Hearing of the House Committee on Government Reform: Confronting Recidivism: Prisoner Re-Entry Programs and a Just Future for All Americans

HEARING OF THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM: CONFRONTING RECIDIVISM: PRISONER RE-ENTRY PROGRAMS AND A JUST FUTURE FOR ALL AMERICANS

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Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much.

Let me thank you, first of all, for your leadership and sensitivity that you have displayed not only to this issue but also the sensitivity in rescheduling the hearing so that those Democrats who would have found it difficult to be here and at the retreat can now do both.

I also want to commend the ranking member, Mr. Cummings, for his upstanding leadership not only on this issue but many
others, especially those related to crime and justice in our country.

Of course, it is good to be here with Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and Representative Shays, two of the most outstanding Members, along with Representative Clay.

One of the highlights of being a Member of Congress has actually been working with Representative Portman on this
legislation. I want to commend him for his outstanding leadership, for his sensitivity, his understanding and awareness of what I consider to be one of the most difficult challenges and problems facing urban America especially.

All of us are aware of the fact that rehabilitating and reintegrating prisoners back into society continues to loom as one of the great needs of our day. The high rates of incarceration over the last decade have made this need all the more urgent as large numbers of individuals with felony convictions are coming to the end of their sentences.

During his State of the Union address last year, President Bush said, ``600,000 inmates will be released from prison back
into society this year, and these Americans are in need of help.''

We can expect on an annual basis that this large number of released inmates from prison will continue for the next 5 years
at least and beyond.

Also, let us be mindful that local jails are releasing 7 million people each year. Many of these individuals, as you have already heard, are never able to find a decent place to live, cannot access various entitlement programs such as public housing, financial assistance for college and, in some instances, food stamps and are oftentimes denied employment because of their past criminal convictions.

Statistics show that nearly 52 percent of all of these individuals will end up back in jail. As these men and women transition from incarceration to freedom, what they need most are comprehensive reentry solutions. With implementation of the Second Chance Act, Community Safety Through Recidivism Prevention, it calls for improving and establishing an effective reentry system to assess and change those barriers that prevent ex-offenders from making a successful transition from prison to normal community life.

The Second Chance Act contains demonstration projects that will focus on providing ex-offenders with education, job training, substance abuse and after-care treatment and assist ex-offenders with employment and securing housing upon release
from prison.

In addition, it will create a Federal interagency task force to identify programs and resources on reentry and ways for improving and changing the barriers that prevent ex-offenders from living a normal, responsible and productive life in society.

Also, the Second Chance Act will establish a resource center for States, local governments, service providers, corrections and community organizations to collect and disseminate best practices and provide training and support around reentry.

The Second Chance Act is a good first step that will provide a directional approach as to what works in trying to increase public safety, reduce the cost of crime and lower the recidivism rate. Prevention, treatment and rehabilitation are just as important as incarceration. These men, women and children still have to live in our communities.

Increasing public safety is a primary concern of our communities and neighborhoods throughout the country. Although we know it is going to be difficult, it can be done. For example, in the State of Illinois last year there were 57 job titles that an ex-offender could not hold by statute. The legislature has removed 18 of those, and now there are 38 occupational categories where you can't work without some form of waiver.

For example, ex-offenders were not allowed to be a barber, to cut hair, a nail technician, cosmetologist, cannot be a custodian in a hospital or cut the grass around a medical center or watch dishes at a nursing home. Many of these ex-offenders were convicted of nonviolent offenses, mainly drug offenses, so it is extremely difficult for ex-offenders to find housing and get a job after they have paid their debt to society. We must ensure that everyone has the opportunity to be productive citizens in this country.

Everyone deserves a second chance. The bill before us now by my colleague Rob Portman and I will start the process when
it becomes law to give ex-offenders hope to transition themselves back into community life.

Finally, in my district I work a great deal with people in the community. I have 31 task groups and work groups. And one of those is an ex-offenders task force which represents a broad group of members from national, local civil rights organizations, ex-offenders themselves, law enforcement officials, elected officials, community actions, faith-based organizations, block clubs, businesses.

The task force convened several focus meetings to explore the problems and make recommendations, and in every nstance
one of the basic needs that ex-offenders indicated that they had was the need to find a place to stay, the need to have a house, the need to have a place that they could go to once they are released from prison.

Therefore, as a result of that, we introduced H.R. 2166, the Public Safety Ex-offender Self-sufficiency Act, which is designed to provide structured living arrangements for ex-offenders by building 100,000 units of SRO-type housing throughout the country, using a system of tax credits we call an ex-offender tax credit, where States would receive credits on the basis of the number of ex-offenders living in the State.

Finally, I agree with Representative Portman. There is no way that you can seriously have a reentry program that works without substance abuse treatment. The correlation between drug use and crime commission is so high until, in many nstances,
they are almost one and the same. So if we are going to seriously rehabilitate ex-offenders and help them find their way back, then we must provide resources for treatment. We call it treatment on demand, where when a person decides that they are ready for drug treatment they ought to be able to receive it.

So I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to testify. We put that initiative on the ballot in Cook County in the last election. A group of community residents, ex-offenders themselves, and 1.2 million people in Cook County voted to say yes we want to put some more money into substance abuse treatment, because we know it is a good investment.

I thank you very much and appreciate being here.

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Mr. Davis of Illinois. Well, I think it speaks to the issue of coordination, and I would agree with you that there are many disparate programs that exist. But I think this helps to bring those programs and centralize them so that everybody, and if not everybody, many people now know what is, in fact, available.

But I think the other thing that it does, as we continue the discussion, the big problem is you can have a program to find jobs, but if companies won't hire anybody, you just got a program. And my point is that it helps raise the level of awareness to the extent that potential employers begin to understand that it is also in their best interest to find ways to help put some of these individuals to work.

Mr. Cummings. One of the things I had established long before I came to Congress, a volunteer program to help inmates
coming out of our boot camp. We found that they were very--the boot camp seemed to be very effective. But once they got out of the boot camp, they went back, as I think Congresswoman Norton was saying, to the same neighborhood, hanging with the same people, doing the same thing. So they went back.

One of the things that we discovered, though, was that if we could redirect, you know, the people that they hung with and
the things that they did, and could find them jobs--and we also had some volunteers that come in and do counseling, basically
the kinds of things you are talking about--it could be very effective. But it was very effective. I was so glad to hear you talk about jobs, both of you, because without a job you go right back to the same old things.

On that note, Congressman Davis, one of the things that happened is that as people began--companies began to hire people from our little program, they did--the guys went out and ladies went out there and did just such a great job, they started asking us for the folks that were in the program, because, you know--so one thing led to another. So there is a rainbow out here, we just have to make sure we can reach it.

Mr. Davis of Illinois. Especially if we train them well.

Mr. Cummings. Right.

Mr. Davis of Illinois. Work ethic. All of the things that go with it. It is kind of a two-way street. You have to meet the individual halfway if the individual is ready to do that. That's what we have to attempt to do.

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Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Let me thank each one of the witnesses for their testimony.

Listening to all of the things that we continued to hear, my question really goes to Mr. Russell and to Ms. Hogan. Could you project what your life might be like if you had not come into contact with some help? I am saying we often look at the statistic that 67 percent of the individuals would probably reoffend within the 3-year period if they didn't find some kind of help.

So would you just project what you think your life might be like if you had not come in contact with some help?

Ms. Hogan. Yes. I could basically say that if I hadn't gotten the help from a social worker, that, you know, my children were in Child Protective Services, I can predict pretty much if I had kept using and going in and out of jail that my children would be gone. And because addiction is a disease, once--you know, if it's left untreated, you get fatal results.

So I don't think I would be here today if I was still using and going in and out of jail. And I am thankful that I had someone that took interest in me to help me.

Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you.

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Mr. Davis of Illinois. Mr. Mata, Mr. Quander, both of you are professionals in the field, in the business. As you do the work that you do on a regular basis, what do you think can really put the seal on and become a real breakthrough?

We know that there are many individual programs throughout the country, but they are oftentimes so meager, so minor, so small, and we are missing so many people who never come into contact with the program, who never get touched.

What becomes a real breakthrough for this problem across the Nation?

Mr. Quander. I will try to respond this way. I think you actually need a movement, you need a concerted effort whereby the focus of reentry and prisoners actually takes on the character of the movement so that everyone is aware of the issues and everyone is focused on what some of the solutions are.

Some of the solutions are pretty straightforward. We mentioned drug treatment, we have mentioned housing, we have
mentioned employment. There are certain areas in which certain programs are very successful. We need to concentrate on those areas. I think if we concentrate on those areas, we can produce the results, and once we produce the results, you can't argue with the numbers. I think that is where we need to go and that is where we need to concentrate.

For offenders in the District of Columbia, housing is such a big issue. They will tell you, I can't concentrate on my substance abuse issues if I don't have a place to live. I want to get back with my family. I want to go to the PTA meetings, but I need to establish myself as a man and provide for my family, and I am going to do it either by hustling or I am going to do it the correct way.

So those are those real issues that we really need to focus on. Some of the faith-based partners that we have done it with,
they have apartment buildings, and they are willing to convert those and are doing that right now. We need to support those
efforts, because they have already taken the lead. We need to support it.

Mr. Davis of Illinois. Mr. Mata.

Mr. Mata. Mr. Davis, I agree with what Mr. Quander just said, but I also want to make a differentiation between the city and the State. I actually have two positions. I work for the city of Baltimore, but I also work for the State of Maryland as the executive director for the Governor's Advisory Council on Offender Employment. The city and the State are two very different monsters. The city is sort of an urban island, and then you have the State of Maryland, which is western, eastern, southern Maryland that thinks very differently from what the city of Baltimore does. So it does take a movement in order to make these changes happen.

There are some great things coming out of the Federal Government that we could use in the State, but our State representatives sometimes vote against things that can help reentry in the State of Maryland.

The movement has started in Maryland. Like I said, Montgomery County, Prince George's County, they have both started reentry activities there. If you look at a county such as Montgomery County, which is a very wealthy county in the State of Maryland, they actually are having some problems with reentry because when they connect their inmates to employment after they are released, they may get a job offer from that business, but then all of a sudden they don't show up to the job anymore because after release the Division of Corrections no longer has ahold of them, they can no longer assist them in making that proper transition. So they are back out into the free world, but they don't have the cognitive restructuring or the mental capacity to deal with everyday living like you and I do.

This is something else that needs to be brought in and taught to these inmates and ex-offenders, and programs such as CSOSA, programs like the REP program in Baltimore City, these programs are doing great jobs in assisting these ex-offenders
in returning into the community.

Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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