Paying a Debt to Society - Then What?

Prisoner number 33765-183 walked out of the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas last week. He'd been sentenced to 23 months but he got out a bit early for good behavior. He'll serve the last two months of his sentence in home confinement.

The point is - prisoner number 33765-183 did the crime and he did the time. Now, what will the rest of Michael Vick's life be like?

Vick was, of course, an NFL quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons when it was revealed that for five years he'd been running a brutal dogfighting operation from his 15 acre country home in Virginia. Why he'd be involved in such a blood lust venture is anybody's guess. He certainly didn't need the money. He had a 71 million dollar contract with the Falcons, 50 million dollars worth of endorsement deals and 20 million in bonuses. He had fancy houses and cars and the world gave him that royal-like treatment reserved for athletes incorrectly called sports 'heroes'.

Now, he's lost just about everything. The 28 year old Vick has filed for bankruptcy. His court approved after-prison plan includes a ten dollar an hour construction job, a far cry from the gridiron-to-the-nightclub life Vick once led. Like so many prisoners who do their time and gain their freedom Vick must start over.

Vick's future will be ultimately rosier than other just-released prisoners. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says he's willing to rethink Vick's status, "when the legal process (is) closed." Although the Falcons shut the door, let's face it, Vick is a proven football player. If he can demonstrate he's still got it, another team could pick him up in a wink. And his P.R. blitz includes working with the Humane Society to stamp out dogfighting. Sweet re-entry to life on the outside.

It's clear Michael Vick is no angel but what he went to prison for is considerably less serious than countless other convicts. Many of them are career criminals and their readjustment to life on the outside doesn't go so smoothly. They deal drugs, rob and kill helpless people and commit sex crimes. And after they get out, the latest figures show, about 60% of males will re-offend and be back in prison within 3 years. That's the bad news about our in-prison rehabilitation efforts.

The good news is that leaves another 40% of ex-prisoners who I'd like to think really, earnestly want to be better people, to build better lives. Okay, my name isn't Pollyanna and I know a good chunk of that 40% likely returns to crime and just never gets caught. But a percentage of criminals, who've paid their debt to society, truly want to become whole, functioning, taxpaying citizens. The question is what are we doing to help them? After all, their success would be to our benefit, right?

As it stands now we convict them, we house them, we spit them back out on the pavement and except for some probation officer checking on them once in a while they mostly hit the streets in the same state of preparedness for life as when they went in. Except after prison they've got that unmistakable taint of ex-con on them that never goes away.

Unlike Michael Vick who has a group waiting to take him under a protective wing, many of the offenders we release hardly have a clue where to start their new lives. They'll face housing and job discrimination, they'll forever be asked on applications Have you ever been convicted of a crime? And while a majority of them have the brains to work out the high finance of major crime deals few will ever be nurtured in the ways of legitimate business. No wonder the recidivism rate is so high! There is no such thing as the deal Eddie Murphy got as an ex-con in the movie Trading Places when two millionaire brothers suddenly gave him the chance to run their enterprise.

I'm a firm believer in the idea that you make your choices, you live with the consequences. But these people are a drain on all the rest of us. And, we're about to get a double barrel shot of reality. There's now a wave of aging baby boomer prisoners getting out and budget cuts are forcing states to grant early release to tens of thousands more.

We didn't think ahead. We spent so many billions on locking up people - housing, feeding, clothing them - that we forgot to prepare them for how to fit in once they got out. Shame on us.
Unless we refocus the justice system's priorities and figure out better ways to incarcerate and deal with those who commit crimes we are going to continue to pay the price for them long after they re-join us here on the legit side of life. ###

Diane Dimond can be reached via her web site: www.DianeDimond.net

Comments

[Numapompilius]

Thank you Diane. Is it true that the US carceral population is around 2.3 million ? The incarceration rate is 760 per 100 000, and interestingly, Europe has a rate 10 times lower. Do you have an idea regarding the cause of this ?
You make a good point regarding imprisonment cost and resocialisation. What do these 2.3 million prisoners cost per year ?
Do the draconian punishments have some learning effect ?

[Diane Dimond - Huffpost Blogger]

lots of questions here ....
some answers: 1 out of every 100 Americans is in lockup or under some post-prison parole program. Think of that 1 out of every 100 Americans.
On average it costs about 40 thousand dollars a year PER PRISONER. Don't hold me to it but I think the total cost for arresting, prosecuting, imprisoning is about 80 BILLION dollars a year in America. And that's a low estimate.
80 billion a year and rising. I think we're doing something wrong.... Read more on my thoughts on this here: http://dianedimond.net/prisoners-we-cant-pay-for/

~ DD