Last fall, the Directors of Family ReEntry viewed a TED Talk by Dan Pallotta titled, "The Way We Think About Charity is Dead Wrong." In his talk, Pallotta discussed social innovation and social entrepreneurship, and called upon the nonprofit community to ask ourselves the question, How Do We Change the World?
How Do We Change the World? It was, and is, a daunting challenge.
If we believe in a vision imagined by
Buckminister Fuller as hopeful as a “world that works for everyone,” we must put important questions on the table, like: What is our great vision of criminal justice reform
here in Connecticut and across the country? Where are we now? How did we get here? What do
we want to achieve? How do we achieve it? What partners do we need in the
conversation?
We set out to tackle this head-on. Together with colleagues and some of the best and most innovative
consultants in the country (notably, our friend and my co-author
Sarah Diamond, PhD), we envisioned a changed world where we
solve the “criminal justice problem” by devoting our attention and
resources to healing families and communities. Our goal is to provide first chance opportunities to at-risk
people so that their entry into the criminal justice system is not likely or inevitable. Or, if
they are already in the system, to provide them with the first chance
they never received.
That is, we intend to change the world by serving as conveners of stakeholders in this important conversation, and disruptors of the broken criminal justice status quo.
A First Chance Society: Supporting a Second Chance Society with First Chance Opportunities
Nobody knows the failures of our criminal justice
system better than the individuals and families impacted by
incarceration and the community-based organizations which serve them.
Without the voices of people who have been most impacted by the system,
and an in-depth understanding and valuing of their humanity and life
experiences, our reform efforts are likely to continue to fall short.
Drawing upon our many years of providing critical services in mental
health, domestic violence prevention and reentry for thousands of
individuals and families each year, Family ReEntry introduces the
concept of a First Chance Society to contribute to the dialogue in
Connecticut and the country about reimagining our criminal justice system and towards
building a shared vision for social change.
We whole-heartedly agree with and support
Governor Malloy’s Second Chance Society goals of seeking long-term
solutions to criminal justice reform that “invest in permanent
improvement and reformation instead of permanent punishment.” However,
we believe that this vision must be taken a step further to address the
root causes of mass incarceration, especially with regards to the
association between poverty, zip code, race/ethnicity, health
disparities and who ends up behind bars. We wish to expand our vision for criminal
justice reform by advocating for a First Chance Society, which provides
genuine opportunities for those at risk of falling through the cracks
and who are being left behind in our post-industrial, globalizing
economy.
A First Chance Society is a society in which
fewer people end up involved in a punitive criminal justice system in
the first place. We are inspired by Pope Francis’ call to leaders to
reach out to those who’ve been left out from the global economy and to,
“Give them a voice, listen to their stories, learn from
their experiences, understand their needs.”
What would a society look like in which every
child and adult, no matter their family of origin, socio-economic
background, or zip code had a chance to succeed and was provided the
quality education, skills, resources and opportunities they needed to
live a successful and fulfilling life? Can we transform our criminal
justice system to be more aligned with first chances, or must the system
itself be dismantled? What will this new eco-system for a First Chance
Society look like?
Below are five intentionally thought-provoking
statements to spur further community dialogue toward a society that not
only embraces Second Chances, but also looks toward providing First
Chance opportunities for the people of Connecticut and our nation as a
whole.
Our Prisons have become Warehouses for the Poor
A 2015 report by the Prison Policy Initiative confirms the link between poverty and incarceration [1] in determining that, “in 2014 dollars, incarcerated people had a median
annual income of $19,185 prior to their incarceration, which is 41% less
than non-incarcerated people of similar ages.” In other words, the
people who are in prison are largely concentrated at the lowest end of
the U.S. income distribution. As the authors of this study note, policy
reforms at the federal, state and local level can go a long way to
removing barriers for people returning home from prison to go back to
school, become gainfully employed, reunite with their families etc.
“Reversing the decades-old policies that make it more difficult for
people with criminal records to succeed may require political courage,
but the options are plentiful and often straightforward.” However,
these reforms are insufficient to address the conditions that lead to
imprisonment for crime in the first place. “Our single-minded focus on
imprisonment, has blinded us to the needs of entire communities.” As the
authors conclude,
Permanently ending the era of mass incarceration
will require reversing the decades of neglect that denied our most
vulnerable communities access to good jobs, reliable transportation,
safe housing, and good schools. Making these long-delayed investments in
the basic building blocks of strong and stable communities will ensure
that, once we turn the corner on mass incarceration, we never turn back.[2]
Despite a System that is Broken, we must Find
Ways for People to become Whole
Quoting Dianne Jones, Director of Reentry for the
City of Hartford, “If the system itself is broken, how can we expect
people to become whole again?” Much like critiques of our health care
system, our criminal justice system is heavily fragmented and siloed,
resulting in poor continuity of care for those whom we serve and for
their families. Individuals returning from prison tend to have complex,
multi-dimensional needs. Their families too typically suffer collateral
consequences from both the criminal behavior and challenges encountered
in navigating and interfacing with the system itself. When agencies
operate in silos to try to serve people returning from prison, the
system becomes inefficient and costly, and people are less likely to
succeed. Without their basic needs met and proper supports, many
individuals end up falling back into old patterns that landed them in
the system in the first place.
At Family Reentry, we understand that
our ability to serve our clients and their families is directly
proportional to the degree to which the various other services they
depend on (e.g. housing, job training, employment, legal aid, etc.) are
well-integrated and implemented as part of a comprehensive and timely
reentry plan. Thus, we invite our community partners and stakeholders
in the criminal justice system to join us in creating a better, more interdependent eco-system for individuals returning from prison (and their families),
with the shared goal of ensuring that they and their families have all
that they need to be successful.
Reentry Begins at the Time of a Person’s Arrest
A simple way to consider this statement is that
the fewer people we arrest and detain or incarcerate as a society, the
fewer people for whom we will then later need to provide reentry
services. So one way to reduce mass incarceration is to explore whether
or not our legal sanctions are proportional to the harm done by the
crime and are necessary to keep others safe. Focusing on the time of
arrest also calls to mind efforts to address unconscious bias and other
factors contributing to police making false arrests. With years of
emphasis on making sure we provide culturally and linguistically
competent services to everyone in our catchment area and in supporting
efforts to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in our criminal justice
system, Family ReEntry encourages dialogue around what each of us can do
to make sure that our justice system is doling out justice equitably.
Another dimension to this statement has to do
with the question of when a person’s process of rehabilitation begins?
In a hospital, for example, discharge planning starts on the day of a person's admission.
For some this process could begin when they first start to feel guilt or
regret for their crime. Feeling the weight of the law at the time of
arrest may also spur people to start to rethink their past actions and
consider its consequences. For those involved in patterns of criminal
behavior, the process of rehabilitation involves learning new ways of
thinking and skills to break these patterns. Family ReEntry has a
strong track record of providing effective preventive services via youth
mentoring and domestic violence prevention for individuals in diversion
or court-mandated programs. We invite dialogue regarding creative ways
we as a community can work to elevate the consciousness of a person
such that they are less likely to break the law, and to cause harm to
others. And we support efforts to explore the role of restorative
justice in our criminal justice system or other methods of addressing
crime used in other countries that support rehabilitation over
punishment.
Hurt People, Hurt People
Many people who commit violent crimes or who have
substance abuse disorders have experienced some sort of family
violence, addiction and trauma in their own lives, often as children.
The criminal justice system itself adds another layer of trauma, as
people who have been incarcerated know all too well. Then the stigma
and barriers to rebuilding their lives, such as accumulated child
support payments and court fines, can compound people’s suffering even
after they have served their time. Thus, part of the solution to
reducing crime must rest with equipping people with the tools and
support they need to heal from traumatic experiences and also making
sure our system of justice and society becomes more humane.
From years of providing mental health services
for people with high rates of trauma, Family ReEntry knows that healing
the trauma of a person who has been incarcerated and involving his
or/her family members in the process is not just something that can be
accomplished by prescribing a pill or offering only a brief
intervention, though these may help some. Healing can take many years
and most people need ongoing social support in order to recover from
cumulative traumas and learn healthy coping mechanisms required to lead
healthy and productive lives. At Family ReEntry we are interested in
exploring ways that we as a society can better support the process of
healing that must take place in individuals and families, especially in
our neighborhoods with the highest rates of crime. How can we as a
society invest in preventing people from being hurt, from healing people
who are hurt, and making our systems more trauma-informed? What
diverse healing practices and safe spaces already exist in our
communities and what funds can be catalyzed to grow them?
Let us Create a First Chance Society Movement
We invite everyone to join us in building a
movement in support of a second chance society, with first chance
opportunities. Please let your voices be heard by sharing with us your
thoughts on how best to give everyone in society first chances so as to
make our communities safer, healthier, and more peaceful: firstchancesociety@familyreentry.org.
Gratefully,
Jeff Grant, JD, M Div, Executive Director, Family ReEntry, Inc.
Sarah Diamond, PhD, Founder, Diamond Research Consulting, LLC
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| Envisioning a First Chance Society |
