On the Inside, Week 6: Fiction

Studies have shown that inmate participation in education, vocational and job training, prison work skills development, drug abuse, mental health and other treatment programs, all reduce recidivism, significantly.

-Bobby Scott

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When it comes up in conversation with new acquaintances that I teach a weekly class in prison, the first reaction is usually disbelief, followed by a barrage of questions related to why someone like me would teach on the inside. It surprises me that there is such a lack of understanding around what our prison system is like, and the amount of misinformation about the realities of incarceration, recidivism, and programs like the one I have chosen to participate in is also unfortunate.

Let me clarify some terms and statistics related to incarceration, specifically here in the state of Florida where I live.

If you are unfamiliar with the term recidivism, get to know it. This word refers to the tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend. For instance, in the state of Florida, the recidivism rate is about 33%, or one in three convicted criminals will reoffend after three years of their release. This rate increases to 65% within five years.

Do you understand what that means?

The cycle of recidivism is terrifying. Many of the men who sit in the room where I teach will be released, and one third of them will be back within three years. Meaning, there are potential crime victims waiting like sitting ducks on the outside.

What are you doing to keep your community safe by lowering this number? Hint: You’re not helping anyone by ignoring the facts.

Florida has one of the highest incarceration rates in the entire country, with over 97,500 recorded inmates as of March 2017. This ranks the state at about three out of 50 for the highest incarceration numbers.

I’ve learned that the guys in my prison do not have air conditioning (or heat) in their dorms where they sleep, spam would be a delicacy for lunch, stabbings are common, and human respect at many levels of authority is hard to come by.

If you’ve read this far, you may be thinking: Well, yes, Jacqueline, but many of the people inside our prison facilities deserve the punishments they were handed by our justice system.

And I don’t disagree.

The man who put a gun to my head six months ago also deserves to be punished to the fullest extent of the law, in my mind.

However, think of the justice system in the same way that we think of the health care system in the country. The way that our current health care system is rigged (carefully chosen word), is that the focus is on the treatment of the disease and not the prevention of it.

I spent several years advocating for diabetes prevention for our Medicare recipients in Washington D.C., and it was extremely difficult to convince policymakers that the small price tag of prevention — maybe $300 for a prevention program — is more valuable to society than the philosophy of “Let’s just wait and see if they get it, and if they do, we’ll just pump lots of money into the system to treat debilitating and lifelong conditions.”

Prevention targets the root of the problem, whereas treatment is costlier and may negatively affect not only the patient, but an entire system that is now forced to pay.

Translate that into our current leading justice mindset that is so focused on punishment and not on the actual rehabilitation of those who enter into the punitive system.

Think about that.

We are slapping an expensive treatment on our most “ill” in society, and not focusing on the ways to rehabilitate or prevent future cycles of societal illness (crime). We are failing not only many of the men and women who desperately need an alternative direction (psychopaths aside), but we are so focused on removing them entirely from the world we operate in on the outside that we totally lose sight of the fact that we are not even remotely preparing them to function again with us when they return, which many of them will. Thus, we are sentencing the diabetic to years of cyclical treatment at the expense of the community, instead of giving him the tools to prevent the disease in the first place. Am I being clear?

You may be thinking that you don’t want to be involved at this point. This issue is too messy, and it involves humans who have done terrible things. And you’re right. It’s messy and dangerous and uncomfortable. It’s also a community issue that we are all responsible for contributing to, if you want to live in a place where criminals are less likely to offend again when they emerge from the underworld of prison system.

Rehabilitation is possible for many of these folks, but it must be a priority. Education, job skills training, mental health therapy, and general counseling are all proven to be successful in lowering recidivism rates, but they don’t happen for free. They also don’t happen without the hard work and dedication of men and women who understand the need, and who have responded to the call to create better paths for ex-offenders through advocacy, education, and reentry programs. These people who are dealing with the worst of the worst, and who are helping to bring them back to a life where they can successfully integrate into our society upon their release need to be supported by a community they protect.

Please join me in contributing to some of these causes in our Miami community this Give Miami Day, November 16th. I want to call attention to two programs specifically.

Exchange for Change is the local Miami nonprofit I work with that teaches writing classes on the inside. Their ground-breaking program employs top-notch writers and university professors to teach a variety of Spanish and English writing classes in South Florida correctional institutions. They also facilitate letter exchanges between students at South Florida schools (Ransom Everglades, Florida Atlantic University, and the University of Miami among them) and those writers they’re teaching on the inside.

Since their inaugural class in 2014, they’ve reached over 500 prisoners in seven institutions and several hundreds more students from partner institutions. They currently run 24 writing classes at three correctional facilities, one re-entry center, and one juvenile facility. Their courses include rhetoric, debate, journalism, personal essay, creative writing in Spanish, the short story, slam poetry, and trauma writing for U.S. Vets and others who need it. They have created a steering committee of inmates who take leadership roles, offer one-on-one tutoring from professors at UM’s writing center, partner with O, Miami, and hold guest artists’ workshops, all of which set a new standard for future growth.

Please consider a donation to Exchange for Change on Thursday, November 16th, so that we can continue to facilitate educational programs in South Florida institutions and beyond. Your gift is very much appreciated.

Click here to learn more about how to give to Exchange for Change.

Riverside House is a local Miami nonprofit prison reentry program that helps to guide ex-offenders in their transition back into the community. With a deep focus on spiritual development, Riverside House works with each new client to help them achieve their goals, both personally and professionally, so that they can become a successfully contributing member of society after the completion of their sentence. Riverside House offers personalized programs that emphasize life issues such as employment, life skills, substance abuse counseling, and family reunification.

Please consider a donation to Riverside House this Give Miami Day, November 16th.

Click here to learn more about how to give to Riverside House.

Education is key to understanding; whether that’s understanding the truth of the issue at hand, or understanding how we can contribute to the safety of our communities. Let’s cut out the fiction, focus on the facts, and work towards disrupting the cycle.