no longer afford not to look for new ways to wean criminals from crime.

Many ex-offenders are poorly equipped to wean themselves. About two-thirds of offenders are high-school dropouts. The bulk of their work experience (as well as their references) may be in illegal activities. And a criminal record doesn’t help push your resumé to the top of the pile in the depths of a recession. For them, day-to-day survival creates strong pressures to return to their old way of life for want of an alternative.

Jobs, therefore, lie at the top of Harper’s wish list for her clients. “People who are in a position to offer employment opportunities should consider hiring ex-offenders,” she urges, “especially when they come with wrap-around programming such as the Mayor’s Office provides.”

Mental-health issues are another major problem area. Deputy Director Rhonda Mines, who began her career in the Philadelphia Prison System, first as a guard and then as a social worker, notes a high proportion of inmates suffer from chronic mental illnesses. “While they are in prison, they are treated,” she says. “But when they are released, too often there is no pickup.” Without continuous treatment, they risk growing sick again – and repeating the behaviors that got them arrested before.

Harper began her criminal-justice career in Rev. Dr. Wilson Goode, Sr.’s nationwide Amachi program, which mentors children of prisoners. She is an official in Ready4Work: An Ex-Prisoner, Community and Faith Initiative, a public-private partnership funded by the US Depts. of Labor and Justice and the Annie E. Casey and Ford foundations. In 17 pilot projects around the nation, Ready4Work claimed to cut recidivism by 34-50% between 2003 and 2006.

Combatting recidivism is, then, something society knows more about today than it did 30 years ago, Harper says. She cites successful programs in Memphis, Chicago, New York, Jacksonville and Washington, D.C. as models.

But Philadelphia will have to develop its own answers, she insists. “We will go back and evaluate what works and what doesn’t work,” she says. “This way we can develop programs that can be expanded to serve more of the people we need to reach.”

Although MOREO’s tools are mostly social services, it is firmly fixed in the City’s criminal-justice system, reporting to Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Everett Gillison.

Sooner or later, most criminals become ex-criminals. The goal should be to make that happen sooner rather than later. “It’s important to recognize not every ex-offender is a murderer,” Harper points out.

Estimates are around 200,000 city residents have a criminal record. That’s about one out of every seven residents. If we view criminals as the enemy of society … look around. We have met the enemy, and he is us.