War on Drugs an Economic Disaster for America

Re-entry Programs: an Idea whose Time is Now

About thirty-five years ago, Richard Nixon declared war on drugs. Since then, we've spent more money on that war than in Iraq and Afghanistan. There have been 37 million arrests for nonviolent drug crimes. Prisons are America's fastest growing industry, with 2.2 million Americans currently locked up. We're making 1.9 million arrests and spending $70 billion on drug crimes every year, yet drugs are cheaper, more potent, and far more available than ever before. What is the solution?

"Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded."

-Abraham Lincoln

A Rand Corporation study conducted fifteen years ago resulted in a team of mathematicians calculating the most cost effective tactics: law enforcement, interdiction, foreign aid, treatment, and prevention. They found that only treatment was effective.

The hard evidence they presented has had no impact on drug policies that have failed to reduce drug addiction, crime, and/or juvenile drug use. The drug war continues and each of these problems continues to increase.

During alcohol prohibition, murder went up 13% and robbery, 83%. Prohibition ended in 1933, and violent crimes returned to their pre-prohibition levels by 1937. It is estimated that 80 percent of felonies are drug related. One of the drug war's hypocrisies is that its purpose is to prevent harm to users. While drug addicts do serious damage to their lives, the drug war destroys those lives.

The number of Americans behind bars for drug offenses, mostly nonviolent, has increased by 1,200 percent since 1980. Legendary NYPD crusader, Frank Serpico, describes the prison system as an industry. "They run it like real estate. They have so many rooms, they have to rent them out, and the police fill them."

READ COMPLETE ARTICLE

As states across the country confront historic budget shortfalls, more and more politicians are looking toward long-overdue criminal justice reform as a way to cut spending. Suddenly, the money local governments stand to save by slowing down incarceration rates is trumping the political costs traditionally associated with it. Good news. The nation's prisons have been dysfunctional and overcrowded for ages, reaching emergency levels in recent years. Around this time last year, a study released by the Pew Center found that 1 in 100 Americans was behind bars.

The cost of locking up parole violators has been a major drain on states' resources -- and no state knows this better than California. In 2002, a study by the Justice Policy Center calculated that the Golden State -- which leads the country in the size of its parole population and recidivism rates -- spent some $900 million a year to keep parole violators (who spend an average of five months in prison) incarcerated. That year, according to the same study, nearly 1 in 5 parolees lived in California.

President Obama is on the right track as it is definitely TIME FOR A CHANGE, and aftercare and re-entry programs are the solution.

Posted By: The Candid Blogger
visit our Job Search Blog at: The-Job-Specialist Blog

Heroes

We so often hear about, or talk about, "making a difference." How does one go about "making a difference," and what sort of "difference" will that be? Do you stop and think about that at all whenever you say it or hear it, or is it just something that feels important but doesn't really go anywhere? What does that really mean?

To me, making a real difference in the world is to say something or do something that changes others' perspectives enough to have a positive impact on their lives, and one that is lasting enough to change a habit or a behavior pattern. God knows we can all use some of that in our lives, no matter who we are. What's amazing about that is that it doesn't even take that much. The late Leo Buscaglia, who wrote and lectured extensively on the subject of Love, and having an impact on others' lives, once wrote "For most of us, there will be no ticker-tape parades, no awards banquets or medals handed out. But if we only knew the good that can be done, and the ripple effect that can happen with the simplest act of kindness...even sometimes just a hug or a smile at the right time...we would all be heroes."

As I travel around the country and speak to various groups about "making a difference," I am always taken with the great amount of exuberance displayed by people when I talk about how powerful acts of kindness and compassion can be, yet I'm also stunned by how gripped with fear people are. Fear of failure, fear of sickness, fear of financial loss, of strangers or what might happen or not happen, etc., etc. We learn much of our fears from childhood, then magnify and increase them with everything negative that happens to us...compounded by the nightly news about the terrible things that happen to everyone else. Before long, we're so caught up in the negative things and the problems in the world, there's no room in our heads for anything positive. If anything positive manages to make it in there, it's quickly overshadowed by all the negative things that intimidate us and cause us to shrink back and believe that we can't make a difference in the world...or even in our neighborhood or home.

But that's not true. We can make a difference. We just did, in fact. We spoke out in the election with a very loud voice that we want to see and experience something different...not just different faces and different names but something that will go deep and overcome and transform the doubts, fears and resistance we've allowed to diminish the hopes, promises and dreams of our childhood. We lost all that...if we had it at all...because it became easier to believe the bad things.

Learning to be positive in a negative world isn't easy. It runs against the grain of the majority thinking, and few people want to be seen as someone running against the majority in anything. Yet, on the other hand, we all admire the hero that shows up in the nick of time and causes us to think about or to see things differently. Well, it's time to quit waiting for and hoping that that hero will show up. We can't put it on Barack Obama to be that hero for us. We each have to start being heroes in our own lives...one little bit at a time. We do that by deciding right here and right now that we're going to start being the hero we're looking for. In order to do that, we need to start telling the truth, being more accountable and setting the right example. If we really want to make a difference in the world, we need to be the difference we want to see in others. If enough of us do that, like we did in this election, think of the difference we might make in the world...really.

A Criminal Justice Program That Works!

Free at Last

TRANSITIONAL CENTERS REALLY WORK

Criminal rehabilitation in prison has a lousy record, so when a rehab program works, it deserves all the encouragement it can get - and so it is with the Augusta Transitional Center, and other such centers around the state and nation.

Basically, the centers reduce the number of discharged inmates who commit new crimes and have to be re-incarcerated. This is because the transition centers provide a period of time, from six months to three years, for the men to readjust to life on the outside and to prepare themselves to stay on the outside. The centers are a kind of halfway house where offenders acquire job training, assistance with job placement, cognitive programming, and related support systems such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

"Years ago we would just lock them up and throw away the key," says Superintendent Ronald Brawner, who's been at the Augusta facility for the seven years it's been open. "Now these guys want a fresh start... Without having some sort of transition, they leave the prison without having tools to stay out of trouble".

He's right, of course. Those who have a place to stay and to learn a trade are less likely to commit crimes.

Candidates for the re-entry program must be physically and mentally able to work and have a clean disciplinary record three months before they're released. Nearly 9 million inmates cycle in and out of state and federal transitional facilities each year and only 19 percent of them return to prison, compared to 29 percent that return who don't transition.

Moreover, the re-entry program saves taxpayers money on two counts: first because more ex-inmates are out and working instead of returning to prison and, second, those who get to take advantage of the transition contribute to paying for their own room, board and toiletries.

This is win-win for everybody which is why legislatures in Georgia and elsewhere should allocate more of their criminal justice budgets to transitional centers. They really work. Our state plans to increase the number of transitional center beds by 30 percent over the next year, says the Department of Corrections, which is a good start, but more facilities would be even better.

The Corrections Department budget, like any bureaucracy, should be encouraged to spend its money on programs that work and rid itself of the programs that don't.

From the Friday, January 02, 2009 edition of the Augusta Chronicle

Posted By: The Candid Blogger
visit our Job Search Blog at: The-Job-Specialist Blog

From The Bottom

In reading the comments regarding how "no one is hiring," I find it difficult not to be moved by the most common dilemma facing newly released offenders and even former military veterans who are "guilty" of nothing but having served their country. Interesting that these two elements of our society face nearly identical circumstances when it comes to jobs. Having been both at different times in my life, I can speak with some degree of authority...added to which much of the time in the years after both "tours of duty," I was also a single father of three children, all of whom chose to live with me.

Having said that, I want to say emphatically that there are always "jobs" out there, and several million illegal immigrants can attest to the fact. They may not be the most desirable jobs, but they are at least a place to start until one has proven him or herself to be willing to do whatever it takes–honorably–to get through the maze and to at least establish some degree of cashflow. Everything follows from there. In the year and half right after my release from federal prison, I threw newspapers from 3:00 AM until 6:00 AM, came home and got my kids ready for school, then worked at an art gallery until 5:00. Three nights a week I waited tables...and the combination of the three jobs kept us going until I was able to secure a "real" job, and eventually to get stable enough to start my own business.

Such is the course one sets for him or herself once one has ventured into the minefield of either incarceration or serving in the military, and either way one has only to set one's mind and heart on the goals with no concern for how others may view it. Ultimately, whatever works, so long as it is honorable and trustworthy, is regarded as one of the most noble things one can do. Doors of opportunity open for such a person that one might never have thought possible before, but they don't do so easily...until one reaches a point of reliability and steadfastness that other people take notice and are compelled not only to assist, but to change their own lives, too.

These are the times we live in now...times of accountability and virtue. Image alone is no longer of value or substance. There must be meaningful and consistent effort, respect and compassion...on both sides of the walls and the uniforms. We are all human beings, and as such must act with caring and respect for one another. AND, we must be willing to work and be productive. In like manner, if we're in business and are in a position to hire others, it is imperative that we consider hiring someone who has faced challenges in their lives

Model Re-entry Program Paying Big Dividends

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.

Click to read FULL ARTICLE.

Posted by: The Candid Blogger

You Matter

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.

Here is a short video clip from that address:

Correctional Education -- a Necessity

San Quentin Prison

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.”

CLICK TO READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

These Are The Days of Miracles & Wonders

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.

Don Kirchner
Sedona, AZ

Obama Supports Prisoner Re-entry Summit

Barack Obama Issues Statement Supporting Prisoner Reentry Summit

September 22, 2008.

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.”

Read Complete Story

2008/2009 Resource Guide
(click guide to download)

Philly Re-entry Program Faces Budget Cuts

Plan to find ex-offenders jobs is tripping on hurdles

By DAVE DAVIES
Philadelphia Daily News

daviesd@phillynews.com 215-854-2595

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.

CLICK FOR COMPLETE STORY

Return to Honor Jobs Program

ANNOUNCEMENT

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.

Don Kirchner Addresses Inmates in Tennessee

Don Kirchner speaking to a group of inmates in a Nashville, TN corrections facility in 2007.

The Cost of Freedom

OUR STORY AND MISSION

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.

Posted by: The Candid Blogger