Leaving prison once and for all: Helping ex-prisoners successfully return to society can greatly improve their chances of staying out of trouble.
State Legislatures › Vol. 28 Nbr. 4, April 2002
Linked as:
Extract
Leaving prison once and for all: Helping ex-prisoners successfully return to society can greatly improve their chances of staying out of trouble.
Robert E. Roberts knew the political earth had shifted when a bill or funding his Project Return came before the Louisiana Legislature last year, and a handful of conservative lawmakers widely known for their get-tough approach to crime came forward to sing the program's praises.
"That was a great moment for us," said Roberts, executive director of the New Orleans-based prisoner re-entry program started in 1994. "To have people, including a former Republican governor, who are from the 'lock 'em up and throw away the key' school, publicly support what we are doing not only gave us needed recognition, but showed that there's a real movement out there to do things differently." One of those lawmakers, Senator John T. "Tom" Schedler, says his support for Project Return was based on economics. "We spend about $30,000 a year per person in prison. Frankly I don't see how we can afford to keep it up. Any program that can cut down on the large number of people who return to prison every year is going to get my support. It just makes good fiscal sense." In a state where up to 5,000 men and women are released from prison and holding facilities every year--and some 1,800 are almost immediately returned due to parole v...See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
