State Unprepared to Deal With Released Ex-Convicts
Most of Florida’s 88,000 Convicts Will Be Released Some Day. But the State Is Not Doing Enough to Help Ex-Cons Transition Into the Outside World, a Task Force Report Says

Ralph Waccary served his time for committing arson. Now he’s trying to assimilate into the world outside prison.

“First of all, I am not fully adjusted — it is a day-to-day challenge.”

 By Bonnie Schindler

Imagine for a second: Twenty-five years of being told what to wear; when to eat, drink, defecate; being restricted from outward emotion; thinking and dreaming of freedom, remorse, family and loved ones; and, then one day, freedom: a sweet success after years of being locked up in a prison cell. But now what?

In a perfect world, ex-inmates going home would be assured of a place to sleep, shower, eat and rest, says Vicki Lopez Lukis, an ex-felon and chair of the Governor’s Ex-Offender Task Force. Unfortunately, she said, this is not the case.

“No Florida community has a comprehensive system responding to the challenges of people coming home from prison,” a final report composed by the Governor’s Ex-Offender Task Force stated.

The Task Force, established in early February of last year, consists of 17 volunteers who visited various facilities across the state, pored over research and statistics, and chatted with inmates and institutional staff. Their goal was to present a package of recommendations to Gov. Jeb Bush in hopes of shifting the post-sentence, community reentry paradigm of the correctional system. The report was released on November 30.

The Task Force found that persons leaving facilities are grossly unprepared: They get $100 in their pocket; “sometimes, but not always, 30 days of medication, a bus ticket; and often do not have necessary identification cards, a residence lined up, and do not know how to find a job or have the skills to get a job.”

Ralph Waccary understands the importance of having a successful reentry program once the prison gates swing open. He was discharged in May of 2005 from the Wakulla Correctional Institution, a faith- and character-based prison in Crawfordville, following a three-year stint for arson. He now lives in Chattahoochee and recently left an after-care program that he was running through the prison system.

“Some of the best steps that [need] to be taken upon release from prison [are] getting oriented to your surroundings,” the 46-year-old said. “Where do I go for probation, driver’s license, [or] food stamps? These are the things that will take a few days to get done, and can be very frustrating.”

Waccary said this could be especially trying for recently released ex-inmates, who have not been out in the free world for some time. For him it was not only a struggle to balance his list of things to do, but also to figure out where he stands in life.

“This is one of those things that — if you’ve never been there — might be hard to understand,” Waccary said. “You’ve just been released from prison — for however long it was — and come into the realization that the world outside the fence has been continuing on without you; there is this need to catch up with everyone and get back to where you were.… Of course, that will never happen.”

Since his release in August of this year, Joseph Burns has also been experiencing the fear of stigmatization.

“First of all, I am not fully adjusted — it is a day-to-day challenge,” said Burns, who is serving a 10-year split sentence: three years mandatory behind bars, and now seven years of probation with $14,000 restitution for aggravated battery with a firearm, and discharging a firearm in an occupied dwelling. 

“Social interaction is the hardest adjustment: I spent three years learning how to isolate and not make friends; now it will take time to change that way of thinking,” Burns said. “Things are better after four months but I still have bad days.”

His mom sees it too.

“I have seen the struggle that he battles in adjusting to the free world,” his mother, Katherine Burns, said. “There is the lingering stigma of being treated as if he were less than a human by some corrections employees; there is the insecurity that he faces in seeing childhood friends, and wondering how they will react to him; the fear of being violated for something insignificant; the realization that he cannot become licensed in an industry he is interested in entering [because he is an ex-convict] and the shame that he carries like a scarlet letter.”

And while Burns has the support of his family, this is not always the case for those leaving prison.

With the elimination of parole in 1983 Under Sentencing Guidelines, Florida’s Corrections Department is no longer required to monitor people walking out of prison gates, said Lopez Lukis, who served time between 1999 and 2000 following a highly publicized criminal case.  She was convicted of mail fraud related to investigations into her relationship with Sylvester Lukis, a Washington, D.C. lobbyist.

“[They say] have a nice life,” Lopez Lukis said.

Florida’s 88,000 inmates rank as the third-largest state prison population. Second is Texas with 170,676. California leads the pack with 187,618 inmates.

However, some inmates in the last couple of months of their sentence qualify for work release, a program that allows a handful of people to go into the community and work for pay each day, returning to prison each night.

The process allows inmates to move away from constraints of the main facility and into a world where personal choice and movement are encouraged, and where their reinforcement helps to reduce recidivism, the Task Force report stated. They get to earn and save money as well.

Earned pay breaks down like this: 45 percent of net pay goes to the state for the prisoner’s room and board; 10 percent goes towards court fees and restitution; 10 percent goes toward family assistance, such as child support; and at least 10 percent of the pay goes toward a mandatory inmate savings account.

Burns was in the work release program while incarcerated and has since stayed with the same employer. “He has paid off $10,000 of his restitution [most of the money was earned at the work release facility] and has moved into his own apartment,” his mother said.

Like a halfway house, Lopez Lukis said work release camps could be the perfect way to help folks transition. However, there are currently only 2,997 beds available for a statewide prison population of 88,000, and strict eligibility requirements keep most inmates out.

Lopez Lukis said these camps cost about half as much as housing inmates in prison, yet the state will not add more beds. Two years ago it cost $49.61 per day to incarcerate an inmate in the main facilities, according to data released by the Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability. The Task Force found that it would cost between $19 and $26 per diem for the work release beds.

With almost 90 percent of the state’s current prisoners eligible for eventual release, and a quarter of those expected to be reincarcerated for a new crime, recidivism and reentry issues need to be addressed, according to the final report.

The key to breaking that cycle may come from a change in the correctional foundation, according to the Task Force findings.

Florida’s 88,000 inmates rank as the third-largest state prison population. Second is Texas with 170,676. California leads the pack with 187,618 inmates. Despite their high incarceration numbers, both California and Texas recognize reentry in their mission statements.

California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s mission statement includes combating recidivism: “… to improve public safety through evidence-based crime prevention and recidivism-reduction strategies.”

Texas’ Department of Criminal Justice does also: “… to provide public safety, promote positive change in offender behavior, reintegrate offenders into society, and assist victims of crime.”

Currently, the Florida Department of Corrections’ mission statement promises to “protect the public by operating a safe, secure, humane and efficient corrections system” — but does not address recidivism or reentry, Lopez Lukis said. “We have a lot of catching up to do,” she said.

If the very core of the correctional system does not reflect the goal of rehabilitation and reentry, the staffs of Florida Department of Corrections’ facilities are not held accountable for this transition, nor are they ranked based on the number of people who come back into the system, the report stated.

Therefore, the Task Force recommends the department change its mission, and assess the performance of wardens and staff in achieving the goal of successful reentry.

“Prison employees unwilling to work with the changes toward reentry preparation should leave,” Lopez Lukis said.

The report lists measures that could be adopted, including noting incidents of violence, staff and inmate injuries, and number of days in lockdown; while expanding programs addressing education, job training and family reconnection.

Despite its importance, funding for such programming dramatically decreased between 2000 and 2005: Substance abuse funding went down by 47 percent, from about $15 million to $8 million; and basic education went down by 33 percent, from $36.7 million to $24.5 million.

These program cuts happened even though the prison population increased by 18 percent in the last five years, from 72,007 to 84,901, according to the Task Force report.

In fact, only 2 percent of the $1.9 billion Corrections budget in fiscal year 2004-2005 was allocated for inmate programming, according to the report, leaving inmates to their own devices instead of giving them necessary tools.

The Task Force found that “inmate idleness has sharply increased over time,” citing an Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability report showing inmates’ idle time has doubled from 18 percent to 33 percent since 2000.

The Task Force noted a sharp cutback in areas of education, vocational and recreational funding. Even the canteen – where those serving time can buy everything from cards to athletic shoes to candy – has been slimmed down.

And when the fat is cut, fewer people receive important skills needed for reentry into the free world, according to the report.

For example, the Task Force found 55.3 percent of inmates in Florida facilities read at a sixth-grade level. Getting them to a ninth grade level – the point at which they are ready to study for a General Education Degree, or GED – costs money. No money means fewer degrees, less skill attainment, no employment once released and an increased chance of recidivism.

Only 740 inmates received GEDs during 2004-2005, the report stated.

Lack of education is not the sole issue facing those released.

The 49-page Task Force report also recommended a boost in substance abuse treatment.  Despite the fact that nearly half of all those in prison are victims of substance abuse, 71 percent of the treatment programs have been eliminated.

As stated in the report, and based on data provided by the State’s Office of Community Corrections, “the current capacity is 2,117 treatment slots; and in 2005- 2006, of the 32,654 people released, 24,284 – or 74.4 percent – needed [substance abuse] treatment, and 19,724 – or 81 percent – did not receive it.”

So how, then, does the Task Force recommend getting those leaving the facilities ready in time?

“The members recognized that for reentry and reintegration to be successful for the more than 30,000 people who are released each year, the work towards that success upon discharge [has] to begin upon arriving at the prison gate,” the report stated.

Further, once they are out of prison, ex-inmates’ job retention, income and other positive outcomes should be reported.

While it may seem like a mega-shift, Lopez Lukis said by simply changing the mission, the thought process follows, which ultimately leads to an easy flow of directional alteration.

“It’s easy to implement,” she said. “We just have to make up our minds whether reentry is a part of the mission.”

According to the Task Force’s final report, only this year did the Florida Department of Corrections add “civility” to its Code of Conduct. The Task Force found that one word, one idea, reduces corruption, sets new programming priorities and opens the prison doors to community resources.
Their recommendations are not pie-in-the-sky ideas, Lopez Lukis said; in fact, they appear to reflect a statement made by Governor Bush when he created the Task Force:

“Florida is committed to the ideal of America being the land of the second chance, as expressed by the president of the United States who declared: ‘When the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life.’”

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