INCARCERATION – WHO IS AFFECTED?

Introduction

Question: why do you think there is a rise in the crime rate when the economy falls?

So how do we handle this?

ATTITUDE

The unfortunate thing is that even those of us who claim to have a Christian walk can be caught up in a justification trap. When we hear of men, women & children being put away for, what are sometimes quite horrendous crimes, we shy away from grace and take on an attitude of justice. Without knowing the full details or considering whether or not there were mitigating circumstances, we are ready to condemn, often based on nothing more than media reporting which in its self may be nothing more than sensationalism.

“He’s done the crime let him do the time”

How many times have we heard those words, or even uttered them ourselves?

Corrections is a business that is growing at, what some would say is, an alarming rate, again we are caught in the trap that, because we are in recession crime is increasing but that same recession is causing us to close prisons because of budget constraints.

The question has got to be, “What, if anything, can we do about it?”

Forgive me talking a little bit about Michigan, but it’s where I live and work so I am seeing issues on a daily basis. However, whilst figures maybe different, situations may be pretty common throughout the states, with very few exceptions.

Let’s add some statistics here; Nationwide we have, approximately, 2.4 million inmates incarcerated, 48% say they have relatives that have also been incarcerated, those figures have remained static for some time, regardless of the increase of incarceration. In Michigan we have approximately 41,000 spread around 38State prisons. These figures do not included those that are housed in the 83 county jails or detention centers, neither does it included Juvenile Centers, or the Federal Correctional Institute or Detention Center.

Michigan is one of only four states that spend more on corrections than it does on higher education, currently the budget is at $2 billion. This breaks down to an average of $30,000 to keep a man incarcerated for one year, this rises to $50,000 if there are mental health issues.

We are trying more juveniles as adults; in a meeting I was in where Pat Curuso, the Prison Director, was speaking she told us that there are now more juveniles in our adult facilities than there are in our Juvenile facilities.

In many cases the state legislator has laid down minimum sentencing laws, thus taking the discretion away from the judges. Wherein, before a person may have been sentenced to probation, now it is prison time.

Our truth in Sentencing laws mean that a person can not get released until they have completed, at least, their minimum sentence, i.e. if a man is incarcerated for 5 – 10 years he will have to serve at least five years before he is eligible for parole and, until recently, we have even been reluctant to let them go at their first ERA (early release date). It was estimated, last year, that we had approximately 17,000 that had been stood over on their first release date.

Is it any wonder that the State has earned the nickname of “The Prison Happy State” when we incarcerate at a rate of 40% higher than any other GreatLakeState?

Recidivism

We are currently releasing between 11 – 12,000 inmates a year, now, traditionally, when a man is released he is given $75 and a bus ticket to the place where he was arrested and, if needed, a thirty days supply of medication. Now, I don’t know about you but, a bus ticket to the place where he was arrested does not make much sense to me.

Out of the 11,000 or so released 8.500 of those are returned to Wayne County and of those 4,000 are returned to Detroit and so we have a tremendous problem right on our own doorstep

Let’s but this into perspective, while we may be releasing 11 – 12,000 a year, based on 2006 figures, we incarcerated approximately 5,400 new arrests but returned 9,000 repeat offenders. In short, the average time for a man to be out of prison is 290 days this drops to 87 days if there are mental health issues. The recidivism rate nationwide is around 48%, the problem we are faced with is how do we cut the recidivism rate? What do we have to do, or what changes have to be made, in order that men and women can be returned into the community? Baring in mind that we balance a fine line, we want to see our prison population decrease but at the same time we have to ensure that our communities remain safe, and to do that we have to ensure that within our prison system every effort is being made to make prison a chance for rehabilitation and not just punishment.

EFFECTS OF INCARCERATION ON THE FAMILY

What are the effects upon the family, both short and long term?

In 2008 the US Department of Health and Human Services said that an estimate of 2 million children with one or both parents incarcerated face the greatest risk of perpetuating the cycle of crime across generations.

Californiathere are six sets of brothers on death row

TexasHas executed six sets of siblings and there are two sets of cousins on death row, another dozen on death row state they have relatives in other parts of the state system.

Louisiana A man, James Caston, was so obsessed with the James gang that he named his first two boys Jessie and Frank, in 1967 a third son was born, Sonny. Jessie stated that “to be named after the worst outlaws in the country puts a stamp on a man” “We never had a chance” In 2000 Jesse was on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list, today all three brothers are convicted killers serving life sentences in Louisiana’s state prison. In this case it wasn’t incarceration of a parent that they attribute their incarceration to but a collision of poverty and lack of family support. At 13 Frank and his younger brother were arrested for burglarizing a neighbor’s house, before they were caught they had spent the money on a meal of pork chops and rice. “It was the first time we had eaten like that in months” Shortly after they spent two terms in detention for the theft of a van and a bike. By the time they were in their early 20s they were serving life for the murder of a sheriff’s deputy. That same year Jesse was convicted of manslaughter, after his release he became the object of a man hunt after the murder of his wife and her friend.

BostonIn a study of one neighborhood of 19,000 residents 457 were responsible for the law enforcement contacts in a 3 year period the 457 had been arraigned nearly 12,000 times. In one family the police identified 11 younger members between 12to 23 to be at the most risk. With the help of Social Workers they flooded the family with counselling, health and other social services, “we may have got there too late” said the police chief, all but 1 of the 11 were involved in gangs and 9 of the 11 have been to prison.

OregonA psychologist states that of the 400 men in his study at least 20% reported that their mother had been in prison and at least 50% said their father had.

In light of a parent or parents being incarcerated, other than the person ending up in prison their selves, what other issues do we see and what can we do about it?

Having to get over the initial shock can be a tremendous battle; life is suddenly thrown into chaos.

  • Emotionally: I do not like the idea of Anger Management Classes, there is more to it than that. There can be a whole range of emotions in play, anger, shock, hate, pity, even denial.
  • Financially: The person incarcerated may be the only bread winner in the family, suddenly there is no money coming in to provide for even the most basic need. Rent or mortgage going unpaid, possibly leading to eviction, utility bills left unpaid resulting in shut-offs. Unable to pay for food, etc.
  • Role Change: in the majority of cases women have to become the head of the household or take the responsibility of making major decisions.
  • Physically: The remaining partner may be forced to take a job, if there is one available in Michigan’s growing unemployment rate, already the highest rate in the country at over 11.6%. If that happens then the children suffer, they may have to be placed in daycare, which takes up a large part of what is really needed for the family to be able to recover from the crisis
  • Socially: The remaining partner may be come a recluse, even if only temporary, because of the humiliation and shame brought on by such an event. Children taunted at school because dad or mom is now in prison and even out of school feeling the loss of others to play with as forbid their children from “associating with that type of person”.
  • Spiritually: A shock to our faith which can result in bringing us closer to God because “no one else really cares about us”, or forcing us further from God because, “we can’t believe He could let this happen to our family”. Pretty much the same results we see after the loss of a loved one to illness or serious accident.

Ironically enough for the person incarcerated it can bring him into a closer relationship God when he realizes that he has lost everything. It will always be argued that the inmate turns to God as a crutch, and that maybe the case. Hopefully, though, there are some that make a genuine commitment in an effort to get their lives changed around. Within our prison system there are no shortage of well intended people going in to minister to these people but, even that, can be a problem. It looks good to say that “Our church has a prison ministry”. However what happens in some situations is that we encourage a person to continue in this life style when they are released, “Get into a good Bible believing church”, but at the same time hoping it’s not going to be ours because “we really don’t want that type of person amongst us”. And we rationalize our thinking by considering the affects it could have on our children, family, etc.

How Do We Assist?

It may be that we have to be proactive, because of the stigma of incarceration many families will not come to us for assistance, yet they do need help.

Toy Program, gleaning information

We have a 5 days summer camp at our own 107 acre camp ground in Leonard, at little to no cost for children who have one or more parents incarcerated. Here they can get involved in numerous activities, all under the close supervision of trained counselors and trainers. Boating, fishing, swimming, archery, craft projects, etc. also giving time to specific lessons to help them in their situation

Know Your Resources

Recognized that, even as big as we are, we cannot do everything. There is nothing wrong in asking others to assist.

Reentry Coalition

While the coalition is designed to assist those that are released back into society there are aspects of it that can assist the families that are on the outside and in need of that necessary help, this is where our knowledge of local support groups come into play.

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