Pubdate: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 Source: Daily Press (VA) Copyright: 2003 The Daily Press Contact: http://www.dailypress.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/585 Author: Keith Rushing EX-OFFENDER PROGRAMS PUT TO TEST Teresa Fletcher leads a rather normal middle-class life. The 52-year-old Hampton woman is married, owns a home and is raising her teen granddaughter. She's disabled and can't work full time. Yet she takes classes at Thomas Nelson Community College and likes to write during her spare time. Life for Fletcher hasn't always been so comfortable. She spent eight years in prison after committing burglaries and scams to support an addiction to cocaine and heroin. When released from prison in 1988, Fletcher found that a Newport News program for ex-offenders, Virginia Cares, was there to help her get a job and put her life back together. Virginia Cares is one of 11 nonprofit groups in Virginia that offer services to inmates and ex-offenders. The coalition of groups referred to as PAPIS, for pre-release and post-incarceration services, helps ex-offenders find jobs and a place to live after they're released from jails and prisons. Like so many other programs in Virginia, PAPIS lost its state funding when Gov. Mark R. Warner announced budget cuts in the fall to ease the state's fiscal crisis. While many of the ex-offender programs are surviving with federal grants and money from local governments, others are foundering. Federal contributions will decrease over the next few years, leaving the groups searching for new funding sources. n n About 9,300 people in Virginia were released from prison in 2001 - many with few dollars in their pocket and no family members to help them. Some 600,000 are released from prisons and jails throughout the nation each year. When Fletcher got out of prison in 1988, she immediately went to Virginia Cares' office on Maple Avenue. She figured she'd need some help finding a job. A felony record can be an albatross that limits job opportunities for former inmates. Employers are often afraid to take a risk. Despite years of experience as a data entry clerk and supervisor, Fletcher was worried that no one would hire her. But her case manager, Julia Richardson, helped change her thinking, assuring her that some employers would offer an ex-offender a job. Richardson advised her to answer job applications truthfully. After filling out six or seven applications, Fletcher landed a job with Newport News Inc., then called Avon Fashions, a catalogue sales company. Fletcher worked there for 10 years - starting at $7 an hour - before a chronic illness left her disabled. The company makes decisions about hiring ex-offenders on a case-by-case basis, a spokesman said. PAPIS case managers try to connect potential employers with ex-offenders. Case managers enter jails and prisons several weeks or months before an inmate is released to assess an inmate's skills and their individual situations. Inmates practice ways to conduct successful job interviews. The help continues after release when ex-offenders are referred to shelters where they can stay and to employers who might hire them. "We teach them that getting a job is a job in itself," said Sandra Brandt, executive director of Norfolk-based Step-Up Inc, a PAPIS program. "We tell them they have to spend 40 hours doing it and not to be discouraged." PAPIS providers, like Step-Up, will help inmates get Social Security cards and prepare resumes, and help them get new clothes for interviews. "We don't turn anybody away," Brandt said. PAPIS groups, which help ex-offenders in 83 cities, towns and counties in Virginia, say they have a proven record of success. About 65 percent of all prisoners nationwide are ex-offenders who have been re-arrested, according to a 1994 U.S. Department of Justice study that tracked released inmates for three years. Some 27 percent of Virginia's inmates are re-arrested, according to a 1997 Virginia Department of Corrections study. Brandt thinks PAPIS has contributed to the lower percentages of re-arrests in Virginia. "If you have a state like Virginia that has programs like PAPIS, you have somebody there to help these folks when they come outside," said Brandt. "Some states don't have programs like PAPIS." Last year, the groups helped some 2,700 ex-offenders find jobs, according to data they released. PAPIS groups compare the $120 a year they spend on each offender to the $21,000 the state spends to keep an inmate behind bars for a year. Brandt said ex-offenders need some help when they come out of prison. "Many have no place to go and no place to turn to," Brandt said. "We average five inmate letters a day saying, 'I'm getting out soon, can you help me?' " Brandt added that felony records bar some people from moving into high-crime areas, even when family members live there. "A lot of ex-offenders are discriminated against," Brandt said. Everald, a 33-year-old Gloucester man who didn't want his last name used for privacy reasons, spent 11 months in prison for manslaughter before being released in 1992. He was unemployed for about 18 months because nobody would hire him. Everald wouldn't answer the question on job applications about past felony convictions. "I'd leave it blank and let them call so I can deal with it," Everald said. He said he wanted to explain his criminal background in person and talk about the turnaround he'd made in his life. But no employers called him. Everald stayed with his family and eventually got work with a contractor who didn't ask questions about his past. Even with PAPIS' help, some ex-offenders just don't make it. Michael P. Cates, of Virginia Beach, served 17 years of a 30-year sentence for rape and sodomy. Step-Up tried to help him last spring. He recently landed back in jail after several months of freedom. Step-Up helped Cates get a job with a temporary agency within two weeks of his release. He was doing road construction work and renting an efficiency at the Villager Lodge on Jefferson Avenue. But a few months after his release, Cates stopped communicating with his parole officer, moved from the Villager Lodge and didn't register his new address with the State Police Sex Offender's Registry, which is a violation of the law. A state trooper arrested Cates last month on three counts of failing to respond to the registry. Cates told the trooper he thought his probation guidelines were too strict, and he didn't want his girlfriend to know about his past. Now Cates faces a possible 13-year prison sentence. Brandt said ex-offenders like Cates often feel pressured by the terms of their release and the requirements of probation and parole. Some who do all the right things after being released from prison still face significant hurdles, she said. One ex-offender who was recently offered a job at a Target store had to wait two weeks for a parole officer to verify his address so that he could start work. Brandt said his parole officer was on vacation and no other parole officers were available to verify his address. So, the offender simply had to wait. n n In October, Gov. Warner announced $860 million in cuts to make up part of an approximately $1 billion shortfall in the budget. The Department of Criminal Justice Services, which distributes PAPIS funds, told the groups the state wasn't going to fund them for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2003. Instead, they'd have to find a local donor who could offer matching money to receive some federal funding earmarked for ex-offenders and drug addicts. Most PAPIS groups have found municipalities that are providing matching money. But at least one program at the Middle Peninsula Regional Jail closed its doors in early December when the jail board refused to put up a matching grant. The jail's superintendent, David Harmon, said the jail board was concerned that if it came up with $5,000 in matching money for PAPIS, the state would ask the board to put up matching money for other inmate programs. "If they fund one, would they fund them all?" asked Harmon, explaining the concerns. The jail superintendent predicts that the loss of the program may hinder the success of those returning to society. "Some of these guys that may not have come back, will come back," Harmon said. The fiscal problems are coming at a time when criminologists and some lawmakers have become more convinced of the value of rehabilitation and re-entry programs that help ex-offenders transition to life outside. The new thinking reverses an old trend. "We've seen a really strong trend in the late '70s to the '90s to stop worrying about what happens to prisoners," said Todd Clear, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Law in New York. He said there was a broad consensus among experts in the 1980s and 1990s that programs to help offenders weren't effective. That belief among criminologists co-existed with a "get tough" attitude toward criminals that was popular with the public when violent crime was high. Sentences were lengthened throughout the country in response, and parole was abolished in many states. "Politicians gained electoral capital by saying they were going to make prisons tough places," Clear said. He added that jail administrators would try to hide rehabilitation programs and recreational programs out of fear that legislators would cut funding in order to eliminate them. In the last few years, a new consensus has emerged that programs targeted at offenders who are leaving prison are worthwhile. "When you're comparing having programs to not having programs - it's better to have programs purely from a public safety standpoint," Clear said. The problems ex-offenders face in the first days and weeks after release are significant. "You see your old pals," Clear said. "Suddenly, you're in charge of your own life for the first time in years." Sheriff Charles "Chuck" Moore, who runs the Newport News jail, called Step-Up an outstanding program. A Step-Up case manager visits the jail regularly to talk with inmates about ways to prepare for life on the outside. "My thing is keeping them out of here," Moore said. n n PAPIS providers have been talking with members of Congress about getting federal legislation to replace the level of funding - about $2.1 million - they were receiving from the state before the cuts. But they're also petitioning legislators to restore all PAPIS money in next year's budget. On Wednesday, Warner proposed some relief for PAPIS - $438,000 - but it's still far less than the $2.1 million the groups were getting before. The General Assembly also still has to sign off on the governor's plans. Brandt said state officials have told PAPIS groups that they likely would need matching grants again for the fiscal year that begins July 1 to keep their programs functioning. The federal grant money PAPIS is receiving also will decrease substantially over the next three years, requiring providers to come up with more local or state money. The PAPIS groups are afraid they won't be able to come up with the funding. One head of a nonprofit organization said groups like PAPIS can't depend on government funds. "The strongest programs have diversified funding precisely because at a time like this you can't depend on local or state funding alone," said Carol Shapiro, the executive director of the New York-based Family Justice Inc. The organization trains groups and agencies throughout the country about ways to help prisoners re-enter society. Shapiro said groups should form partnerships with faith-based institutions, public housing and employment agencies to help ex-offenders. But Shapiro said lawmakers need to realize that a budget crisis is a short-term problem and should avoid abandoning reputable programs. "We're going to be worse off," she said, "if we don't provide a modicum of support for families." - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens