Recidivism with FREE Program - Fulfilling Rehabilitation Employment Efforts

In recent years, rehabilitation seems to have failed in many cases, because, as statistics show, in some cases nearly 2/3 of prisoners released return to jail or prison for new offenses. In order to develop a rehabilitation program that reverses this trend, several steps need to be taken for the rehabilitation process to be effective.

First, the hardened criminals need to be separated from the rest of the prison population. This includes those who committed violent crimes and are in for lengthy, if not life, sentences without the possibility of parole. There needs to be a program set up to help these men and women cope with the stress of incarceration and perhaps make them, at least mentally, active and productive. But, that should be some other rehab project not included here. Also separated from the rehabilitation group are white collar criminals whose devious business practices got them jailed, and chances are, upon release, they need no special training for their future. So, there are two groups to concentrate on- juvenile offenders for whom a proper education and learning certain job skills are a priority, and other criminals who can be rehabilitated and brought back into society with skills and a mental attitude that will prevent them from re-arrests due to having committed criminal acts again.

For the purposes of this essay, let's focus on the rehabilitation of what one might consider "ordinary" criminals. Simply put, why are they criminals? One reason surely is that their job skills and/or mindset did not give them enojgh money to live a decent life. They resorted to burglaries or fraud or muggings because crime paid for them (at least, until they were caught). So, the main job of rehabilitating this group to prevent recidivism is to (1) give them a reason to abandon criminal behavior, (2) provide job skills that are meaningful, and (3) provide the opportunities for employment upon release that gives them the ability to progress in terms of responsibilities and wages.

Given these parameters, what follows here is the suggestion for a pilot program, which includes businesses in the community as well as educators and instructors whose own mindset is to acknowledge that there is hope for a decent and "straight" lifer for the prison population with whom they will be dealing. This program will be entitled FREE- Fulfilling Rehabilitation Employment Efforts. The basis for this program will be top insure that those who "graduate" this program will be offered, and able to accept, meaningful employment upon release- employment that is not at the minimum wage make-work level.

FREE is more than a basic rehabilitation program. The goal is not merely to find useful employment upon release, but the sort of career opportunity that prevents recidivism. FREE has to be an optimistic program, results-oriented- that goes beyond merely finding jobs that keep ex cons busy. Give a man who has not had much of a chance in life the opportunity for a career that can provide income combined with status, and chances are better than current statistics, that he will stay out of a return visit to prison.

Any pilot program has to start with what one might call "baby steps." That means, first, finding the sort of industry or vocation that is both growing and in need of workers that can do the job and grow in it. One such industry is Information Technology (IT). The fact is that already some prisoners are manning phones for customer service or other useful telephone-connected services. What FREE has in mind, however, is not manning a telemarketing or customer service phone, but learning computer skills, from repairing, restoring, installing and maintaining to, perhaps even developing software. We live in a wired world now, and as it expands, there will always be a need for computer-savvy employees. Computer skills can be taught and absorbed, even in prison classes. But, to get results there first must be instructors willing and able- and patient enough- to help teach these skills. Next, there must be arrangements made with industries in the region that will hire, on a probationary basis at first, those who "graduate" and whose skill levels will be productive.

FREE focuses on useful, meaningful and growth-oriented employment. Rehabilitation requires more than a "promise to be law abiding" upon release and/or parole. In order to prevent a return to the penal system, released prisoners have to be provided hope for a future where they can earn a decent living without having to resort to crime. This will require monitoring their progress in the jobs they will be offered. Instead of a parole officer doing this, a designated monitor in the industry or business location where these rehabilitated former inmates will be working will be required to send in regular "grades". The better the grades, the more merit increases in pay and greater responsibilities will be offered.

FREE will be a program that can and should be federally funded, as well as local contributions (in terms of job placement and monitoring services) from local businesses. The incentive is clear: It will be cheaper to fund such a rehabilitation program than the costs of new court trials and re-incarceration. FREE will also make it possible to offer tax breaks (federal and state and municipal, where applicable) for those who take on, continue to train and monitor, and promote when and where possible. The program, if federally and state funded, will also arrange for tax breaks from those who are successful in their rehabilitation and are becoming productive members of the businesses to \which they have been "assigned." Again, from the standpoint of cost, such tax breaks more than offset the costs of the justice system and recidivism.

This rehabilitation program will ask only one thing from those released, working and doing well: They must volunteer (time and place to be determined by individual cases) to come and talk to, perhaps lead, a class in the prison facility to help encourage others that FREE works!!

But, one cannot overlook or ignore prisoners in for long terms. There should be rehabilitation opportunities for them, as well. As mentioned earlier, there are now some telephone services which use prisoners. However, the idea is to create more than some sort of make-work project, in other words, a project where the prisoners can earn money- part of which will go into their accounts for necessities, and another part will go to their families. Among the rehabilitation projects in the case of long-term inmates could be- writing fact-based experiences which would be published' children's stories, as well as the sort of "scared straight" encounters which are utilized in some prisons for juveniles at risk. This "Scared Straight" concept could be put onto videotapes for distribution throughout the country. Again, profits to go to inmates, their families- and, perhaps in some cases, as restitution for victims of their crimes.

It is important to recognize that FREE is a program for both sexes. Currently, it seems that women in prison seem to be "trained" for menial types of occupation- beauty salons, for example. Women should also have an opportunity for more meaningful careers as part of their rehabilitation. Again, the business community must provide the sort of jobs that result in career opportunities- not just daily "work." Given training while still in prison, careers could involve the same sort of computer technology, as well as child care (depending on the crime for which they have been imprisoned), libraries, studies to become paralegals, nurses' or doctors' aides, etc.

This is just the beginning- the "baby steps" to implement rehabilitation that works. The idea of rehabilitation, it must be stressed again, is not just to release someone into society and control his or her actions for a given period of parole time. It is to assimilate that person back into society and have the means and the desire to lead a life that creates opportunities that refute the current recidivism statistics.

If FREE works, then we all benefit, not merely those who had been in prison. FREE's purpose is to reverse the dehumanization that prison an d parole often create.