I must admit, I know more than a few ex-cons. Some are family members, friends, associates and friends of friends. They all have one thing in common…. the inability to start a fresh new beginning. Imagine trying to find a job in these rough economic conditions, and then imagine being a convicted felon and trying to find a job.
This year American prisons will release more than 600,000 inmates. To put it another way, a city with a population larger than Washington, D.C., leaves prison every year. By 2010 the prison system will annually release 1.2 million, according to University of California, Irvine, criminologist Joan Petersilia,
Millions of men and women face blatant job discrimination everyday. I’ve personally witnessed a man’s self esteem and self worth be crushed to pieces. In many cases when a job is found, it is often minimum wage doing menial task. I watched as my friend filled out hundreds of applications and going on many interviews only to be told, “Sorry we can’t hire you with a felony on your record.” Hey never mind the felony occurred 10 years ago.
Prisons do not offer job training or anything that will assist the prisoner upon released. We must give these people a fighting change if they are to make it. Yes, they made a mistake, but they have paid the price. Is it fair that they continue to pay the price for the rest of their lives?
Sadly, many ex-cons find themselves facing incarceration again due to the inability of finding decent employment. Nearly two-thirds of ex-inmates were re-arrested on serious charges within three years, and 41 percent were reconvicted and returned to prison.
My question is with 1.3 million people in prison, how can we continue to let employers discriminate against such a large group of people? How can we not equip these people with the tools required to succeed and finally why is the re-entry rate so high? I will give you three reasons.
Convicted felons are unable to vote. Elected officials feel it unnecessary to give precedence to people who can not help elect them? They treat felons as an invisible group who don’t deserve their service or attention
The prison business is big money. Privatization of prisons brings in billions of dollars for those who choose to get in the corrections game. According to Edwin Bender, executive director of the Institute on Money in State Politics, private prison companies strongly favor states with the toughest sentencing laws, in essence the ones that are more likely to come up with the bodies to fill prison beds. Those states, adds Bender, are also the ones most likely to have passed three-strikes laws.
A recent report from the Montana-based Institute on Money in State Politics reveals that during the 2002 and 2004 election cycles, private prison companies, directors, executives and lobbyists gave $3.3 million to candidates and state political parties across 44 states.
So you see it’s all a sham… a big revolving door. It is set up for the inmate to fail; the ultimate goal is recidivism, not success. With so many people in the African American community affected by this issue, it’s time we do something about this. I plan on writing my congressman, alder (wo)man and who ever else will listen.
