I've been around criminals every day of my life for the past nineteen years. And most of the conversations we have are centered around what we will do once we return home. Getting a job seems like the magic cure to staying free, however a lot of my friends came back to jail often with new charges. I would ask them what happened and the number one answer is, "it's hard out there."
Once I am released, I will be placed in a residential community center or halfway house, and on top of that I still have to serve not one not two but TEN years of probation. That means if it's "too hard" for me and I violate my probation, I'll have to come back and do 120 more months in prison.
If an adult in custody is still using dope, not going to school, not working and hanging out with people doing the same thing, of course it will be hard once he gets out. When you get out, one of the key requirements in the half-way house is that you have to work. You have to be clean to work. So, if you keep burning cups [failing your urine test] and you can’t get a job, you will revert back to your old ways and start hustling.
Eventually your probation officer will tire of you dropping dirty [failing your urine test] and violating your probation period. One of my homies got out and after two years, caught a fresh 15-year sentence for hustling drugs. Someone snitched on him so, he felt like he was the victim. When he was inside, he wasn't working, going to school or anything. He didn’t take part in any of the programs. The programs do work but you have to WANT them to work. It's all in the way you connect with the programs. And not everyone connects; you have to try a different approach for different people.
There are vocational programs, drug classes and a list of other programs that adults in custody can sign up for but they hardly do because they are not eligible for the time cuts. Men need a reason to do the classes because just getting educated is not enough. We have a residential drug program that's a 9-month program, and you get a year off for completing it, plus a year time off from FTC (Federal Time Credit) if you’re eligible.
I didn’t want to be in prison for 35 years so I found my people; the readers, the thinkers, the brothers who wanted better themselves. With the FSA (First Step Act) people who are eligible can earn up to a year off their sentence if they are programming. They have "recidivism levels" high, medium and low. You have to program, earn points and get in low status before you can get the time credit. My recidivism level is LOW however, the gun charge I caught is holding me back from the FTC (Federal Time Credit).
It's up to the offender to change his or her thinking about re-offending. The help is available but we have to be willing to allow the information the programs provided to work for us.
Prisons are grossly over crowded so, of course, there is a lack of funding. This is because the criminal justice system supports giving out maximum sentences for crimes. I was sentenced to 420 months but I was able to get 130 months off my sentence because I was working and programming and staying clean these past 19 years. And I was able to apply for the First Step Act, which took additional time off my sentence, which means I’m getting out next year.
Even if we change the way we sentence offenders, that will not change recidivism. We have to reimagine how we incarcerate our citizens and retrain the correctional officers to handle more than just custody. Recidivism starts with the offender. The probation officers have to deal with their probate differently than the other offenders on his or her case load.
Just like sentencing, we need to adopt a "custom" sentence to fit that particular offender. I do not believe if an offender moves out of his neighborhood, that will keep him out of jail. An offender has to face the fact that he has a problem and deal with it, because there is crime everywhere and a person with a criminal mindset will find crime to get into no matter where he is.
My true test will begin once I am in home. My goal while I am in here is to get as much help as I can so I can stay free when I get out. And that help does not stop once I’m out. I have to keep up with my classes and continue to speak with people that are going through the same thing. It’s an over simplification to say that I will stay clean once I am home. However, the thought of coming back to prison for ten years for violating the terms of my probation is enough motivation for me to stay on the straight and narrow!
And that’s My2Centz.
Good read husband!!