The stigma around being a returning citizen, or a person with a criminal record, causes a marginalization from society that, unfortunately, has not been mitigated, as have sentencing and drug laws.
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Four years ago this month, I shot an amateur video of Mr. Thomas Ford, a Philadelphia man who founded a nonprofit organization focused on supporting returning citizens, the politically correct term for ex-cons.
Mr. Thomas Ford in 2013 at a protest in Center City Philadelphia. Photo Credit: C. Norris – ©2015
Mr. Ford, who admitted he wasn’t a natural in front of the camera, was promoting his organization’s ‘Returning Citizens Support Summit,’ which took place in early November of 2011 and was headlined by then Pennsylvania State Representatives Mr. Tony Payton, Jr., and Mr. Kenyatta Johnson, who’s now a Philadelphia City Councilman.
Though not as prevalent as it is today, there were conversations being had four years ago on the topic of prison reform legislation and the disparities in sentencing for non-violent drug offenses.
“It’s only in the last year and half that we’ve talked about sentencing reform in Harrisburg,” said Mr. Payton, then age 30, in his keynote address. “We have conversations, but haven’t done anything,” he continued, “fortunately we’ll be able to do things now because resources are tight.”
The roughly 6,000 prisoners that will be released at the end of this month, per the Department of Justice, can be attributed to the public will for criminal justice reform grown over the years, but it’s equally an economic issue devoid of any compassion: the country can’t afford mass incarceration anymore than it can afford the war on drug that exacerbates it.
“When there’s a scarcity in resources, some of the folks who don’t look like us,” Mr. Payton said to a room largely occupied by African-American returning citizens, “begin to think about ways we can improve the criminal justice system.”
That’s certainly true when you consider last October in Philadelphia, a white City Councilman, Mr. Jim Kenney, won the fight to decriminalize marijuana, a measure which wasn’t initially supported by the black mayor, Mr. Michael Nutter, but later was, with him stating it’s a common sense move that reflects the costly war on drugs.
Mr. Kenney, in contrast, didn’t cite economics as the catalyst for the legislation but instead pointed to the stain a minor drug arrest leaves on a person’s criminal record, jeopardizing their earning potential.
The stigma around being a returning citizen, or a person with a criminal record, causes a marginalization from society that, unfortunately, has not been mitigated, as have sentencing and drug laws.
“The world as it should be is a world where you’re not judged by your past, but by your potential,” Mr. Payton told the audience on November 5th, 2011, at what was then known as the Berean Institute at 19th & Girard Ave.
The stigma, along with the lack of America’s infrastructure to rehabilitate prisoners while in jail and upon release, may be why Philadelphia Police Commissioner, Mr. Charles Ramsey, didn’t seem optimistic this morning when he appeared on 900am WURD to talk with Mr. Solomon Jones, an award-winning journalist, about the nation’s largest one-time release of inmates.
Mr. Ramsey said he supports diversionary programs and any method that would reduce recidivism, but was skeptical about there being a “safety net to prevent people from coming back,” unless there’s significant funding dedicated to do so.
Luckily, there is. Attorney general Loretta Lynch this month announced a $53 million grant that will be used to reduce the nation’s recidivism rate.
But along with federal resources, there’s plenty that communities and corporations can do to reduce recidivism.
Large corporations, for starters, since their wired to unlock value in order grow market share and revenue, can start apprentice programs, in an effort to diversify their talent pipeline, that’s measured every quarter by a number of institutions and culminate into secure, upward mobile employment for the returning citizen.
Places of worship can be utilized for various enrichment and training opportunities, not to mention just providing hope, said Mr. Juwan Z. Bennett, a criminal justice teaching assistant at Temple University and a minister who this weekend in Philadelphia will be installed as a co-pastor of a startup church.
Local governments must be more proactive and aggressive at marketing the value of returning citizens to employers and Chambers of Commerce.
Over the last four years, the most notable act of Philadelphia government was providing tax incentives to companies who hire returning citizens, but barely any businesses took advantage of it, and the government didn’t return to the drawing board for another solution.
The present-day, though, with the inclusion of a sizable grant pool to support the work, offers a unique opportunity to turn what some perceive as a crisis—the mass release of prisoners, 93 percent who would be coming back home at some point and time anyway—into a showcase of unprecedented compassion and community.
The words of Mr. Ford, a pioneer in his own regard, ring as true today as they did four years ago as he prepared for the summit:
“It will require the shared vision and cooperation of public servants, corporations and returning citizens, to introduce harm-reduction initiatives that dismantle our current system of mass incarceration.”
* Tune into 900amWURD or 900amWURD.com every Friday evening at 6:30 pm to hear me relive #TheWeekThatWas*
Thanks for reading. Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® & I’m Drumming for JUSTICE!™