GOOD DEED, GOOD SENSE

Raise The Bar To Help Felons Rebuild Their Lives

I ran across an item the other day about a group that's trying to make
life easier on felons when they are released from prison.

Doesn't that sound just like something the American Civil Liberties
Union would cook up?

Anyone who would assume that, though, would be wrong.

Last year Gov. Jeb Bush formed a task force to address this
issue.

Here's why average Floridians need to take note: There are 86,000
people held in Florida's prisons. During the next 12 months, 26,000
will be released.

People released from Florida's prisons get $100 and a bus ticket
home.

If you had just spent five or 10 years in a Florida prison and didn't
have a family to welcome you back with open arms, how would you
survive in the free world?

Where would you sleep? How would you get food? Could you find a job
paying decent money even though you had a criminal record?

It would be easy for those of us who don't have a criminal record to
say: "Too bad. I don't care. You shouldn't have broken the law."

That response, though, is a copout. These people are coming out of
prison, whether we like it or not. Do we really want them roaming
around with very little means to take care of themselves?

I don't think so.

Making it easier for released felons to become productive citizens
again is a matter of public safety. Without some help to get on the
right track, the majority of those released convicts will get into
trouble again and maybe hurt some innocent person.

The way Jean Maynard Gonzalez, executive director of the governor's
ex-offender task force, sees it, a third of the people released from
prison are guaranteed to get in trouble again, regardless of what we
do. There's another third who will get out and never break the law
again. Yet there's another third who could go either way.

That's the third to focus on.

And that's exactly what the task force is doing. So far, it has
identified numerous significant roadblocks that impede any released
convict who really wants to turn his life around.

It's impossible to come right out of prison and get a job unless you
have state-issued identification, such as a valid drivers license. If
you've been behind bars for 10 years, it's unlikely that you would
have a license.

In some cases, the task force found that some convicts had never held
a legitimate job before. So many inmates don't even have a Social
Security card -- another prerequisite to get a job.

Of course, the biggest hurdle is to persuade employers to consider
hiring ex-convicts. That's asking a lot. It's understandable that many
people would be wary about hiring former inmates.

But if no one is willing to consider hiring them, then what do we
expect will happen?

I salute Bush for taking on this issue. The notion of making it easier
for felons to re-enter free society is not popular. It is, however,
very smart.

George Crossley, a former Orlando evangelist who served four years in
prison after he was convicted for trying to hire a hit man, said that
very little is done to prepare prisoners for release.

He calls the task force "a little step in the right
direction."

I share Crossley's concern that not enough is done to prepare inmates
for release.

If it were up to me, no prisoner would be released unless he or she
could read, write and do basic math. This is critical because research
shows that academically most Florida prison inmates are funtioning at,
or below, the seventh-grade level. That educational deficiency makes
it even more difficult for them to get jobs, or function, outside the
prison walls.

Research also shows that 85 percent of inmates come in to prison with
drug problems. The prison system has treatment programs, but are they
adequate? I've known people who came out of prison and quickly
relapsed into drug use. Any released convict with a persistent drug
problem is a public-safety threat.

Beyond all that, I wish that all inmates were sent to a work-release
center in the last year before they leave the prison system's
jurisdiction.

That's the best way to ease their re-entry into society. They would
work in real jobs during the day and return to the center at night.
That way, they still would be monitored closely. Certainly, some of
them would commit new crimes. If they should, send them back to the
Big House with a new stiff sentence.

For the others, work release would give them time to find a place to
live, earn some money and the opportunity to lay the foundation to
rebuild their lives.

Everybody likes to talk tough about crime. Building prisons is easy.
Helping convicts build productive lives is difficult, but also more
rewarding.