NY- Society should invest in ‘re-entry’ of parolees

9-5-2008 New York:

A little over a year ago, I walked out of Fishkill Correctional Facility, one of the 17 state prisons where I had been confined for 37z years for my involvement in a robbery in which three people were killed on the East Side of Buffalo.

That crime, in 1973, culminated a criminal career that began when I was 8 years old and ran away from a foster home — one of a series of foster homes, orphanages, detention centers, reform schools and, ultimately, jails and prisons where I spent the prime of my life.

Although I never thought I would see the outside of a prison wall, I took advantage of every educational opportunity afforded — many of which, unfortunately, are no longer available to inmates — to me in prison.

I earned five college degrees, including two master’s degrees, completed several apprenticeship programs and took virtually every counseling and self-help program available.

I came out of prison an entirely different person, with the goal of repaying society for the trust and confidence placed in me by the New York State Board of Parole.

With all the buzz about “re-entry,” or steps taken to transition ex-offenders back into society, I thought this would be an appropriate time to discuss my first year of freedom.

I was initially released to a halfway house operated by Cephas Buffalo, and spent my first 100 days living with other ex-offenders in South Buffalo. That was a godsend because it provided me with a gateway into a culture that, as you might imagine, bore little resemblance to the one I was removed from in 1973.

Unfortunately, my education and training have not yielded the employment prospects I had anticipated.

I recognize the reluctance of some employers to take on someone with my prior — and I stress prior — record, but I hope that in the next year I am able to better utilize the education that the taxpayers so generously provided me with, and the experiences gleaned from my decades behind bars, to help people through motivational speaking and other means.

Meanwhile, I am paying the bills through day-work labor — painting houses, cleaning garages and attics, etc. — and continuing to work on my reentry into civilized society.

Re-entry is, at its most basic level, a public safety measure. I understand the political reality of appearing “soft on crime,” but I would urge our elected representatives to view re-entry as an investment in their community.

Nearly everyone who is now in prison will someday be released. It benefits everyone, not just the “criminal,” if people returning to our communities have the skills, post-release support and employment assistance to become law-abiding, tax-paying members of the public. ..Source.. Opinion by Gerald T. Balone lives in Buffalo.