"Work in Progress" -Giving Former Prisoners A Chance
Wednesday, May 24, 2006LINDA O`BRYON: Every year in the United States, 650,000 men and women are released from prison to make their way in free society. But many never find jobs, and that dramatically increases the odds they will eventually find their way back into a cellblock. As our "Work in Progress" series continues, Washington bureau chief Darren Gersh looks at how one state prison system, Louisiana`s, is trying to better the odds of going straight.
DARREN GERSH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: The Dixon Correctional Institute is tucked into the Louisiana countryside north of Baton Rouge. There are 1,524 beds here and they are all full.
JAMES LEBLANC, WARDEN, DIXON CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTE: Most of you want to do the right thing.
GERSH: For Warden James LeBlanc, repeat business is the problem.
LEBLANC: One out of two of you are coming back to us and that`s something that we are trying to change.
GERSH: A stint as acting director overseeing the state`s probation and parole department convinced LeBlanc that the old way of doing things was not making his state safer. Inmates were leaving prison unprepared for free society and half of them ended up coming back.
LEBLANC: Our institutions go to great lengths in providing opportunities for the inmate populations. We do some good things with educational programs, vocational programs, substance abuse, but then we tie a concrete block on them around their feet and drop them off in the ocean off the front gate.
GERSH: At DCI, LeBlanc piloted a new philosophy that has now spread to all Louisiana prisons: every inmate gets a re-entry plan and 100 hours of pre- release training to prepare them for free society. Prison officials also help identify inmates eligible for outside programs like Louisiana Community Prisoner Reformation, or CPR.
UCY LONG, PROGRAM COORDINATOR, LOUISIANA CPR: For some of you who may not know this, I spent 20 years, three months and 15 days in prison. That`s right.
GERSH: Ucy Long was behind bars for armed robbery. Today, he is the coordinator for Louisiana CPR. The counselors here help non-violent, non- sex offenders find housing, transportation and work. Long knows from experience it won`t be easy for these men to return to the violent streets of New Orleans.
LONG: Choices. One mistake can cost you the rest of your life guys. When you get out of here, you think about that.
GERSH: A bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress is now pushing the second chance act to provide up to $300 million to expand reentry efforts like this. The idea is to cover more of the 650,000 men and women released from prison every year. The economic stakes are high. The best estimate is that 7 percent of the adult workforce has served time behind bars. And for minorities, the figure may be closer to 30 percent. Joey Portera is one of the first to go through the CPR program. He spent three years in prison for selling drugs. Now Portera has changed his priorities.
JOEY PORTERA, LA-CPR PARTICIPANT: I got kids, I got a wife. I am starting all over. I got to get some income as soon as possible so I can start getting my life back together. I`m just hoping my education and experience will beat the felony conviction.
GERSH: Portera will soon find out. At one minute past midnight, he`s a free man. His father and wife are waiting at the front gate. Early the next morning, Portera begins his first day with a visit to his parole office. Then, a job coordinator at Louisiana CPR takes him to the state`s one-stop job center.
The job search is one of the most difficult parts of the reentry process. Pre-employment criminal background checks are now routine. Some state laws make it illegal to hire ex-offenders for work in places like schools and nursing homes. Researchers have found up to two-thirds of ex- offenders have not found regular jobs a year after their release, but New Orleans may be different. Nine months after hurricane Katrina, the labor market is still tight.
BETTINA BUVAL, MANAGER, NEW ORLEANS WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT: It`s giving people a chance to be competitive for jobs where employers at first wouldn`t give them a second glance.
GERSH: After a week of searching, the Louisiana CPR program lands Portera a job as a longshoreman. He makes $10 an hour and when we went back to talk with him, he had been on the job for close to a month.
PORTERA: It`s a good place to start, especially coming home straight from prison and it definitely beats working upstate for free.
GERSH: But the transition to free society is never easy. Portera`s son was born while his father was in prison. It`s a new experience, balancing the pressures of work and family.
PORTERA: When you come home, a lot of those responsibilities like the light bill, the rent, groceries, dog food, diapers -- all that stuff that you forgot about? Back in action.
GERSH: The long hours on the dock are stressful and hot, but Portera says it`s a chance to begin building a better future for his family. Darren Gersh, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, New Orleans.
KANGAS: Tomorrow, working in home health care can be risky, especially when you don`t have health insurance. That`s the final installment of our series, "Work in Progress".
