FREEING OFFENDERS' VOICES

Five Questions

Q: What is the task force's mission?

A: The goal is to identify barriers to ex-offenders' reentry into the
community. There are more than 30,000 people who will be returning to
communities from prison this year. The governor has taken a national
leadership role in this situation. If we can identify barriers, we can also
make recommendations to eliminate them. It's the barriers that lead to
recidivism. The task force represents a shift from the hard-on-crime
concept to one that is smart on crime.

Q: What elements must be in place for ex-offenders to reintegrate into a
community?

A: They need family support. Family ties are eliminated because of
circumstance. You lose track of your children. Often offenders are too far
away geographically to maintain a connection. Also, people who have found
faith while in the system and were supported when they walked outside the
door have an advantage.

The task force sees three top opportunities -- housing, employment and
education. The reentry process starts when you first go to prison. One
group is studying education and substance-abuse counseling. Another is
focusing on community coalitions.

Q: You bring the perspective of an ex-offender. Why were you once imprisoned?

A: I surrendered to federal prison in 1999 and served 15 1/2 months for a
mail-fraud conviction. It was an opportunity to see the inside the way
others haven't. Now I'm speaking on behalf of the thousands of people in
prison today. The ability to give voice is a very difficult process to
them. People like myself, who are somewhat privileged and have the ability
to do so, should.

Q: Who is in Florida prisons?

More men than women, predominantly African American and Hispanic, the
populations most at risk. They are in the age range between 25-40; a lot of
them are parents. People really don't know who is in prison. Would they be
surprised that a woman with a drug addiction has been placed in prison for
10 years and lost her children?

Not all prisoners are violent criminals. There are a lot of first- timers
in the system who need support. The rising crisis in our state is that more
and more women are going to prison. That's more indicative of the drug
culture, affecting women and their families.

Often women will go to prison for having lived with someone in the drug
trade. When the bust comes down, they bust everybody. She may not be a
dealer, but she's going to prison.

Q. Ex-offenders are feared, shunned and marginalized. How do you make
people care?

A: That's our biggest challenge. Every member of the task force is up
against that perception. We have to give a human face to who we are talking
about and the people we are working on behalf of. They are just like us.
What separates us is economic circumstance, lack of education, lack of
opportunity. We have to stop broad-brushing who they are.

We need to make sure that business leaders understand who they are. Most of
the people exiting prison have a skill set of survival. They appreciate a
second chance. We must engage the community and enhance support for them.

Once people start to talk to them, they see their human side is far more
prevalent than the mistakes they made. We shouldn't be judged by the
mistake, but by what we made out of the mistake.

Herald Editorial Board member Nancy Ancrum prepared this report.

Vicki Lopez Lukis, of Coral Gables, is a member of Gov. Bush's Ex-
Offenders Task Force.