Why is it important for us all to be proximate with post incarcerated men and reduce the recidivism rate?
What if every decision you made was based upon your own instinct. No guidance, love support from family and/or mentorship. Lets say you were raised in a broken home and had no one to guide you on the correct path. You make one bad decision and now you are incarcerated serving time. Your broken heart that has been chipped over the years has developed anger, confusion, and instability.
I can relate too many of the feelings and emotions growing up from humble beginnings. My father was incarcerated and was a victim to drug abuse. Growing up in a single parent household was not always easy. I understand the pain and neglect that one may feel and how easy it is to make bad decisions.
Prison Ministry Changed My Life
I served within the Kairos ministry with my co-founders (Marty Hermann & Dan Burley) on many occasions going inside maximum level prisons. We would travel up to 7 hours one way on a busy afternoon to Salinas Valley Prison to support men in Prison with our Northern CA Kairos brothers. We listened to thousands of incarcerated men speak about how they were going to change their lives once released from prison. Many inmates would share that it was difficult to find a job once being released.
The struggles of trying to find a job would land them back to doing the same criminal activity that got them incarcerated in the first place. Some post incarcerated men have been in the prison system for over decades. How hard would it be to find a job after being incarcerated for over 20 years?
Take a moment and reflect, you are released from prison with $200.00 and now you have to catch up with technology, society, and politics and pray that you can survive on your own. These are some of the conditions that the men and/or women are faced with while being post incarcerated. It is not an easy battle as you are now free to do make decisions in a world on your own.
Post Incarcerated Men are Unemployed 5 Times More Than General Public
Statistical data and studies have shown that post incarcerated people are approximately five times more like than the general public to be unemployed. There are more disadvantages to employment if you are a person of color. However, there are advantages to hiring someone that is post incarcerated.
Fortunately, research shows that those with prior criminal justice system contact want to work and that hiring them can benefit both employers and the general public:
- Research based on 1.3 million United States military enlistees shows that those with criminal records were promoted more quickly and to higher ranks than other enlistees, and had the same attrition rates due to poor performance as their peers without records.
- A study of job performance among call center employees found that individuals with criminal records had longer tenure and were less likely to quit than those without records.
- One longitudinal study out of Johns Hopkins Hospital found that after “banning the box” on initial applications and making hiring decisions based on merit and the relevance of prior convictions to particular jobs, hired applicants with criminal records exhibited a lower turnover rate than those with no records. (By Lucius Couloute and Daniel Kopf)
I spoke to some men that were terrified with re-entering society because they have been incarcerated for decades.
We all provided a series of talks where we poured our own struggles and battles that we are still overcoming on a day to day basis. We have built trust and a solid relationship with our inmates, talked about goals, career planning and shared an ear to many post incarcerated men.
Our analysis shows that formerly incarcerated people are unemployed at a rate of over 27% — higher than the total U.S. unemployment rate during any historical period, including the Great Depression.
We can all contribute to change within our communities by investing our time and resources making a difference within one another. We can utilize our knowledge, skills and abilities to uplift a post incarcerated man and/or woman. My pastor stated that it is important to be proximate, which will lead to empathy and unity. Our experiences has allowed us to gain a greater understanding to providing resources and making a difference in this world.
Figure 1. The unemployment rate of formerly incarcerated people in 2008 (the most recent year for which data are available) was 27.3% (compared to 5.8% in the general public), exceeding even the highest level of unemployment ever recorded in the U.S. (24.9%), during the Great Depression.
Article by: Darnell Johnson
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