Rehabilitation in Our Prison System
Rehabilitation in our Prison System
Rehabilitation in our Prison System When Jeannette Brown first got out of prison in April 2000, she had nowhere to go. With felony convictions for battery and gun possession, and little education or special skills, Jeannette couldn’t find a job to support her five kids. Had she found one, she still wouldn’t have had a driver’s license or a car to get there. Jeannette met regularly with a parole officer, but their relationship was hostile from the start. Eventually, Jeannette moved in with her boyfriend, who, like some of her past boyfriends, physically abused her because of this Jeannette started abusing alcohol. Within four years, she was back in prison for violating her parole. “I was a two-time loser,” she says. Jeannette’s situation and others like it are one of the biggest problems in corrections. When people like Jeannette get out of prison, they can’t seem to stay out because they have not made the lifestyle changes needed to be productive society members. Jeannette enrolled in the reentry program in 2005, and landed a work release job at a bakery. When she finally walked out of prison in June 2007, she was greeted at the gates by four reentry staffers who took her to her new apartment. It has not been a smooth road for Jeannette, but now she explains, “parole officers used to try to put me back in prison, now I feel like they are trying to keep me out.” These days Jeannette is training to be a supervisor at the bakery. She has regained custody of her children and has moved into a three-bedroom apartment. She has sworn off booze and men, and has signed up as a volunteer to convince prisoners that reentry works. “If you see someone who has walked that line,” she says, “it helps you realize things can change” (Sharrock, 2008). As convicted felons, people are targeted as failures, and are not given opportunities during post-prison rehabilitation. Americana has giving up on trying to
Rehabilitation in our Prison System When Jeannette Brown first got out of prison in April 2000, she had nowhere to go. With felony convictions for battery and gun possession, and little education or special skills, Jeannette couldn’t find a job to support her five kids. Had she found one, she still wouldn’t have had a driver’s license or a car to get there. Jeannette met regularly with a parole officer, but their relationship was hostile from the start. Eventually, Jeannette moved in with her boyfriend, who, like some of her past boyfriends, physically abused her because of this Jeannette started abusing alcohol. Within four years, she was back in prison for violating her parole. “I was a two-time loser,” she says. Jeannette’s situation and others like it are one of the biggest problems in corrections. When people like Jeannette get out of prison, they can’t seem to stay out because they have not made the lifestyle changes needed to be productive society members. Jeannette enrolled in the reentry program in 2005, and landed a work release job at a bakery. When she finally walked out of prison in June 2007, she was greeted at the gates by four reentry staffers who took her to her new apartment. It has not been a smooth road for Jeannette, but now she explains, “parole officers used to try to put me back in prison, now I feel like they are trying to keep me out.” These days Jeannette is training to be a supervisor at the bakery. She has regained custody of her children and has moved into a three-bedroom apartment. She has sworn off booze and men, and has signed up as a volunteer to convince prisoners that reentry works. “If you see someone who has walked that line,” she says, “it helps you realize things can change” (Sharrock, 2008). As convicted felons, people are targeted as failures, and are not given opportunities during post-prison rehabilitation. Americana has giving up on trying to
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