[News] Chronicle Op-Ed on Rights for Former Prisoners

[News at freedomarchives.org]

Great Chronicle editorial on the disenfranchisement of former prisoners 
which quotes Linda Evans!

Fruitless punishment
-
Thursday, August 5, 2004


EACH YEAR, 125,000 inmates are paroled from California prisons with $200 in 
their pockets and a figurative pat on the back. They are freed because 
they've paid their debt to society and served their time. So why do we keep 
punishing them with barriers that hinder their chance for legitimate recovery?

Under confounding public policies, ex-inmates are denied opportunities that 
most of us take for granted.

For example, people with felony drug convictions are denied welfare and 
food stamps for life. Since 1996, more than 37,000 former female inmates 
have been deemed ineligible for welfare.

Former inmates can't apply for student loans or public housing. They often 
are denied custody of their children, access to public-sector jobs, or the 
right to acquire any of more than 30 licenses for vocations such as 
acupuncture and real estate.

Instead of producing self-supporting citizens and more secure communities, 
the policies create a perpetual class of increasingly marginalized people.

The Little Hoover Commission reports that 70 to 90 percent of parolees are 
unemployed -- a figure with alarming implications for public safety. Nearly 
all of the 6,900 parolees remanded to Oakland are jobless and, police say, 
disproportionately responsible for the city's violent crimes.

"How do you eat if you can't get a job (or) food stamps?" asks Linda Evans 
of All of Us or None, an advocacy group for ex-inmates. The answer is 
apparent, given the state's $5 billion prison budget and 79 percent 
recidivism rate.

To close the revolving door, state and local governments need to work with 
business to hire former inmates. State prisons need to prepare inmates to 
re-enter communities. But mostly, the Legislature must repeal statutes that 
senselessly inhibit inmates from becoming productive citizens and, in the 
process, cost us dearly in taxes and community security.

Page B - 8
URL: 
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/08/05/EDGV68240G1.DTL


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