| Cash-strapped states from California to Maryland are releasing thousands of prisoners as they seek to trim ballooning prison budgets. But the same squeeze compelling them to free more inmates makes it tougher for those ex-convicts to start a new life, and is fueling a debate about how best to prevent them from returning to crime.
"Even in the best of times some of these prisoners don't do well when they get out," says David Pate, a social-work professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. "Now they have even greater challenges to face."
Some policy makers are pushing states to help ex-convicts assimilate. "The battle here and in other states has been whether money saved by reducing incarceration will then be reinvested into programs designed to keep people safely out of prison," says Michigan Republican state Sen. Alan Cropsey, who supports devoting more resources to counseling parolees.
The U.S. ranks as the world's incarceration leader with 2.3 million people, or 0.8% of its population, in prisons and jails. In the past two decades, tough-on-crime laws have caused state corrections budgets to more than quadruple, to $52 billion in 2008. But recidivism remains high; about two of three people freed from state prisons are rearrested in three years, according to a 2002 study by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Lately, some states have warmed to the idea that rehabilitation outside prison can be cheaper and more effective. The math on these sorts of initiatives is simple, says Adam Gelb, a public-safety specialist at the Pew Center on the States: A day in prison costs $79 on average; a day on probation costs $3.42. "States can substantially beef up supervision in the community and do it at a fraction of the cost of a prison cell," he says.
In 2009, the total state prison population actually dropped for the first time in 38 years, according to the Pew Center. California, with the largest state-prison population, enacted a law in January that is projected to reduce its prison population by as much as 6,500 this year, partly by allowing some inmates to cut more of their terms with good behavior. Oregon and Colorado have made similar moves, while Michigan and New Hampshire are considering the possibility. Others, such as Maryland, have lifted parole rates by releasing more low-risk prisoners.
The wave of releases comes as the recession has slammed labor-intensive sectors that typically hire ex-cons. The unemployment rate for construction workers, for example, was 27.1% in February, nearly three times the average for all sectors. With competition fierce, employers can afford to be picky. The U.S. Census Bureau said it won't hire most types of ex-convicts for one of the biggest drivers of job growth this year: the 2010 Census.
Beth Stevens, who has been helping felons find jobs in Riverside County, Calif., for more than two decades, says she can't recall a tougher environment. Her employer, the Riverside County Probation Department, faces budget cuts even as added releases increase its workload. "When [offenders] have no means to support themselves and no place to live, they tend to resort to their old ways," she says.
Some experts say concerns about ex-cons returning to crime are overblown. "The premise that the numbers of people released from prison affects the crime rate is wrong," says James Austin, president of the JFA Institute, a nonprofit that advises states on prison policy. Recidivism rates for California prisoners released in 2006, he says, suggest that shortening terms by four months for all eligible prisoners would boost the number of arrests by less than 1% during the year of their release.
Some states are trying to do more to monitor and help ex-cons. Michigan, which has reduced its prison population by more than 6,500 in the past three years, allocated an extra $30 million in this year's budget for measures such as 175 new parole agents, 2,000 new global-positioning system electronic monitors and beefed-up job training and counseling for parolees. In New Hampshire, legislation was introduced to authorize inmates' early release and calls for resulting savings to be reinvested in rehabilitation programs.
In most cases, though, ex-cons still get no more than a bus ticket and pocket money when they emerge from prison—and are often immediately burdened with parole fees and child-support debts.
In Baltimore, Mr. Petteway turned to the Center for Urban Families, a nonprofit that trains and supports job seekers. The center has had a good success rate finding jobs, but it's getting harder. Lenny Robinson, president of janitorial firm At Once Cleaning Services, which the center has approached, says he is worried that hiring ex-convicts might hurt relations with his clients.
"In this environment, because unemployment is so high, the employer is in the driver's seat," Mr. Robinson says. "If I have two people looking for a job and I do a background check on each, I'm going to hire the one with the clean record."
Intelligent, friendly and well-spoken, Mr. Petteway says he managed to cut his prison term in part by earning a high-school degree and some college credits in abnormal psychology. For someone who used to run his own business, the warehouse and data-processing jobs he has applied for are hardly challenging. But he says he is going to make it work for his daughters' sake.
"I want to give a positive testimony one day," he says. |
