SYSTEM'S 'BACK END' NEGLECTED

Stan Basler During a recent forum hosted by the Citizens League of Central
Oklahoma, panelists and the audience considered the paradoxical nature of
prisoner re-entry policy: "Is $50 and a Bus Ticket Good Policy for Oklahoma?"

Imagine that you have been locked up for at least three years in Oklahoma
prisons and jails. You have made few choices for yourself. Today you are
released with a $50 check and no place will cash it for you for free.
Suddenly it's up to you to feed and clothe yourself, find a place to live
(without a rental history or deposit money), find health care, address
substance treatment needs, find transportation, look for work, and, if you
are lucky, begin a job that likely will pay only subsistence wages for the
foreseeable future.

You have been accustomed to wearing penal clothing with "INMATE" stamped on
the back. You would like respect and acceptance, but the court wants money,
parole fees must be paid and many prospective employers will dismiss your
application categorically because you are a convicted felon. You need
companionship with positive, compassionate role models. The people you know
are the "old crowd"-- folks with whom you did drugs or crime.

Welcome back to society.

We, the taxpayers, supported these people to the tune of $16,000 per year
during their incarceration. Many people believe that $50 and a bus ticket
is enough. They argue that investing resources in released prisoners
rewards criminal behavior. Yet our hope is they will be productive,
law-abiding taxpayers themselves upon release.

If the social and economic hurdles are formidable, at some point many just
give up and resume the old criminal lifestyle. Within three years of
release, 67 percent are re-arrested and 26.2 percent return to prison.
Isn't it good business to ensure the provision of the most basic human
needs to ex-prisoners -- food, shelter, job, health care and treatment,
transportation and acceptance?

The average Oklahoma inmate leaves prison with $318; 30 percent are
released with just $50. Usually inmates have at least $2,000 in court costs
alone to repay, not to mention past-due child support, restitution and
other fees. Family relationships must be rebuilt. Many have health needs.
By statute, occupational licensure in a number of trades and professions is
denied to felons. Every session, the Oklahoma Legislature creates new
felony categories and increases some prison sentences.

My 10th-grade civics teacher in Bartlesville once said: "When a person is
released from prison, they have paid their debt to society. It is our duty
as citizens to treat them accordingly." One principle of restorative
justice, an alternative to a retributive system, is that true justice is
recognizing that the victim, the offender and community all have needs.
Justice requires addressing the needs of each. As a society we devote
considerable attention to the "front end" of the criminal justice and
corrections complex. The "back end," release and recidivism, affects the
front end.

Wouldn't it be wise policy to look at the system, and the people affected
by it, on both ends?

Basler, an ordained Methodist minister, is director of Criminal Justice and
Mercy Ministries, of the Oklahoma United Methodist Conference.