EX-FELONS FACE HURDLES AFTER PRISON

Re the Sept. 18 Five Questions interview Freeing offenders' voices:
As an ex-convict, I have some suggestions on how the Florida
Department of Corrections could ease offenders' assimilation into the
community.

First, when I was in prison, work release was a privilege. Yet this
likely is the only way that people could legitimately save some money
and have a gentler transition back into society. The DOC doesn't
allow people with good behavior to go to work release if they have a
drug charge unless they complete a drug-treatment program. But the
treatment programs are a joke, and the department seems to prefer to
have inmates with weed-eaters along Florida highways.

Second, the state should give ex-cons the right to vote once we have
served our sentence.We pay taxes, and therefore we should have
representation. I have been waiting for four years, conviction-free,
to have my voting rights restored.

Third, I can't be licensed to work in many fields, from massage
therapy to being a lawyer to cutting hair. These and many other
professions deny licenses to ex-felons, setting up hurdles for us to
making a living legally.

Finally, DOC's mission should change from punishment to
rehabilitation, making it a priority. Job training, education and
economic opportunity are the biggest reducers of recidivism
statistically. Yet Florida makes none of these parameters a priority
in our prisons.

I realize that people think those who commit crimes, even nonviolent
victimless crimes, deserve to be punished for our indiscretions. But
they should think about this: I was treated like an animal for 2 1/2
years; I worked at gunpoint on a chain gang because authorities
refused to send me to work release. I was sent home with only $100
cash. I'm not allowed to work, am denied financial aid to go to
college and may not even be able to get licensed in the field that I
have gone to school to learn -- acupunture.

Is it any wonder that ex-convicts end up back in prison? Working at a
dead-end, minimum wage job is not a life. Even Pizza Hut said that it
couldn't promote me, no matter how great an employee I was.

Anthony Lorenzo

Sarasota