Pubdate: Sun, 25 Jan 2009
Source: News Journal, The (Wilmington, DE)
Copyright: 2009 The News Journal
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/1c6Xgdq3
Website: http://www.delawareonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/822
Authors: Sean O'Sullivan and Esteban Parra

WHAT DELAWARE CAN DO TO CUT CRIME

Like its bigger neighbors, Philadelphia and Baltimore, Wilmington is 
dealing with runaway violent crime -- enduring a record 26 homicides in 2008.

But in Baltimore and Philadelphia, homicide rates have fallen.

The difference appears to be that Delaware's big-city neighbors have 
started programs that train -- even prod -- convicted felons to find 
work and adjust to life on the streets after they get out of prison.

No such state-sponsored programs exist in Delaware, where inmates are 
released with little more than the clothes on their backs.

It helps explain why Delaware was ranked 47th out of 50 states for 
its re-entry efforts. And some say violent crime won't go down until 
inmates emerge from prison with skills to keep them from returning to 
the only trade they know -- dealing dope in the city's poorest 
neighborhoods, their guns loaded.

Robert Walker left Young Correctional Institution with just the 
prison-made clothes on his back.

He had nowhere to go, no money, no credit and no job prospects.

"I went right from being in jail for some two years, to being put 
right back on the street pretty much being on my own," said the 
24-year-old Walker, who had been convicted on assault charges.

He once dreamed of a nursing job, but found his felony record made 
that impossible.

"It's not just hard getting a good job," he said. "It's hard to get 
simple jobs like McDonald's."

To cope, Walker said, he turned to drugs, which created even more problems.

"If I could get a great-paying job, there would be no reason for me 
to want to get high," he said. "I would be happy, I could succeed, I 
could go somewhere."

Stories like Walker's are familiar to Delaware police and 
prosecutors, who see the same convicted felons again and again in the 
backs of patrol cars and in courtrooms.

National studies show that people released from prison are three 
times more likely to be re-arrested if they don't have jobs.

While other states and federal probation programs provide counseling, 
advice on how to find work, even clothes for job interviews, Delaware 
offers limited -- if any -- help to ex-offenders.

The ramifications were clear last year in Wilmington, where the city 
saw a record-high 26 homicides. Police have charged 14 suspects in 10 
of those slayings. Of the 14, all had been in custody less than a 
year before they were arrested in connection with the 2008 slayings, 
according to court records.

Yet in nearby Baltimore and Philadelphia -- which are dealing with 
similar problems related to drugs and a sagging economy -- homicide 
rates dropped in 2008.

Probation and criminal-justice experts believe the disparity is due 
in part to efforts by those cities, and their states, to focus on 
preparing inmates for life on the outside and helping them find work.

The simple logic of re-entry programs is that those who have been in 
trouble are likely to revert to their old ways unless they are 
provided -- or prodded into -- an alternative.

"It is not the only thing, but it does contribute to lowering the 
crime rate," said Felix Mata, the national coordinator for the 
federal Defendant Offender Workforce Development initiative. He 
singled out Baltimore as an example of a successful program.

"This is not just a theory, it has proven results," said Jack 
McDonough, chief of U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services in the 
District of Delaware.

"It takes a lot of work. It is a lot harder than conventional 
approaches," McDonough said. "I think it can reduce crime and can 
reduce violence in the city of Wilmington."

Re-Arrest Figures Untracked

The chance of an inmate getting re-arrested within three years of 
release is 47 percent to 67 percent, according to national 
statistics. Experts believe Delaware's rate is higher, but there are 
no current numbers because the state doesn't keep track, officials said.

A national study by the Legal Action Council, a nonprofit advocacy 
group, ranked Delaware 47th out of 50 states for its re-entry 
efforts, charging the state makes it far more difficult for a 
prisoner to return to society and stay out of trouble. The 
"roadblocks" it cited included the state's making it difficult for 
felons to get public assistance, housing and driver's licenses.

A national expert on re-entry, Professor Christy A.  Visher at the 
University of Delaware's Department of Sociology & Criminal Justice, 
said the state does not need millions to get results.

"Baltimore did [this] with very little extra money.  There was 
someone in the mayor's office, working with the Department of 
Correction, working with the Department of Labor [and others]," she 
said. "It just requires some creative thinking and the will."

It's more than finding an inmate a job. It also involves 
anger-management training and other programs to help inmates reintegrate.

There is support in Delaware for this kind of reform -- Wilmington's 
Hope Commission lists re-entry improvement as a "core priority" -- 
and pilot efforts are under way to launch new re-entry measures, such 
as a job and training center for probationers.

There also have been successes in the private sector.  About a year 
ago, drug-abuse counselor Tammy Robinson opened the Robinson & Them 
employment agency in Wilmington specifically to help former inmates. 
So far, she has helped about 150 people find work.

Visher and others said there needs to be a unified program with 
leadership from the top. "The state just hasn't gotten all the 
players together. The Department of Labor hasn't been willing to 
think of offender work-force development as a strategy, as a 
priority.  That kind of priority can only come from the governor's 
office," she said.

Newly inaugurated Gov. Jack Markell agreed Friday.

"I think it is a very important issue for the state," he said.

Markell said 97 percent of the state's inmates are going to get out 
someday, making it necessary to prepare now for their return to society.

He said his administration will meet with Delaware re-entry groups, 
"figure out what works best, and then let's do it.'

"I agree with the premise that leadership has to come from the top," 
he said. He said that effort should also include community and church groups.

A Delaware study by the local advocacy group Stand Up for What is 
Right and Just in 2007 highlighted re-entry as a concern.

"Currently, one in 13 Delaware budget dollars is spent on corrections 
. " the study's authors wrote.  "Although we are spending a great 
deal of money, what we are doing is not reducing crime or making our 
citizens safer. What we need are smart sentencing strategies, 
alternatives to incarceration, and programs that will revitalize 
communities, reduce recidivism, and promote the successful re-entry 
of ex-offenders back into society."

'There Is a Different Way'

Wilmington resident Nathan Dollar has been looking for work since 
getting laid off from his truck-driving job in the fall. The 
29-year-old needs a good-paying job to help support his two children, 
ages 7 and 8. But with his 1998 drug conviction, it has become nearly 
impossible.

"It's hard. They don't want to give you a chance. It's 2009; that 
happened 10 years ago."

Dollar currently works in his uncle's detail shop. He still applies 
for other jobs, but doesn't hear back after they learn of his record. 
When he does, the jobs don't pay enough.

"It shouldn't be like this," Dollar said. "Everybody makes mistakes. 
Everybody deserves a second chance."

The thought of turning to crime has crossed his mind, especially when 
the bills arrive.

"But I wouldn't put myself in a situation like that," he said. He 
doesn't want to be a bad example to his children, he said.

"I don't want them to grow up the way I did," he said.  "I want to 
show them there is a different way. They don't have to go out there 
and sell drugs. They can live a positive life."

A resource-supported effort

Focusing on helping felons when they leave the prison system, rather 
than waiting for them to get into trouble again, is already being 
done in Delaware in the federal criminal-justice system headed by McDonough.

Over the past few years, the federal probation office has been 
transformed into a job training and placement center, with the strong 
support of judges and recently retired U.S. Attorney Colm F. Connolly.

The federal probation office in Wilmington offers classes on how to 
go through a job interview and has a closet full of donated business 
attire for probationers to use when they go on interviews. It also 
offers job-hunting resources and group therapy sessions for 
ex-offenders who are having difficulty reintegrating.

The office also has contracts with outside groups to provide training 
for such jobs as auto mechanic, heating and air-conditioning repair, 
cosmetology and truck driving.

"The program focuses on 'triggers' of criminal behavior," McDonough 
said. This includes not only the lack of a job, but a lack of housing 
when they get out, a lack of proper identification to get a job 
interview and transportation.

"It takes collaboration between the Department of Labor, the DMV, 
housing agencies," he said, as well as state medical programs.

The federal probation program is tiny compared with the state's, but 
McDonough said the process has worked in other areas with probation 
numbers equal to Delaware's.

A Reason for Optimism

Michael D'Aguiar, 36, of New Castle said he went on job interviews 
last year after he was released from federal custody on drug charges.

He hoped his background in computers and data processing would help 
him find work. But the first company he talked to told him that 
because of his record, they could not even talk to him for seven years.

D'Aguiar has since landed a job stocking shelves in a supermarket but 
still credits federal probation officials for even this modest success.

"They have been behind me and pushing me," he said.

D'Aguiar said they pressed him to further his education, so he 
enrolled in classes to get a degree in management.

Former state probationer Walker, by contrast, said he went back to 
nursing school but dropped out after he was told that he was "wasting 
his time" because no one would hire a felon.

"You're stuck in a one-way street," Walker said. "It's like you got a 
double sentence -- you got sentenced for your crime and then you got 
sentenced for the rest of your life where you can't succeed like you 
would like to."

Michael Elliott, 52, who is in the federal work-force development 
program, said probation officials helped him with anger issues that 
got him into trouble in the first place. "They taught me how to think 
things out better and how to talk to people. It was a big help," he said.

He landed a job in construction but recently was laid off because of 
the slumping economy.

But he's optimistic about getting another job because of support from 
the federal probation office.

A Success Story for Delaware

Mata, the coordinator for the federal re-entry effort, said 30 of 94 
federal districts have a workforce program in place while a number of 
states and cities have launched similar efforts, including 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Chicago and Newark, N.J.

McDonough said the Delaware federal district has seen progress during 
the two years it has been trying this approach.

About 28 percent of those released on federal probation in Delaware 
end up back in police custody within three years, less than half the 
national rate.

Last year, when Wilmington posted its record homicide numbers, 8.76 
percent of the approximately 388 people the federal probation office 
in Delaware supervised were re-arrested.

In St. Louis, Mo., where the federal work-force development program 
has been in place for about eight years, the re-arrest rate is 14 
percent to 15 percent.

The unemployment rate of probationers is 3.5 percent there, below the 
area's unemployment rate of 7 percent.

"That is remarkable, considering these people have criminal records," 
Mata said.

McDonough said such re-entry efforts won't work for everyone and they 
don't change crime statistics overnight.

But every success not only means less crime is committed, but also 
one fewer person the state will have to feed, clothe, house and guard, he said.

Mata estimated the cost savings of keeping one person out of prison 
for a state is as much as $20,000 a year, not counting any money that 
person might put back into the system as a taxpayer.

Creating a New Structure

Before being incarcerated at Vaughn Correctional Center near Smyrna, 
Howard Funn, 35, had never held a job for more than 30 days. But 
since his robbery and weapons conviction, Funn said, he has learned 
to get up for work, show up on time and be responsible.

"It's like a work ethic that I'm learning," he said Friday, while 
working in the Smyrna-area facility's laundry unit.

For many Delaware inmates, the jobs they hold while in prison are the 
first legitimate work they've ever done, said Tonya Smith, a support 
services manager at Vaughn Correctional Center. While prison jobs 
don't necessarily translate into jobs on the outside, prisoners get a 
framework they have lacked, she said.

"That's a structure a lot of these guys didn't have out on the streets."

Inmates, who will carry the felon label, know it will be difficult to 
find well-paying jobs once they get out.

Angelo Coles, who was a banquet server before his conviction, worked 
on his kitchen skills while in prison and is now Vaughn Correctional 
Center's top cook.

The 50-year-old Brooklyn native hopes these skills he learned in 
prison will mean a better-paying job when he gets out, but he knows 
he will struggle with his felony conviction and have to take mediocre jobs.

"I'm going to have to crawl," Coles said. "I just need to keep my 
nose to the grindstone." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake