Formerly Incarcerated, Now Working For the DA's Office

This is our second interview profiling individuals working in the reentry field that took an unlikely path to their current destinations. This week features Gregory Russell, a formerly incarcerated man, who now works for the Kings County District Attorney’s Office.  As a Case Manager and Community Advocate for the DA's acclaimed ComALERT reentry program, Mr. Russell serves as a mentor to formerly incarcerated clients, assists in employment, and offers advice on staying out of the criminal justice system.  

Interviewed by Anisah Thompson

Can you tell me a little bit about your criminal justice background?

Well, I have a lifelong criminal history. The last time I served time, I served for 10 years.  I was released in 2006 to parole supervision for fourteen months.


How did you stay out of prison after your last sentence?

I think, when I came home this time my mind was so focused because of the amount of box time [solitary time] I did, so I was tired.  I also had a close knit family and I had a tremendous amount of support from them, financially, spiritually, emotionally.  They were like my best friends.  None of them wanted to see me go through experience of being jail again.


Everything with me was different this time.  It was God, my higher power that put me in positions to find employment. Within my first two weeks home I had a job as a personal trainer in New York Sports Club.  Ask me how I got it, it was God!  


I also think the thing that I did to make sure I secured employment was to change my demeanor. I knew I had to change my look, I had to soften my look so what I did was I invested in suits, and those suits catapulted me into the working force. It wasn’t by any means of a community based organization (CBO) that helped me or trained me in anything. I actually got in by the grace of god. Not to downplay any CBO because there are CBOs that do a pretty good job with assisting formerly incarcerated people.  


Tell me how you landed this position at the District Attorney’s Office?
It was epic, it had to be from the movies.  First of all, I never thought I would be working in a District Attorney’s office  The irony is that the first job I got as a case manager in a CBO was because basically using by using things I was doing my last year in prison when I was working for a Youth Assistance Program (“YAP”) while I was incarcerated.  It was a counseling and nurturing type of situation where we had the youth come in from the neighboring high schools in the area and we would counsel them, give them workshops, and presentations. That started me to working on the road to CBO’s and social service, and to working as a case manager at the DA’s Office.


What is like working for the same system that is in charge of prosecution?

When I first told a couple of cousins and uncles, the first thing they said was, “Man you know they checking backgrounds right?”and I was like, “Yeah, they checked my background already.”  When I interviewed with the District Attorney Hynes and another assistant DA, they actually had my rap sheet right in front of them. I had given them my social security number before I even had the interview, so I was exposed to highest degree. There was nothing I could have said or got around any of the crimes I committed.

My friends, and most of my peers were shocked that I was working here. A lot of them were excited saying that it actually gave them a ray of hope saying. “If he can be in the District Attorney’s office so can I.” So I felt kind of good, I never got any shade from being in the DA’s Office.


Does having “been there” help you in your job as a case manager?

The clients respond to me in a very positive light, I normally don’t disclose anything about my background until I need to- I like to be able to get off on the right note without having to disclose too much personal information about myself. I try to show them a professional side first and if need be I will go into where I been just to give them a ray of hope. I use my past as a trump card to give inspiration to actually motivate them to want  to achieve and get where they need to be or to whereever god has intended for them.


Do you face any unique challenges having been where they are now?

Yes, yes, there are unique challenges. I want for them what I have for myself, trying to convince someone that there are better days coming when they are in a state of despair, is kind of a hard.  How do you that? There’s no rhyme or reason, no set way all I can do is try to take as many workshops as I can to try to gain new skills to help.  How do I motivate someone who has low self esteem? Something I notice about most of the black males coming out of the system is that their self esteem level is at an all-time low.  So how do you give someone self esteem? You can’t, the only thing I can do is try to empower them and that’s the premise of my whole make up to trying to empower people to want to do better.

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Center for Court Innovation Video

For fourteen years I have had the privilege of working for an amazing organization, the Center for Court Innovation. While the Center itself is not widely known, many of the projects we have developed or encouraged are, including the Harlem Community Justice Center and Upper Manhattan Reentry Task Force. From a small demonstration project in the early 1990's, the Midtown Community Court, the Center's work has spawned hundreds of results driven justice innovations nationally, and increasingly internationally. Every day these projects are connecting addicts to treatment, assisting victims, smoothing the path home for persons leaving prison, and diverting youth from incarceration.

The ideas and practices developed through the Center's work have changed the way our justice system operates for the better. I am proud of the accomplishments represented in the video. It is a testament to the staff and volunteers of the Center and the leadership of our many community and agency partners.

Center For Court Innovation Video



Christopher Watler
Project Director
Harlem Community Justice Center

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Will DOCS and the Division of Parole merge under Cuomo?

Via the NY LAW JOURNAL
Friday, Mar. 11, 2011
p. 1, col. 5

 

               Parole Boards Would Lose Authority Under Cuomo Plan

 

By Joel Stashenko

 

ALBANY — Parole boards would lose their authority to set restrictions on the lives of former prisoners under a provision of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's proposed budget.

 

Mr. Cuomo's proposal would give the commissioner of a newly created Department of Corrections and Community Supervision the power to set details of parole, such as requiring curfews and attendance in drug or alcohol programs, that are currently up to parole commissioners to decide.

 

The bill also would give the commissioner of the new agency the authority to revoke parole and to shorten its terms. Those decisions now are the ultimate responsibility of the chair of the full Board of Parole, a position the governor wants to abolish.

 

Mr. Cuomo argues that the merger of the Department of Correctional Services and the Division of Parole would streamline operations of both agencies, better coordinate pre- and post-release programming for offenders and help save an estimated $271 million from the agencies' current spending of just over $3 billion for corrections and $189 million for parole. The combined agencies' projected spending of $2.94 billion takes into account savings from the proposed elimination of 3,500 beds in the prison system at still-to-be-identified facilities.

 

Details are spelled out in a budget bill Mr. Cuomo sent to lawmakers last month (A4012-A/S2812).

 

However, one Republican senator who is a former parole board member expressed concern at a state budget hearing earlier this week that the proposal would put too much power into the hands of a single official likely to be more attuned to the needs of the prisons than to parole.

 

"While I have tremendous respect for the current [corrections] commissioner [Brian Fischer], what we're doing is allowing one person to potentially manipulate the prison population, in a good way or bad way," said Senator Patrick M. Gallivan, of Elma, a former sheriff of Erie County and a parole board commissioner from 2005-2010.

 

Elizabeth Glazer, Mr. Cuomo's deputy secretary for public safety, responded that parole boards would
continue to make the ultimate decision of whether an inmate should be released.

 

"The first and most critical piece is that the parole board itself remains independent and that is written into the legislation, that the structure remains and the key decision to release or not remains with the board," Ms. Glazer said.

 

Mr. Gallivan acknowledged in an interview that parole boards would continue to make release decisions but said that he is worried about the long-term implications of ceding the power to revoke parole to the new commissioner.

 

"There are two ways to look at it," Mr. Gallivan said. "You talk to conservatives and they say they are worried that a liberal commissioner will let everyone out of prison. You talk to liberals, and they say a conservative commissioner would never let anyone out. My point is that you no longer would have an independent body making decisions about who's in prison or out of prison or who has to come back."

 

Smaller Parole Boards?

 

Mr. Cuomo also has proposed reducing to 13 from 19 the number of authorized commissioners from whom parole boards are drawn.

 

There are about 15,000 fewer prisoners than there were in 1999, when the prison population peaked at 71,600 inmates. Moreover, most felons now receive determinate sentences, Ms. Glazer noted.

 

She said that the number of parole hearings has fallen by 43 percent in the last decade, meaning that fewer commissioners are needed. There currently are six unfilled positions, and the commissioners have had no trouble keeping up with their workload, she said.

 

Traditionally, three commissioners have heard applications for parole.

 

"Right now, we don't anticipate a reduction," Ms. Glazer said. "I don't think this will happen. I think the way in which we have been operating so far, with the 13 [commissioners] has permitted us to operate with the three-man boards and I anticipate that will continue."

 

If two-member boards were used, a second panel would have to hear any cases in which there is a tie.

 

Parole commissioners make $101,600 each. The chair of the board makes $120,800.

 

Middletown attorney Robert N. Isseks, who represents inmates before the parole board, contended that the current commissioners are overworked as it is.

 

"We feel the more on the panel the better," Mr. Isseks said in an interview. "The caseload for commissioners now could be up to 100 hearings a day, where the commissioners get the paperwork that day and the hearings are perfunctory and last maybe five to seven minutes, more or less, and the commissioners are only half listening at best because they are looking at the paperwork for the next case."

 

Albert O'Connor of the Defenders Association said that smaller parole panels would make release harder for some inmates.

 

"When you have three members, you have a more diverse panel," Mr. O'Connor said. "You have an opportunity for a commissioner to persuade a colleague. When you cut that down to two, obviously, it's unlikelier that you'll connect with a board member. The chances of gaining release are diminished for the harder cases, for ones where there might be some historical reluctance to release."

 

In the 2009-2010 fiscal year, parole commissioners conducted 29,059 interviews of inmates. About 40 percent of inmates were released, including 9 percent serving time for violent offenses and 3 percent for sex offenses.

 

Ms. Glazer also defended Mr. Cuomo's proposal to create a new Division of Criminal Justice Services by consolidating the Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, the Office of Victim Services, the Commission of Correction and the current Division of Criminal Justice Services. Mr. Cuomo estimates that consolidation will save $6.4 million in the next fiscal year.

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Veteran Businessman now in the Business of Reentry

John Kirkland, The Doe Fund

This week begins our series of three interviews profiling individuals working in the reentry field that took an unlikely path to their current destinations. This week, we focus on John Kirkland, a Senior Career Development Specialist at The Doe Fund, a non-profit organization that offers “holistic programs that meet the needs of a diverse population working to break the cycles of homelessness, addiction, and criminal recidivism.” A former business man with 30 years of experience working for major corporations, Mr. Kirkland never imagined that he would find his life’s passion helping individuals returning from prison find jobs. I sat down with Mr. Kirkland at Times Square Ink, a community based non-profit organization that helps formerly incarcerated individuals transition back into the work force, where Mr. Kirkland’s first encountered the reentry world.


What is your education and employment background?

I have a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in Business Administration. I worked for almost 30 years in the corporate world, doing corporate development and long range- planning for major corporations like Bristol Meyers Squibb, & Pillsbury, Land O’ Llakes, and General Mills. That was my first career.

Can you tell me a bit about the Doe Fund and what your role is there?

The Doe Fund is a transitional facility designed for people who are homeless, over 75% of whom are also formerly incarcerated individuals and suffer from substance abuse issues. During their stay at our program, we help get them ready to re-integrate into both society and the workforce by supporting them in their sobriety, building their job skills, and getting them housing. The idea is that once they have their job they can move out and be self sustaining members of society, to go from being a totally dependent individual to being a totally independent individual.

I am a Senior Career Development Specialist at one of our facilities, the Porter Avenue Facility in Brooklyn which houses 400 individuals. I supervise Career Development at Porter, which includes myself and two other individuals. Our main goal is to help people develop job readiness skills and find a job.

How does someone who worked in corporate America for 30 years come to work with formerly incarcerated individuals?

Laughs. It does not seem like a likely story. I had left the work force for personal reasons a few years earlier, mostly to attend to kids who had been neglected after thirty years of corporate work and travel. I moved back to NY in 2005 and I decided I wanted to go back to work. I had an extremely difficult job search. My timing was wrong in the market and I had been out of work for a long time and didn’t realize how hard it is to re-enter. I was having a really hard time and experienced quite a bit of depression. My wife told me I had to get out of the house, go volunteer.

I heard about New York Cares through the Mayor’s Office and registered. I started doing a lot of different volunteer work, and one day I saw this posting for Times Square Ink to help formerly incarcerated individuals with resumes. I tell you honestly, I was not sure that I was going to do that. I thought, I don’t know if I want to get involved with criminals. But then I thought, wait a minute, how bad could this be? So I tried it.

What were your initial fears about helping formerly incarcerated individuals?

I think like a lot of people, I have no familiarity, no relationship with anyone who has ever been in prison, who has ever been convicted of any kind of serious crime. The only people I ever had any experience with were people in movies or in novels that I read. When you don’t know something, you often look at it from a position of fear.
So what swayed you?

It’s easy to be swayed. One of the first things you realize is that each individual person has their own story and how badly they want help. And I was just so immediately taken by how easy it was for me to help them. Because I’ve done resumes and interviews for thirty years of my life it’s a skill and it’s easy for me to give that way. The thing that was most powerful was the degree of gratitude that came back at me, the gratitude from people for such small things. It was amazing and very transformational for me. One day I said to the staff here that I really would like to volunteer full time. I wanted to come here every day and so I did.

What your initial impression of the individuals was that you were working with?

My initial impression was mostly extremely positive. These are regular, real people who for whatever reason have gotten themselves on the wrong side of the law and want to get back to a real and honest life. When you see all of the barriers they have to encounter, you want to help because the individuals in front of you have skills and experience and are fundamentally great people. When you sit here for a while, everyday it builds on you more and more that it is just wrong to cast these individuals aside, that we are just wasting people.

Any initial difficulties or culture clashes?

One of the funniest exchanges I had with one was when were just talking in a break and I sort of asked him, “So, what’s your background?” He said, “Well, I was in the pharmaceutical business.” So, I said “Oh, I was in the pharmaceutical business too. I worked for Bristol Myers Squibb, who did you work for?” He said, “No, no, no, in the hood” and I got it.

Do you find this career more fulfilling than your last one?

Way more fulfilling. Absolutely way more fulfilling. Not that work in business can’t be fulfilling, but the business that I worked at can be sort of removed from individuals, it’s the big picture kind of thing. But in my current line of work, there you are with people who are improving themselves and you get to see their lives change in front of you, and that’s amazing.

As part of your job, you reach out to employers to try to find job placements. How do you respond to the question, “Why should I hire someone with a conviction history when there are tons of people out there who don’t have conviction history and need a job?”

First of all when you’re hiring someone to do a job, you want make sure that that person has the skills to do the job, the experiences they need to do the job and the commitment and enthusiasm to do the job. My experience dealing with formerly incarcerated individuals, at least those have gotten this far through the job search process at The Doe Fund or those at other Work Force Intermediaries, is that these are the people who have overcome tremendous obstacles to get to that point. When you think about the experience of where these people were before they made it out- abuse, drug addiction, incarceration, homelessness- and now they’ve gotten to the point where they are prepared to go out on a job interview, that is a tremendous accomplishment. In my mind, it takes a huge amount of conviction and character to say, “I want a real job in society. I want to take care of my wife and kids the way I am supposed to, the way I know I should. I did those things in the past, it’s true that I have a conviction, but that was then and I am a different person now.”

These individuals I work with are men and women who had to climb their mountain, and their mountain was higher and tougher than most of ours. I think that as a business person, that is the type of determination and commitment that you want in an employee.

Do you plan on staying in the reentry world?

Yes, I’m not leaving this field. I like dealing with the formerly incarcerated individuals. It is a history that takes special effort to overcome. If your homeless and you get a house no one ever has to know you were homeless. That doesn’t come up on a background check, nor does substance abuse, nor does mental illness or being an alcoholic or a bad parent. One of the things you realize when you work with this population is that these individuals have to reveal their conviction every time the box shows up on the application. We’ve all looked at the applications before, and thought, doesn’t apply to me , but it applies to them. When I got here and saw people who had to deal with that I said, “I got to work on this.” It’s just a little box but that’s a big deal as you know. A lot of people who are in these groups face tremendous psychological and emotional reactions to that box and being asked that question.
What I find is one of the most fulfilling things I experience helping people get over their fear of that question, to learn that they can find the positive in it. They can fight that question by answering, “Yes, that was the real tough time in my life but I got over that and look how far I’ve come.”

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