Janis Joplin many times sang the mournful lyrics “Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose” back in the ‘60s, and well she knew the cost of freedom. It was in the price of what she gave up…not what anyone took. She never really had freedom, despite her fame and convoluted fortune, and that’s what she was saying. I know this because my business partner at the time was her best friend, and she was with her until the end.
The Cost Of Freedom Blog is about how we’ve all lost our freedom by our collective choice of attitude. We might be free to drive around and do a lot of things freely, but few people seem to know how much we’ve given up to be “free,” and what that’s costing them…and us as a society. Our prisons and jails are full of people who know the pain of that lost freedom, but the fact is few of them had it to begin with. The same is true to a less dramatic but no less impactful way about many of the rest of us who live in prisons of a different kind.
But it’s not just that, by any means. It’s much more positive than that. It’s about how we take steps to get that freedom back…again by our choice of attitude, and by our willingness to tell the truth and be accountable for our thoughts, words and actions––how we learn to respect one another, and our individual cultures, gender and personal circumstances.
The photo above depicts freedom to me, both in an energetic, visual sense, and in a more personal sense. I twice flew a light plane over that bridge, once when it was enshrouded in thick fog and only a few skyscrapers (literally) poked through the layers of Walt Disney clouds, and again later on in her famous “golden glow” at sunset. Many years later, I stood under her with a group of my closest friends celebrating a breakthrough moment in my life. I had just addressed a luncheon of the members of the San Francisco Yacht Club on the subject of the meaning and true value of personal freedom, as one who served 2 1/2 years in federal prison, and whose federal prosecutor later wrote the Foreword to a book I authored. Behind me in the distance as I spoke to this esteemed body of accomplished people…was Alcatraz.
This Blog Site is about Personal Freedom, and I’d like to focus on those who have done time on either side of the fences and walls. It is my desire to explore ways and exchange ideas and principles of understanding how we create a better, more effective and truly correctional system of criminal justice. If we can make even a 15% positive change, the impact on society overall will be huge. Imagine what it could be like if we could make that 50%. We can. We just have to think…and act…differently. I know, “easier said than done”…but we have to start somewhere. Why not start with ourselves?
It was Christmas in prison And the food was real good We had turkey and pistols Carved out of wood And I dream of her always Even when I dont dream Her names on my tongue And her bloods in my stream.
Chorus: Wait awhile eternity Old mother natures got nothing on me Come to me Run to me Come to me, now Were rolling My sweetheart Were flowing By god!
She reminds me of a chess game With someone I admire Or a picnic in the rain After a prairie fire Her heart is as big As this whole goddamn jail And shes sweeter than saccharine At a drug store sale.
Chorus:
The search light in the big yard Swings round with the gun And spotlights the snowflakes Like the dust in the sun Its Christmas in prison There'll be music tonight Ill probably get homesick I love you. goodnight.
The Oklahoma Department of Corrections provides public safety by not only ensuring secure confinement but by delivering evidenced-based treatment, education and an array of re-entry services for those returning to communities from confinement. Evidenced-based supervision and services are also provided for those under community supervision. Investment in Oklahoma’s most valuable asset, its citizens, is as paramount an investment as infrastructure such as bridges and roads.
The state has achieved outstanding results with its approach to re-entry. The Bill Johnson Correctional Center in Alva is a prison-based drug treatment therapeutic community that received the American Correctional Association’s prestigious Exemplary Offender Program Award. Offenders who graduate from the program have an amazing 85% survival rate once they return home. There have been 14,341 offenders sentenced to the Community Sentencing Program since its inception in March 2000. The survival rate of graduates is 88%, which is one of the best rates of any community-based alternative program in the country.
Oklahoma discharges over 8,000 prisoners from its prison system each year and has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the nation at 27.8 percent. Their efforts to reduce recidivism are an enhancement to public safety by providing a returning citizen who will remain crime free, thereby reducing future victimization. At an over 70% success rate, that means that over 6,000 prisoners per year are being released that will not return to the prison system. Even though prevention is always a better investment in addressing social illnesses such as substance abuse and a multitude of other contributors to crime, successful re-entry to communities is an investment that pays dividends to many aspects of our communities to include the No. 1 service — public safety.
After reading Don's post on "You Matter", it is only natural that I follow up with this landmark short film called "Validation". An amazing and inspiring short film about the importance of acknowledging and validating people, this film is much needed pick-me-up that will inspire you during the holiday season and afterward.
This 16 minute short film shows the magic of looking for the best in people. Validation, has played at 34 film festivals worldwide and won 17 awards. A list of the awards that this inspiring short film has won:
Winner - Best Narrative Short, Cleveland Int'l Film Festival
Winner - Jury Award, Gen Art Chicago Film Festival
Winner - Audience Award, Hawaii Int'l Film Festival
Winner - Best Short Comedy, Breckenridge Festival of Film
Winner - Crystal Heart Award
Best Short Film & Audience Award, Heartland Film Festival
When I recently addressed a large audience of inmates in a Tennessee prison, I began with the question, "Why am I here?" I paused for a few moments while everyone shifted in their seats and stopped side chatter long enough to wonder what this "smart-ass white boy" could possibly have to say to them. I looked out over the 400-some faces of men that could just as easily have been classmates of mine in school at a different time, or co-workers in the many different jobs I've had over several decades, and instead of looking at a bunch of orange-clad misfits and gladiator types, I saw in their faces a cross-section of America's men...all brothers, fathers, sons, uncles and even grandfathers of someone on the outside.
"Because you matter," I said. "Everyone of you sitting here in this room matters to someone on the outside, and if you're on the planet and breathing, you matter in some way to everyone else here." A silence fell across the cavernous cinderblock room with its steel cell doors that was poetically deafening. All ears and eyes were focused on what I had to say, and by the time I was finished they were on their feet, cheering.
Whether one is in prison of concrete and steel, or of the human mind and emotions, it's just the same: we all matter, and even though that may seem a little daunting to imagine that three billion people on this planet all matter...we do. We all have an impact on others, and eventually what we do, say and even think about ourselves and one another affects the world in some way. We will never know the good that we can do for the world by positively impacting even one other person, who may go on to positively impact thousands. Consider two men in South African prisons in the last century who were scorned and derided and treated as if they couldn't possibly matter to anyone in the world. One was Negro and the other Caucasian. The first was Nelson Mandela and the second Gandhi.
Stop and think for a minute before you consider anyone else being of little importance, and then think about yourself. You never know what that person might be capable of achieving, nor will they know what you are capable of doing or becoming. We all matter, or we wouldn't be here. Treat everyone with just that much regard, and we may live to see the day when the spirit of people like Mandela and Gandhi will be the rule, rather than the exception. Just remember: You matter. And so does everyone else. Everyone else.
Work Opportunity Tax Credit. The Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC), authorized by the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996 (P. L. 104-188), is a federal tax credit that encourages employers to hire eight targeted groups of job seekers by reducing employers’ federal income tax liability by as much as $2,400 per qualified new worker; $750, if working 120 hours, or $1,200 if working 400 hours or more, per qualified summer youth. Employers can learn which new hires may qualify, find brochures, download IRS and ETA forms necessary to participate and find instructions at the U.S. Department of Labor or call 1.800.669.9271.
National H.I.R.E. Network. Established by the Legal Action Center, the National Helping Individuals with Criminal Records Re-enter through Employment Network is both a national clearinghouse for information and an advocate for policy change. The goal of the National H.I.R.E. Network is to increase the number and quality of job opportunities available to people with criminal records by changing public policies, employment practices and public opinion. The National H.I.R.E. Network also provides training and technical assistance to agencies working to improve the employment prospects for people with criminal records.
Transitional Jobs. Meaningful work sets the stage for financial independence and career growth. Many individuals with barriers to work remain unemployed despite attempts to work because they have been unable to find and keep a job on their own. The National Transitional Jobs Network programs assist these individuals in gaining permanent jobs. By working in a subsidized, transitional job for three to twelve months, they earn a paycheck, learn technical skills for higher wage jobs, become eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit, and receive intensive mentoring and support. This transitional job is the first step toward permanent employment and economic opportunity.
As a retired vocational rehab counselor and long-time friend and associate of Don Kirchner, I am here to help those who are seeking a job or a career, or who just need to make extra money. My skill is being able to match things. If I introduce two people, they get married. I spent 25 years helping people find jobs, repair broken marriages, overcome physical and emotional pain , so this will be fun. My website, the Job Specialist, is devoted to getting you on the inside track. It is loaded with tools to help you simplify and streamline your job search.
I'll repeat what I said in an earlier post. I often tell people I've counseled to consider trading incarceration for "freedom", like a death. The old You #1758965 is dead. The past is history.
Your challenge is to focus on what lies ahead, your future. No excuse for the past -- it is done. Forget it, but LEARN from your mistakes. Be PATIENT and stay calm. You are very lucky. Because the death you are experiencing is in no way like a real death experience. For instance, rock star Eric Clapton lost his beloved 4 year-old son, Conor, in a fall from a building in New York. For almost a year, he couldn't sing, perform, or function. He was devastated. Then, he overcame it by facing it head-on, and writing a song for his son, "Tears in Heaven".
You can do it too . . . and we're here to help. If you do need help, feel free to contact me. As we grow we'll establish a solid support network. Good luck.
NOTE: BEFORE READING THE FOLLOWING ENTRY, YOU MAY ENJOY THIS:
Johnny Cash Live at San Quentin in 1969
Educating the Public
Here are excerpts from an outstanding and insightful article published in the UC Santa Cruz student-run newspaper by Carley Stavis, Arts Editor. It is well worth reading the entire article whose link is at the bottom of this thread.
COLLEGE PROGRAM at SAN QUENTIN
Perched over the San Francisco Bay on the Marin County side of the Richmond Bridge, San Quentin remains the oldest prison in California. The ominous and statuesque facility was built in 1852 by prisoners, for prisoners, and it houses the only death row in the state. The prison is home to the College Program at San Quentin, funded and run by the nonprofit organization Prison University Project (PUP). The College Program at San Quentin represents California prisoners’ ONLY on-site means of completing accredited college classes, such as the U.S. History class in session on Monday nights, in order to earn an Associate of Arts degree.
To date, the program has seen 74 students graduate while still incarcerated, and at any given time, it estimates that between 20 and 30 former students are enrolled in college courses outside of the prison’s confines.
Despite the demonstrated success of the program, it continues to depend entirely on donations and volunteer support. While numerous studies point to the social and financial benefits of investment in programs like the Prison University Project, now in its 12th year of existence, the public and its politicians remain rigid when it comes to the notion of educating the ever-growing, widely re-offending prison population.
According to a New York Times article published in April 2008, while America accounts for only 5 percent of the world’s total population, we house nearly one-quarter of its prisoners, with an estimated 2.3 million people behind U.S. bars.
Studies consistently show that despite public aversion to the idea, providing education tends to be an exemplary means of reducing recidivism, or keeping former inmates from re-entering the prison system post-release.
This opinion can be traced directly to the fact that studies on prison education programs and their post-release effects consistently point to success. A standout among such reports was the Three State Recidivism Study, headed by Stephen Steurer, executive director of the largest international organization of correctional educators, the Correctional Education Association.
The 2001 study looked at more than 3,600 former inmates who had been released for at least three years from prisons in Maryland, Minnesota and Ohio. From a social perspective, the study found that “simply attending school behind bars reduces the likelihood of re-incarceration by 29 percent.”
From a financial perspective, the study reported, “Translated into savings, every dollar spent on education returns more than two dollars to the citizens in reduced prison costs.”
By Charlene Muhammad Western Region Correspondent Updated Dec 17, 2008, 09:06 am
LOS ANGELES (FinalCall.com ) - Thousands of men and women will have been paroled to the streets of Los Angeles by the end of the year and according to the Bureau of Justice. Almost 70 percent of them will walk right back into prison within three years due to a lack of resources and staff to help chart their progress.
The Los Angeles Police Department joined with community-based organizations at the Crenshaw Christian Center Nov. 21 to develop a plan to help keep ex-offenders out of trouble and out of prison.
The Urban Assistance Initiative is a voluntary Parolee Reentry Program and the brainchild of LAPD Deputy Chief Kenneth Garner. It is set to launch in January 2009 and parolees who enter can expect a structure that includes employment and life skills training.
They will also receive food, clothing, and immediate housing; help with education, from remedial to community college courses; substance abuse treatment; long-term psychological family counseling; and domestic violence counseling. In addition, they will receive faith-based and legal services and social skill development.
Parole officials welcomed the collaborative and believe it will help to reduce excessive caseloads. Although the average caseload should be one parole agent to seven parolees, the current average is about one to thirty. In extreme cases the caseload is one to one hundred, prison re-entry coordinators said.
"This experience of an information-sharing collaborative for parolees is uncharted waters, and there is much information to be gathered. However, it is already clear that everyone here acknowledges that there must be something that supports the need for all conditions of parole," said Eleanor Luckett, regional re-entry coordinator for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Chief Garner, one of 23 Blacks among the LAPD's top brass, grew up in the South L.A. neighborhood he now commands. He explained to the circle of faith-based groups, independent educators, policy organizations, parole officials, attorneys and employers that a recent drive-by attempt by a man with his six-month-old baby in the car underscores the urgent need for collaboration.
"This program is not designed for powder puffs or a lot of white-collar criminals but it is for hard core criminals, because we could fill it with white-collar offenders and have a huge success rate but the problem in our community would go unsolved. We have to develop a way to help young people stop committing these crimes and going to prison because they ultimately lose and their communities lose their potential," Chief Garner said.
We encourage everyone who stops by to visit our blog to click the orange "Follow This Blog" link to your right and welcome your participation and support.
Don Kirchner is the founder of High Ground Productions, Inc. As author of the book, "A Matter Of Time", and founder of Return To Honor, he provides the inspiration and dedication to the entire RTH and HGP team to bring about personal freedom and awakening through stories, books and films that uplift the human spirit and that exemplify personal courage and heroism. Don attended Colorado State University before joining the U.S. Army and serving a tour of duty in Vietnam as a Chief Warrant Officer and combat helicopter pilot.
Miracles and Wonders
These are the days of "miracles and wonders," as Paul Simon wrote and sang. They are also among the most challenging in recent memory...9/11 notwithstanding. These are the times for us to reassess and re-evaluate what and how we do things, and how we relate with one another. There is no segment of society more significant to me in saying that than those who are or have been incarcerated, for the sheer number of them is staggering to comprehend the full significance on everyone they impact. If you realize that everyone of us impacts in some way at least ten people, then the 2 1/2 million men, women and children now locked up, together with the nearly ten million who have been locked up and who are on the streets now, there is virtually no one who isn't affected by what happens to them.
To do something meaningful to bring about a positive change doesn't take that much...only a willingness to understand the causes of criminal behavior rather than reacting to the symptoms. As one who spent 2 1/2 years in several of the worst of federal prisons until my release...with honor and commendations...I can tell you that the majority of them want to live their lives more meaningfully. They just don't know how, or where to start, or whom to trust. Many of them were born into lives of crime, and were never shown anything different. I write to over a hundred inmates, and every one of them longs for a better way...not just to get out of prisons of walls and bars, but of the invisible bars and walls outside. For many of them, life has been its own prison...and, I believe, it's much the same for many of us.
Fortunately, the Bush administration in its last couple of years managed to do something profoundly good, which was to begin the series of "White House Summits" on re-entry programs and awareness, and the movement that is now underway in this country is astounding. "Re-entry" offices are being set up in states and big cities across the country...challenged only at this time by the current economic "recovery," I prefer to call this present economic crisis of ours. As we pull out of this recession and put money into re-entry programs, there will be "miracles and wonders" taking place everywhere as highly incentivized former offenders take their places in society as "recovered" offenders with a purpose, new meaning and hope for their...and our...futures. I invite and urge you to give them the benefit of the doubt, and perhaps we can continue on in this century as a truly civilized society. If we do, crime and criminal behavior will diminish by such a high rate it will truly be a miracle and wonder.
San Francisco, CA – In a welcome statement for the Third Annual Prisoner Reentry Summit, Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) commended San Francisco city leaders for their “innovative work to reduce recidivism” and pledged to create opportunities for former prisoners if elected president.
In his letter, Senator Obama recognized that American urban communities are facing an “incarceration and post-incarceration crisis.” Senator Obama vowed to “create a prison-to-work incentive program, modeled on the successful Welfare-to-Work Partnership, to create ties between employers and third-party agencies that provide training and support services to ex-offenders and to improve ex-offender employment and job retention rates.” Senator Obama also pledged that he would “work to reform correctional systems that prevent former inmates from finding and maintaining employment.”
The Third Annual Summit is being organized by the Safe Communities Reentry Council (SCRC). The SCRC was established in 2005 to promote the safe and successful return of formerly incarcerated San Franciscans by developing a comprehensive support system that reduces violence and recidivism, and promotes public safety.
According to SCRC spokesperson and Public Defender Jeff Adachi, “We are very pleased that Senator Obama has issued a statement in support of re-envisioning federal reentry policies. With one out of every 100 Americans in jail or prison, we need to provide greater support to former prisoners who want to turn their lives around.”
When he was campaigning for office, Mayor Nutter spoke with passion about the importance of giving a second chance to inmates who want to find a place in society again. He pledged to create opportunities for ex-offenders.
"If we want to drive the crime rate down in this city, we have to put these people back to work," he said at a September 2007 forum.
John Phillips, a former Graterford inmate who has turned his life around, liked what he heard. He's less happy now.
As of Dec. 31, Phillips will be out of a job, thanks to budget cuts Nutter announced last month. The program that Phillips works on, the Adolescent Violence Reduction Partnership, is being shut down after officials concluded that it was not as effective as they'd hoped.
"I felt I was making a difference," said Phillips, who was freed in February 2007, after serving time for aggravated assault. "This will make my life a lot worse. I'm on parole until 2019. I'm a father of four."
Phillips' plight is primarily the result of the economic crisis that has badly damaged the city's finances.
But nearly a year into Nutter's first term, the city's efforts to help former inmates have sputtered, and not all the problems can be blamed on budget pressures.
The city failed to take basic steps to implement a law encouraging the employment of ex-offenders. And the man hired to run the city agency helping former inmates was demoted after overspending his budget and canceling a contract with a nonprofit agency helping ex-cons find jobs.
Ray Jones, director of Impact Services Corp., said that his agency still doesn't know if its city contract will be renewed, and he wonders what's going on in the Mayor's Office for the Reentry of Ex-Offenders, or MORE.
"To date, there's been nothing but lip service in providing services for re-entry," Jones said.
Nearly 650,000 people are released from state and federal prison yearly and arrive on the doorsteps of communities nationwide. A far greater number reenter communities from local jails, and for many offenders and /defendants, this may occur multiple times in a year. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) over 50 percent of those released from incarceration will be in some form of legal trouble within 3 years. In his 2004 State of the Union, President Bush proposed “a four-year, $300 million prisoner re-entry initiative to expand job training and placement services, to provide transitional housing, and to help newly released prisoners get mentoring, including from faith-based groups.” source: US Department of Justice.
Don Kirchner, founder of the Society for Return to Honor, is proud to announce that his organization, in association with retired Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor Gary Mialocq, PhD, is offering a jobs re-entry opportunity online. Those re-entering society can participate alone and follow the step-by-step program outlined on the Job Specialist website, or may receive mentoring and counseling at greatly discounted rates in an effort to assist in returning to the job market during these very difficult times.
Return To Honor is an organization dedicated to informing and assisting communities, government agencies and businesses in creating "bridges" of understanding and opportunity for qualified former offenders upon their release from incarceration and for those who are leaving the military and facing the uncertainty of a return to the job market. As such, we work to bring about better understanding on the part of former offenders and military personnel of certain behaviors and attitudes that will result in their successful transition back into society as responsible, honorable members of it.
This website is dedicated to the hundreds of thousands of men and women who are facing one of the scariest moments in their lives -- one of those forks in the road that can determine the course of the rest of your life. You have to find a job coming from difficult circumstances. You can use all the help you can get, but how to find it?
First, I want everyone to know that we have all the tools you will need to put you on an even playing field with your competition. With the economy losing millions of jobs under the incompetence of our almost former President, you've got an uphill battle ahead, but you do have an organization on your side. We will be providing resources you can use online, NOW. This website is not only to help you in adjusting to the cold cruel world, but to give you a place to express yourselves as this blog grows.
In the song, "Wish You Were Here", by Pink Floyd (and how many haven't uttered those words in their minds over and over again?), Roger Waters really gets to the heart of the "caged" experience and his music conveys the kind of feeling I'd like visitors to this site to have as you become comfortable with TCF (The Cost of Freedom). He talks about experiencing the "same old fears, year after year". Pink Floyd:
I often tell people I've counseled to consider leaving incarceration for "freedom" similar to a death. The old you is dead. The past is history. Your challenge is to focus on what lies ahead, your future. You are very lucky. Because the death you are experiencing is in no way like a real death experience. For instance, rock star Eric Clapton lost his beloved 4 year-old son, Conor, in a fall from a building in New York. For almost a year, he couldn't sing, perform, or function. Then, he overcame it by facing it head-on, and writing a song for his son, "Tears in Heaven". Enjoy the song and make sure to bookmark this site.
THE COST OF FREEDOM BLOG
This blog is provided and maintained by Don Kirchner, founder of The Society for Return to Honor, and author of "A Matter of Time" and "Return to Honor". You can write to Don Kirchner at 80 Supai Drive, Sedona, AZ 86351.
"I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your recent correspondence regarding your organization, Society for Return to Honor. As a society is faced with ever increasing crime rates, the need for programs that assist in the re-entry of former convicts into society is becoming more apparent. I commend you for overcoming the difficulties you have faced in your life and taking the initiative to help others in similar situations." -- John McCain, United States Senator.
"I feel your thoughts for juvenile justice programs have merit and commend you for the initiative shown in creating this proposal." -- Barry Goldwater, United States Senator
"The purpose of this letter is to express my appreciation for the assistance that you have been rendering the residents at the Bernalillo County Detention Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico. During the period of you incarceration, you have served as a tutor/counselor for numerous other residents in a sincere effort to help them prepare for better education and improve themselves." -- Michael F. Hanrahn, Director, Bernalillo County Detention Center
"I was impressed with the events in your personal life and the decisions you have made that brought you to this point. It is rare that an individual such as yourself, who has experienced the dangerous and destructive sides of drug trafficking, is able to re focus one’s life into a positive contribution to society." -- Craig N. Chretien, Former #3, Head of DEA
"My sincerest appreciation for your continuing work and effort toward educating the public about incarceration, recidivism and re-entry issues. I have been re-energized by your efforts and dedication to continue development of transition programs and projects designed to successfully assist those incarcerated to re-enter society as law abiding and productive citizens." -- John J. Spearman, Assistant Director of the Arizona Department of Corrections
Vietnam Veteran
Don Kirchner Served as a Chief Warrant Officer and Combat Helicopter Pilot in Vietnam
