Hakin Drake of Georgetown has been looking for a job since last month but he faces one big hurdle beyond those typical job seekers face in this tough job market. He’s an ex-con.
After serving more than 13 years in prison for armed robbery and possession of a firearm, he walked out of Delaware’s state prison system last month with little guidance on how to navigate his job search, beyond a computer class he took while incarcerated, and limited state or county help once he was on the outside.
“I’m at rock bottom now,” said Drake, 31. He said he’s open to any type of employment, everything from fast food to chicken plants. Bottom line, he added, he’ll work for anyone “that’s willing to hire me. I can do any job.”
The clock is ticking on Drake and his chances of successfully integrating back into society because finding a good job quickly is his best bet to making it happen. Based on the most recent federal data, the percentage of inmates back behind bars within three years of release could be as high as about 70 percent, and Delaware corrections experts estimate the state's numbers may be just as high.
To reduce the likelihood that they’ll return to jail, ex-convicts need to land good jobs within two months of their release, said Nancy La Vigne, director of the Justice Policy Center at The Urban Institute in Washington, DC.
Delaware Lacks Data to Monitor Success of Reentry Programs
Delaware government officials know how critical helping ex-inmates before and immediately after they come out can be in order to find work, and a few new initiatives have been implemented in the last year or so to help them, in large part spearheaded by Gov. Jack Markell. But the state, not unlike other states across the nation, lacks a clear track record when it comes to programs to help ex-cons after their release, and Delaware government and corrections officials don’t even have the hard statistics they need to monitor if these programs work at all.
The recidivism rate, which basically tracks re-offenders, hasn’t been calculated in Delaware for years. And that means not even the Delaware Department of Correction (DOC) knows how many of their former inmates are returning to prison.
But state officials do know how much is being spent on housing offenders in jail. According to data from the Governor’s website: “the state spends more than $250 million annually on corrections expenses, and those expenses grew more than 80 percent in the decade from fiscal year 1999 to 2009.” Of those in prison and in community corrections centers, 23,000 are released annually, according to the DOC.
Without data on reentry, it’s impossible to know if the state is doing a good job when it comes to reintegrating ex-cons into the community, and thus helping to bring down the huge price tag of incarceration.
Drewry Fennell, executive director of Delaware’s Criminal Justice Council, said the state hopes to have more prison data available soon as part of a larger effort to examine Delaware’s criminal justice system. Delaware was chosen to be one of a handful of states to get federal help analyzing data and adopting new programs under the U.S. Justice Department’s Justice Reinvestment Initiative. In July, Gov. Markell signed an executive order to form a task force to oversee the process.
“By the end of January, we’ll have a better handle on who’s in our facilities and why,” Fennell maintained. “We have to build a firm foundation of knowledge for people to assess what they’re doing. It’s not a cake you bake in an hour.”
Indeed, efforts to reform the prison system and keep ex-cons from re-offending can take years, if they work at all. And historically, such efforts in Delaware have been failed to gain traction.
“The reentry emphasis here in Delaware started in the early part of this decade but fizzled,” explained Christy Visher, professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware. “I think we are getting better knowledge on what to do but we’re still not sure how to use that knowledge to make better programs.”
The best initiatives, she continued, are those that don’t just concentrate on finding ex-inmates jobs, but focus on what those individuals need to find jobs, including training to get skills for jobs that have openings in this tough economy.
First State Takes Steps to Get Ex-Cons Back on Track
The Department of Correction does offer inmates the opportunity to get their GEDs, or other adult-based educations degrees, as well as providing options for them to work inside prison and out and via work release facilities, said John Painter, spokesman for the DOC. “We’re doing a better job of putting things in place now,” he stressed.
Visher thinks a lot of progress is being made, especially recently with the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, and a homegrown state program to reduce recidivism created in 2009 called The Individual Assessment, Discharge and Planning Team, or I-ADAPT.
I-ADAPT essentially broke down the walls between five government agencies - the Department of Correction, the Delaware State Housing Authority, the Department of Labor, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Social Services and the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families – allowing them to combine their efforts to help inmates assimilate back into society by addressing a host of issues they’ll face, including finding employment.
Robert Strong, deputy assistant to Delaware’s Labor Secretary John McMahon, said the program is structured around managing the ex-offenders six months before they’re released. “They’re preregistered with the Department of Labor and we know where they were, what they did, their education level, skill sets, and what their offenses were that may limit their employment options.”
Because the walls between agencies are diminished, he pointed out, inmates can also get all the documentation they need including things like a Social Security card which is required for employment. “From a Labor Department perspective, when these folks hit the street and come into our offices we can begin the job search immediately,” he noted.
One drawback of the program is it’s voluntary, but so far 600 ex-cons have signed up, Strong estimated.
I-ADAPT has been off to a good start in coordinating state agencies’ re-entry efforts, but most prison watchers, including Visher, said it’s too early to tell what impact it will have on ex-con employment or the recidivism rate.
Community Groups Help Reduce Recidivism in Delaware
For now, it is community groups that seem to be doing the most to help men and women coming out of prison stay out.
One such example is The Way Home Program in Georgetown that helps inmates and ex-cons in Sussex County. The charity was created in 1998 and is now under the auspices of the Episcopal Diocese of Delaware. “We saw there was a great need for helping people as they come out of the prison,” said Barbara Del Mastro, director of the program.
Assisting in finding employment for ex-cons, she explained, has always been a key part of keeping them out of jail, but “it’s even more crucial now because jobs are so scarce.”
And, she added, prison training programs and grants for inmates have been on the decline. “In our prison here in Georgetown, there are limited vocational education opportunities,” she said.
The group provides ex-offenders moral and financial support, housing assistance, and shuttles them when needed to get necessary documentation or make appointments with Labor Department counselors. They also encourage ex-cons to blanket the area with applications and teach them how to conduct themselves when they meet with potential employers.
The Way Home does reach out to employers on a limited basis, and there are plans in the works to create their own cottage industries to hire some of the ex-offenders themselves.
But in the end, Del Mastro said, “The best job connections have come from us knowing someone who knows someone.”
A assessment of The Way Home by University of Delaware public policy researchers released in 2006, found that: “The Way Home program performed more effectively than DOC (Department of Correction) on all dimensions of recidivism.”
Jim Nelligan Jr., 43, who got out in July after serving 16 years for a violent crime, has gotten lots of help from The Way Home, most recently from an employee there who drove him around town to apply for jobs.
“I can’t say enough about how much they’ve helped me out,” said Nelligan, who was offered a temporary job by an old friend a week ago hanging drywall. “I’m virtually penniless but my needs have been taken care of. I’m getting by. I haven’t committed any crimes.”
Drake, who was recently released, was able to connect with the group before he was let out of prison, and found the support he needed to get him on the right track to find employment.
“The Way Home program has helped me establish myself, to get on my feet,” he said, adding that he’d probably be homeless if it wasn’t for their help.
As far as his employment future, he said, he knows there are lots of people out of work now without a record and understands the reluctance some employers may have about giving him a job. Of ex-cons like himself, he said, “Give them a chance. They’re going to be productive citizens if you give them a chance.”
Delaware seeks ways to help ex-cons enter the workforce.
DFM News visited a meeting of The Way Home Program to see the struggles of an ex-con returning to the work force.
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