Diversity in the Workplace
June 22, 2016
O PINION
Breaking Down the Prison Pipeline
Supporting vital
services for
released inmates
s. b obbin s ingh
It’s a statistic
often quoted in
criminal justice cir-
cles: 95 percent of
prisoners will be
released at some
point. That igure
shows we need to
be serious about planning for their
release.
People returning to the com-
munity from Oregon’s prisons
and jails face numerous barriers to
successfully reintegrating. They
have to ind work, a place to live,
and repair relationships with fam-
ily and friends that may have been
fractured by incarceration or their
criminal behavior, all the while
complying with whatever condi-
tions of release and post-prison
supervision may have been put on
them by the system.
More than 2,500 people return
home to Multnomah County from
prison or jail each year. The sim-
ple fact is that the number of peo-
ple that could use some help tran-
sitioning from prison far exceeds
the available services.
by
Even though many newly re-
leased inmates are genuinely com-
mitted to leading a productive life,
there may be legal and other is-
sues that went unaddressed while
they were away. These may in-
clude child custody problems
or loss of parental rights,
debt, ruined credit histories,
or loss of assets such as their
home, job or business. There
are also laws and policies
that restrict the full participa-
tion of people with criminal
histories in society. In fact,
Oregon has massive network of
1,100 such laws and policies.
These barriers to reentry dispro-
portionately affect people of color
because individuals from these
communities are disproportion-
ately likely to be caught up in the
criminal justice system. Since the
release of Multnomah County’s
Racial and Ethnic Disparities re-
port in March we have hard proof
that people of color are negative-
ly affected at a greater rate than
whites at every stage of the system,
including after prison or jail.
If we are serious about criminal
justice reform, we have to get seri-
ous about robust reentry services.
These services need to start long be-
fore anyone actually leaves prison.
In my organization, the Oregon
Justice Resource Center, we have
begun work to increase the civil
legal services available to those
rejoining the community. We no-
ticed that despite the urgent need,
civil legal assistance is hard to
obtain. Most newly released peo-
ple can’t afford an attorney and
Legal Aid-type services are often
stretched beyond capacity. For
those who are still incarcerated,
and are trying to take proactive
steps to prepare for their release,
civil legal assistance and informa-
tion tends to be especially dificult
to obtain.
Civil legal assistance can help
in a number of ways: expunging
or correcting criminal records,
securing driver’s licenses, gain-
ing parenting time or custody of
their children, addressing debt and
inancial burdens, modifying fees
and ines, and helping with evic-
tion proceedings. These services
can help reduce recidivism and
increase the chances of successful
reentry. A 2013 evaluation by the
Oregon Criminal Justice Commis-
sion showed for every one dollar
invested in an effective reentry
program saves the public safety
system 14 dollars.
There are encouraging signs
that more attention is being paid to
the importance of reentry services
and the barriers that returning in-
dividuals may face. The U.S. re-
cently celebrated its irst National
Reentry Week. It was created by
the Department of Justice to high-
light the challenges of reentry and
promote the great work being done
to overcome them. Additionally,
a federal judge in New York in a
groundbreaking decision chose
to sentence a defendant to pro-
bation instead of prison. Quoting
Michelle Alexander’s book “The
New Jim Crow,” Judge Brock cit-
ed the harsh, negative collateral
consequences of incarceration and
the dificulties of reentry as rea-
sons why he decided not to send
the individual to prison.
We need to pay attention to
what this judge has realized: That
barriers to reentry are holding
people back and that is detrimen-
tal to society.
If we can support people in
contributing positively to their
community and families, we can
reduce crime, cut police and court
costs, and avoid the substantial
charge for re-incarcerating some-
one after another crime. If we are
sincere about addressing the civil
rights issue of our time, then we
need to commit ourselves to as-
sisting those returning home with
the support and services they need.
S. Bobbin Singh, J.D., is the
executive director of the Oregon
Justice Resource Center.
Culture of Fear and Bigotry Takes Hold
We must ight
this together
g raCe d olan -s andrino
The weekend of June 12
sent me on a rollercoaster of
emotions I never thought pos-
sible.
The previous Friday, I
was an invited participant in the
irst-ever White House Summit
for African American LGBTQ
Youth. I felt amazingly support-
ed, empowered, and valued —
by my school, by my family and
friends, by President Obama, and
by my LGBTQ community.
I was inspired.
On Saturday, I marched in the
Pride Parade in our nation’s capi-
tal. I sang and danced with neigh-
bors from every race, ethnicity,
sexual orientation, and gender
identity. We celebrated ourselves,
each other, our allies, and our
bright futures.
We were so beautiful and full
of promise. I was so proud to be
an Afro-Latina-Anglo transgen-
der teen.
by
Then came Sunday.
I woke up to ind that a ha-
tred-illed assassin
in Orlando had
brutally murdered
49 members of our
young, innocent,
beautiful, and be-
loved community,
and injured over
50 more.
They say the murderer was a
U.S.-born Islamic terrorist. But
Omar Mateen’s hatred for my
community echoes the headlines
I see about right-wing fundamen-
talists of other faiths who call
for discrimination against people
like me — and for the erasure of
my rights as a human being.
His hatred echoes the oppres-
sion, arrests, and killings of my
black and Latino brothers and
sisters on the streets, in schools,
and in our prisons. It relects the
cruelty of those who want to keep
Muslims and Latinos away from
our country — by force — and
who still want to keep LGBTQ
people from marrying each other.
They’ll even deny us the right
to pee in peace, if that’s what it
takes to dehumanize and humili-
ate us.
I’m not trying to be partisan.
But it’s hard not to notice that
President Obama held a summit to
tell us how valued we are, while
Donald Trump and many conser-
vative lawmakers want to erase us.
Many Republicans invoked
fears of international terrorism,
but most said nothing about the
members of our LGBTQ commu-
nities, who were the very targets
and victims. They vow more Is-
lamophobia, but make no mention
of the ease with which the killers
get and use assault weapons.
I’m only 15 years old, but I
know what it’s like to have deep
love and support, and I’ve wit-
nessed and been the object of
deep hatred and ignorance. I feel
angry and heartbroken by this
massacre.
A culture of fear and bigotry is
again taking hold of this country.
But my generation demands our
equality and our human rights.
We want to lead, and to determine
our own future. We want you not
just to love us, but to support us
and to listen to us.
So if you don’t understand who
we are and what we need, ask us.
To start, you can ight back
against laws aimed at hurting us
or erasing us, like those bigoted
and ridiculous bathroom bills.
Punish politicians who block
sensible gun control. Stop sup-
porting lawmakers who want to
exploit and exclude immigrants.
Stop the people who are expel-
ling and suspending and arresting
and incarcerating us.
They’re killing us. Help us
stop them.
We’re stronger than you think.
We’re Generation Z, and we come
of age in 2018. Our future is ma-
jority black and brown, and more
openly queer than any before us.
We know that many of you are
allies. We need you, and you need
us. Together we can stop the roll-
ercoaster of fear and terror and
start the climb to the mountaintop
of love and liberation.
Grace Dolan-Sandrino is a
transgender teen activist. Distrib-
uted by Otherwords.org.
Page 7
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