Washington D.C., Apr 3, 2017 / 05:24 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As Pope Francis and U.S. bishops insist upon helping ex-convicts re-enter society, advocates are pointing to a litany of obstacles – over 40,000 legal regulations – for such re-entry that need to be addressed.
“That’s what we want…(to give) attention to,” Craig DeRoche, senior vice president of advocacy and public policy with Prison Fellowship, told CNA, “the important principle of closure.”
“You ask somebody that has done something wrong to square their debt. They do that, that’s the right thing for that person,” he said of punishments for crime. “We should want that person to move forward up and away from their old life, and we’re doing too much to prevent that in America today.”
DeRoche spoke at a “Second Chance Month” press conference at the National Press Club on March 30, joined by other advocates for criminal justice reform from organizations like the NAACP, Heritage Foundation, ACLU, and Americans for Prosperity.
Prison Fellowship, an outreach to prisoners and their families, has declared April 2017 to be “Second Chance” month. A senate resolution introduced by Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) calls for the same.
“With 95 percent of inmates set to be released one day and two-thirds of released inmates back behind bars within five years, too many Americans are caught up in a cycle of crime,” Portman said.
“I hope that we all can join together on a bipartisan basis during Second Chance Month and all year round to support those who are returning from prison and want a fair shot at living an honest and productive life.”
Pope Francis, in November, asked countries to consider clemency for “eligible” prisoners during the Year of Mercy. He asked for criminal justice “which isn’t just punitive, but open to hope and the re-insertion of the offender into society.”
The Pope’s visit to a Philadelphia, Pa. correctional facility in 2015 was inspiring, DeRoche admitted, and serves as an example for all Americans. “It was wonderful to see that Pope Francis went directly into a prison,” he said.
“Prison Fellowship believes that every American should take the opportunity…to visit a prison,” he said at the National Press Club, emphasizing that especially “elected leaders” should visit prisons.
“And many people who aren’t aware of how involved the Christian church is [in prison ministry], they often ask ‘why?’” DeRoche said. “And I say ‘well it’s one of the only things that Jesus actually commanded people to do.’”
Why are advocates pushing specifically for a “second chance” initiative? Former inmates face far too many barriers to living a normal life once they re-enter society, one former prisoner says, and such restrictions may well enhance their risks of re-entering prison.
Casey Irwin, who was convicted for bank fraud and drug-related offenses, now owns a million-dollar business. Yet for a while after her time spent in multiple prisons, she struggled to find her way in society.
“I made poor choices,” Irwin said at the National Press Club. “I’m still a normal human being, and I need a place to eat, and I need a place to sleep, and I need a place to work. And so all those things have been difficult to obtain.”
“I can get a job, but it wasn’t going to pay me any money, and I wasn’t going to ever move up. So I think that’s a barrier for everybody,” Irwin told CNA of her efforts to find a job that would pay well and offer her career advancement opportunities.
She still faces “many barriers” including in housing and employment, she said, noting that the societal stigma against someone with a criminal record is quite real when she applied for housing or for jobs after she had served her prison sentence and, in her words, paid her “debt” to society.
Just “the way people look at you” when they hear about a criminal record, she explained, “you tell people you’re a felon and they think you killed five people.”
“That’s their automatic reaction,” she said, and societal change needs to happen through peoples’ minds, not legislation. “That comes from peoples’ mindsets being changed about ‘criminal people.’”
“I sold drugs to supplement my income for my rent, because I was in a place I couldn’t afford. And she [the landlord] knew it. I knew it. But I needed a place to stay, so I’m like ‘I’ll take it,’ knowing that I couldn’t pay for it,” Irwin said. She was caught selling drugs and sentenced to prison again.
“One of those things was like how do I get ahead without criminal behavior? How do I get ahead without trying to skirt the system?” she said. “And so I had to really push through that, and take a low-paying job, and just allow myself to develop, where a lot of people who are in that criminal mindset, they don’t think like that because they want it now, and right now.”
Her first big break came when a friend she had worked with referred her for a management position at Kentucky Fried Chicken. She was offered to be manager of a franchise.
“I was so excited,” she recalled, noting she had an opportunity for success “without having to look over my shoulder.”
Yet ex-convicts face tens of thousands of obstacles and restrictions – over 46,000 “collateral consequences” at the federal, state, and local level across the U.S., John Malcolm, a legal expert with the Heritage Foundation, noted at last Thursday’s event.
In a report he co-authored in March on “collateral consequences,” he noted how some states have hundreds of consequences for persons with criminal records including barriers to specific careers. Employment barriers make up most of the consequences, he noted – 60 to 70 percent, according to the American Bar Association.
And a dozen states “restrict voting rights even after a person has served his or her prison sentence and is no longer on probation or parole,” Udi Ofer, director of the ACLU’s Campaign for Smart Justice, noted at the event.
The disparity can fall sharply along racial lines, too, he added. “Black Americans of voting age are more than four times more likely to lose their voting rights than the rest of the adult population, with one out of every 13 black adults disenfranchised nationally.”
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I hold Pope Francis partially to blame for this witch hunt of traditionalist Catholics. I am NOT saying that he was party to this political persecution of Catholics in the USA. But I AM stating categorically that his repeated and public singling out traditional Catholics for criticism and ridicule only serves to encourage persecution of Catholics by rogue elements in our Federal government. He should hang his head in shame.
Amen, Deacon.
My only possible disagreement is that it is “rogue elements.” I am beginning to believe it is standard operating procedures of the government these days.
I don’t think it’s any business of the FBI what form of the liturgy Catholics attend or whether they’re in full agreement with VII but it did appear from the documents that it was SSPX communities who were singled out, not so much those who attend the TLM outside the SSPX.
Again, the FBIs job is not to sort out Catholic disputes over liturgy or infiltrate churches. Ive had SSPX friends and have never heard anything extremist or violent from them. My hope has always been that the SSPX and Rome would reconcile.
they just shot a pastor out west, I wonder why they didn’t arrest him out in public
Do you really believe that they act upon what the Pope says?
If the Pope publicly denigrates traditional Catholics by calling them rigid and radical, don’t you think that is encouragement enough for the Catholic-haters in the Biden administration?
This is the same FBI that Catholic Joe uses against his political enemies, Christians and now Catholics.
The war on Christians and Christianity, especially the Catholic Church, began 2000 years ago in Jerusalem.
To identify as Catholic does not preclude being a domestic terrorist. Unfortunately! If you listen to many “Trad” podcasts you will soon realize that there ARE far right Catholics who could possibly be a threat to our present form of government. Everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty, but that doesn’t mean that if possibly suspect they shouldn’t be investigated. If you don’t do anything wrong you shouldn’t be worried.
I fear traditional Catholics far less than the rogue administration now running the Federal government and people who think it’s the purview of government to interfere in the religious practices of Catholics.
There is no such thing as “Far-right” Catholics, only CINO Catholics, who do not follow the doctrines of the Church. To them, it may seem like we are “far-right”, but that is because the CINOs are “far-wrong”!
Dee. How far-right are CINOs? I continue to remain cautious when I see a broad-brush indictment of any group. I try to refrain from usig “all” and “none”. God bless.
Do you have examples of traditional Catholics who pose a threat James? I don’t doubt it’s possible but I’m not aware of any.
Seriously? This is the very thing that a govt should NOT do. Investigate any random group hoping to find a crime or grounds for prosecution. Like checking all the figures in your tax return hoping to find a mistake and calling it criminal activity. In our country that is supposed to be illegal. Police are supposed to investigate AFTER a crime has been committed, or when/if they come into possession of evidence a crime is about to be committed. PLANTING undercover “moles” into catholic churches , or worse yet, trying to “turn” church employees and clergy is McCarthyism at its worst. Doubtless conservative people are often not only conservative in their religious practices but in their politics as well. But there is a gross difference between being conservative and being radical enemies of one’s govt. Funny that today, I read that the former DEM-led J6 Committee has destroyed a great deal of security video tapes and evidence which was supposed to be turned over to the GOP. Every time I see subversive actions trying to distort our country and our rule of law, the partisan and illegal actions are ALWAYS coming from the left. Since that crowd has no moral compass or patriotism or loyalty to the US, it’s no shock to observe this. Just disgusting. Catholic democrat voters, wake up before this gulag machine comes for you too.
“If you don’t do anything wrong, you shouldn’t be worried.” Seriously? Have you not been paying attention? The current administration and its DOJ have been going after a lot of people that have done nothing wrong. Parents, pro-life fathers, etc.
Perhaps you’re on this Catholic page to try to distract?
After Mark Houck I don’t see how you can do nonchalantly give this administration the benefit of the doubt in these regards.
I am truly concerned by the comments I have read here. They make me wonder if the conservative traditionalist schismatics are in league with radical national supremest groups.
The FBI, a bastion of Catholicism, is being attacked by radicals around the world. Now it is being attacked by our Mother Church?
The implication the President Biden, a life long faithful son of the church, hates the Church would be laughable in a sick comedy. It is tragic our Church has been infected by those who have the cognitive dissonance to believe such things.
Faithful son of the Church who supports abortion and performed a gay marriage. If that’s faithful, what does a faithless son of the Church look like?
More social credits for you Comrade Scott!
🙂
Joey has no issue with terminating an unborn life so he is NOT following the faith. Did he finally admit his son had a daughter?
He also became rich off foreign involvement, directly or indirectly – better open your eyes
I’ll assume this is satire.
Rubbish! Prove it! I assume you are a satirist. You can do better.
The troubling issue is the FBI is identifying Catholics as potential terrorist. Who would have thought this even a few years ago. This is a product of many rapid pro abortion American organizations that are out to destroy anyone and any organization, religious and others, that is pro life. The FBI is means they use to implement their anti life agenda.
If you don’t think that it is the puppet master Obama pulling all the strings on Joe the Stooge; think again. This administration has been Obama’s play toy since long before Trump “lost” re-election. This country made the mistake of placing in office a Muslim-leaning, homosexual communist as the first president to take over control of the country following 9/11. That mistake cost us dearly and continues to grind away at the very fabric and foundation of our country. If something doesn’t change and change dramatically and quickly, I think it prudent to discuss a “post-American” world and how to prepare oneself for a “post-American” America.
More and more information will emerge regarding how Obama has been behind all this corruption in government. Look to see how he militarized the FBI and the CIA to go after and destroy his political enemies. I have a standard that I apply when judging people’s trustworthiness: the broader the smile, the less you can trust the actor.
Dear Deacon. Without getting too political… I was no fan of PRESIDENT Obama, however you indicict him with “ALL corruption in government” without any details. WOW! You seem to have missed our recent history.
God bless.
Should we believe this? AG Garland said. “It does not do investigations based on religion. I saw the document you have. It’s appalling. It’s appalling. I’m in complete agreement with you.”
It has been revealed that there are rogue FBI members that have infiltrated the DOJ and other government agencies and the military. Because of it’s mission of protecting US citizens, I withold judgement until Jordan finishes his investigation the investigaters.
God save the union.
While Portland, Oregon has lost an estimated one billion dollars, owing to crime-related homelessness that exists on the sidewalks in front of businesses there, the F.B.I. in Portland is concerned about conservative Catholics? This belongs in the comics section of “The Oregonian.”
Sadly, Mark T you are not far from the mark.