"Jim Crow In New York"

Next Tuesday, the Brennan Center and the Fortune Society, a Task Force member, will be hosting:

"A Public Conversation on The Empire State's Current Criminal Disenfranchisement Law and a Century-Long Effort to Keep African-American Citizens Out of the Voting Booth"

The panel will include:

Reverend Dr. Calvin Butts, Abyssinian Baptist Church in the City of New York
Glenn Martin, Associate Vice President of Policy and Advocacy, The Fortune Society
Erika Wood, Attorney and Author, Jim Crow in New York, The Brennan Center for Justice
Hazel N. Dukes, President, NAACP New York State Conference
Theodore M. Shaw, Professor of Professional Practice in Law, Columbia Law School

There will be ample time for questions and discussion.

Reception to follow.

Date: Tuesday, March 2nd

Time: 6:30 PM

Location: The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Boulevard at 135th Street

Please RSVP to Susan Lehman at susan.lehman@nyu.edu.

Presented by the Brennan Center and the Fortune Society.

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New DA praises ex-offenders at Reentry Graduation

Yesterday, the Harlem Community Justice Center honored sixteen parolees in a graduation ceremony which recognized their achievement in completing the Parole Reentry Court Program, the only such program in New York. During the six months parolees attend the program, they receive extensive supervision and services from dedicated parole staff, HCJC staff, and an administrative law judge. Staff from the Justice Center, the Department of Parole, and the Manhattan District Attorney, Cy Vance, honored graduates last night with certificates and words of support and encouragement. The graduates spoke movingly about their achievements, the struggles they have experienced in their reentry, and their hopes for the future.

Graduation from Debbie Boar on Vimeo.

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"Autobiography of an Execution"

David Row has dedicated his life to the death penalty; That is, he has spent the last 20 years defending over 100 inmates sentenced to death. His book, "Autobiography of an Execution," is both a memoir of his life and an argument for the abolition of the death penalty. Listen to an interview with Mr. Row on NPR's Fresh Air and read a review of the book in the Sunday New York Times Book Review.

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The Face of Employment Discrimination

Last Sunday, in the article, "Hire Ground Hard to Find for Ex-Cons," the Daily News gave a face to thousands of men and women in New York who return from incarceration, motivated to make an honest living, only to discover that many employers won't grant them an interview. Braulio Rodriguez, a Bronx resident who completed his sentence and then struggled to find work to support his wife and children before finally landing a job as a maintenance technician, was featured in the article. The article also describes the Employment & Public Safety Forum sponsored by the Fortune Society and the Prisoner Reentry Institute in partnership with the Upper Manhattan Reentry Task Force where Rodriguez first articulated why employers should give individuals like him an opportunity to work.

Within two days after the publication of the article, I received over forty phone calls from readers with stories nearly identical to Rodriguez's. Most of them however, are still searching for work. One caller, a seventy year old man who had finished his prison term over thirty years ago asked me, "How would you like to be judged by the worst thing you've ever done for the rest of your life?"

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Inmates, parolees, and political representation

Recent activism and scholarship regarding the upcoming census and the disenfranchisement of inmates and parolees, calls to our attention critical issues that organizations concerned with reentry may overlook in the face of more immediate concerns like housing and employment.

However, in his letter to the editor in the February 5, 2010 issue of the Albany Times Union Glenn Martin, Vice President of Development and Public Affairs at the Fortune Society, lays out why the inmate census rule, which allow upstate prison communities to count nonvoting inmates as residents in order to increase legislative representation, "comes at the expense of destitute urban communities whose problems already stem from a disproportionate lack of resources and advocacy." To read more about the inmate census rule, click here.

Additionally, on February 12, 2010, the New York Times blog highlighted the recently released publication issued by the Brennan Institute of Justice which exposes the roots of inmate disenfranchisement as a "concerted effort to exclude African Americans from participation in the political process." To read the Brennan Institute's full publication, " Jim Crow in New York," and their recommendations for restoring voting rights to individuals on parole, click here.

You can get involved in these issues by contacting the Brennan Institute of Justice and the National Urban League.

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"Thinking for a Change": Why Cognitive Behavior Interventions work with Offenders

Lately, the Task Force has kicked into high gear, preparing for the launch of its Pilot Case Management Program which will partner with the Division of Parole to work with offenders who are at the highest risk of returning to prison. Among many of the program's unique features are its community-based nature -- the focus will be on offenders returning to the 25th police precinct in East Harlem, its use of a Collaborative Case Management Team (which includes representatives from the Task Force, the Department of Parole, the NYPD, the District Attorney's Office and community-based treatment providers), and its use of a new Behavioral Intervention program for offenders called, Thinking for a Change.

This Monday and Tuesday Task Force Staff and Parole staff attended the first two days of a four day training program on Integrated Cognitive Behavior Change (a.k.a, Thinking for a Change). The program was developed by the National Institute of Corrections which describes Thinking for a Change as, ". . .a program for offenders that includes cognitive restructuring, social skills development, and development of problem solving skills."

During lunch, I sat down with Dr. Juliana Tayman's, co-author of the program and our trainer, to ask her a few questions about this innovative approach to reducing criminality.

How would you describe the Integrated Cognitive Behavior Program, Thinking for a Change, in a few sentences?

It is a way of working with offenders that focuses on the connections between their thinking and their offending. It is an intervention that is empowering for the offender because it allows them to learn about themselves in an interesting and productive way. Both service providers and offenders clearly see that the offender is in charge of his or her thinking and that is the key to behavior change.

You mentioned that studies show that traditional talk therapy does not work with offenders, but that Cognitive Behavior Change does. Why is that?

Many offenders have led extremely difficult lives that provide very rational justification for what they do. In talk therapy what we do is explore reasons for behavior based on a person's childhood and history. This is really non-productive for a lot of offenders because it is easy for them to justify what they do based on how they grew up and the current challenges they face. Cognitive based interventions deal with the here and now--its asks what are the situations you are in and what decisions you make. It helps offenders become aware that they have a lot more power and control that they think they have. It is a way to hold offenders responsible for what they do but in a way that is productive and humane.

Can you make any generalizations about the way adult offenders respond to Thinking for a Change?

For some people it just clicks. When it clicks it is this huge AHA moment that people finally have. A lot of offenders say that they wish they had been told this before. I believe that they have been told it before, only not in a way that has clicked for them. That is what cognitive behavior interventions tend to do - present things in a way that helps people connect with their thoughts and actions concretely and explicitly.

Do you have a specific story of an offender who was able to make a behavior change based on your work?

There was an offender I worked with in Texas [who was incarcerated] and was out working in the fields all day. When he came back [into the prison], he was all hot and sweaty and took his clothes off to take a shower. It turned out that someone had used his name to take his shower and when the Correctional Officer informed him that he couldn't have "another" one, he was furious.

He told me, "I stood there and realized I had a choice. I could go off on this guy and get locked up [placed in solitary] or I could decide to back away and not get in anymore trouble. So, I put my dirty clothes back on and went to my cell."

My take on this is that the Cognitive Behavior Program he underwent helped make him okay with what he did. He made a decision.

What are your challenges doing this work?

Each group has own challenges. Therapists often have a hard time with this work. The work requires them to forgo using some of their very well developed skills and instincts. Some Correctional Officers and Parole Officers have their mind already set about criminals, especially if they have worked in this field a long time. They are accustom to being efficient and straightforward in their communications and so it can be hard for them to engage in this process of stepping back. It is a very different way of interacting with people.

What are your hopes for this work in the criminal justice field?

Cognitive Behavior Change can be a way of interacting across a system. That is when it is going to be most effective. It is least effective when offered twice a week and the offenders don't see any evidence of it the rest of week. I have seen it being really effective in the prison setting when both the Correctional Officers and Case Managers use it to help inmates with problem solving. This program, Thinking for a Change, doesn't mean backing off from any essential components of a correction system. If anything it should help people be more consistent with the rules.

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New Perspectives on Employment for Ex-offenders

In thinking about strategies to remove the barriers to employment for ex-offenders, I've come across a set of interesting and potentially useful documents that may inform (or just make us think about!) all of our reform efforts.

1) The National Institute of Justice's study, "'Redemption' in an Era of Widespread Criminal Background Checks."

This paper outlines a study conducted by the research and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. It seeks to offer the first "scientific" method for determining at what point the risk of rearrest for ex-offenders "[d]rop[s] below the risk of arrest for same-aged people in the general population" and when the risk "approach[s] the risk of arrest for people who have never been arrested."

2) From the Pew Center on the States, "Right-Sizing Prisons: Business Leaders Make the Case for Corrections Reform"

In several states, business communities are leading efforts to reform state policies that overspend on corrections. In this set of interviews, business leaders describe why and how they are looking into more cost effective and efficient ways to protect the public safety.

3) New York Times Opinion Piece, Denied a Chance for Honest Work, January 18, 2010

NY's Attorney General investigates illegal employment discrimination against ex-offenders.

4)From Princeton University, "Race at Work: Realities of Race and Criminal Record in the NYC Job Market"

This study finds that "in contrast to public opinion that assumes little influence of discrimination on labor market inequality. . ., black job seekers fare no better than white men just released from prison. Discrimination continues to represent a major barrier to economic self-sufficiency for those at the low end of the labor market hierarchy."

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Literature saved his life: How R. Dwayne Betts survived prison.

After being tried and convicted as an adult at 16 for a car jacking, R. Dwayne Betts , author of, "A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison," describes how literature saved his life. Check out the full interview with Tavis Smiley here.

Here is a brief excerpt from the transcript:

Tavis: You, as we sit here today - we'll talk more about what you have been able to accomplish in just a second - but you sit here today a college graduate, father, husband, working and serving and loving, quite frankly, your community. You seem to be rather well-adjusted. And yet we are told every day that our prison system does a horrible job, to the extent that it does the job at all, of rehabilitating men and women.

Betts: Oh, the prison system doesn't do a job of rehabilitating anybody.

Tavis: Okay, that's why I want some clarity on this.

Betts: No, definitely, and I make a point to tell people that it wasn't the Virginia Department of Corrections that created the man that's before you. Honestly, I could point to John Edgar Wideman, I could point to James Baldwin, I could point to Walter Moseley, I could point to Dr. Cornel West, and I could point to an endless list.

I could point to Steinbeck, I could point to every book that Oprah ever recommended. I could point to Edward (unintelligible) I could point to the poets, Robert Hayden, Etheridge Night. I could just chant a list of names - Ethelbert Miller. I could chant a list of names and people whose work really molded me into the person I am today.

And not only the writer I am, but reading that literature helped me define myself while I was in a place that wanted to define me solely by those 30 minutes.
And so I don't think it was the system in any way whatsoever. It was really because I believed that literature could do something for my life that maybe other people don't always believe literature could do. But for me, that belief helped me believe that I could be more and it helped me to become more.

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Evidence that Parole Supervision is Evolving

In 2008, The Urban Insitute surveyed 751 parole offices in 40 states and recently published its findings on parole practices around the U.S. in its paper, An Evolving Field: Findings from the 2008 Parole Practices Survey. What the study determines is that best practices, including tailoring the conditions of supervision, implementing immediate graduated responses to parole violations, and developing supervision plans that balance surveillance and treatment, are beginning to take root in parole offices across the country.

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