Education Link to Lower Cost of Corrections

Prison system in need of correction

by Jeffery C. Mays/Star-Ledger

Sunday December 14, 2008, 9:17 AM

Faced with spending up to eight years at Mountainview Youth Correctional Facility in Annandale on drug and robbery charges, William Blaine -- for the first time in his 21 years -- had a moment of forced stillness to reflect on his future.

Blaine received a high school equivalency degree, but when he wanted to take the next step and enroll in college and computer classes, he was told the state no longer offered those courses.

"Getting my GED made me feel so good. If there were more classes to take, I would have kept pushing," said Blaine, now 36, who was released in two years. "They called it a correctional facility but there was no correcting going on."

Reinstating educational programming inside New Jersey's prisons is just one of the recommendations that has come out of "Counting The Costs," a series of public hearings seeking to elicit public input on how to improve the state's criminal justice system and the process of reintegrating ex-offenders into society upon their release.

Sponsored by Assembly Majority leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Mercer), the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice and the Second Chance Campaign of New Jersey, the third of nine expected hearings was held at Rutgers-Newark last week.

Coleman said she hopes the hearings will lead to major changes in New Jersey's criminal justice system either by legislation -- ending the practice of forcing those convicted of certain criminal offenses to notify potential employers -- or by administrative adjustments to the way the system operates -- eliminating the onerous phone surcharges that inmates face when making calls.

"We wanted to get a full appreciation of the issues by talking to people in the system, the ex-offenders, the people who deliver the services, the families," Coleman said at the Rutgers hearing, which focused on education and drug treatment.

"When looking at the social and economic cost to our state, there should be a tremendous will to reform the system."

Experts agree the system is both expensive and broken. The cost of housing the state's inmate population has increased to more than $1 billion, and two-thirds of the 70,000 adults and juveniles released from prison over the next five years are excepted to be rearrested within three years.

While it costs $40,000 to house an inmate for a year, half as much can be spent to provide comprehensive drug treatment or education.

Michael B. Jackson, a motivational speaker and member of the Juvenile Justice Commission, said the state simply isn't friendly to formerly incarcerated men and women who are trying to improve life for themselves and their families.

Jackson, who went to prison 35 years ago after becoming addicted to heroin at 17, and spent the next several years going in and out of prison for parole violations, said the stigma of having served time never goes away.

"After 35 years, when I go for insurance I still have to check the box that I've been incarcerated. Will it ever end?" he asked during his testimony.

Robert Parkinson, a manager for Integrity House who spent six years behind bars for vehicular homicide while he was an alcoholic, said prison alone will never be the answer, especially since drug addiction is such a prevalent issue among ex-offenders.

An informal survey among the 289 ex-offenders at Integrity House revealed startling statistics. They had served a combined 1,532 years over 2 1/2 prison terms at a cost to taxpayers of $53 million. Almost 80 percent identified themselves as substance abusers. The convictions led 71 percent of them to have suspended licenses and made 56 percent ineligible for welfare. Combined, they owed $650,000 in child support that they were unable to pay.

"There's a tremendous misnomer that if you send someone to prison that hard time fixes them and they fold back into society. Nothing is further from the truth. Addiction is a disease and a disease needs treatment," said Parkinson.
Omar Shabazz, a counselor who works with ex-offenders with the American Friends Service Committee, bemoaned the fact that the programs that allowed him to get a college degree while he spent the years from his 18th to 40th birthdays in prison for a drug-related murder, kidnapping and robbery, no longer exist.

The issues he sees facing incarcerated and newly released inmates range from the basic -- not having identification and medical records and overpriced prison goods, to systematic failures -- a difficult and slow parole process.

There are cost-effective ways to address these issues, said Cornell Brooks, executive director of New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. Online classes can be an inexpensive way to deliver classes to large numbers of inmates. The state can also add incentives such as reduced prison time for inmates who improve themselves educationally. The vocational classes that are offered should match job demands.

In terms of drug treatment, the number of beds simply does not address the need, said Brooks. Drug courts that emphasize intervention, treatment and supervision can help keep nonviolent inmates out of prison and save money.

"After a certain point, the public can't sustain throwing money at a problem and failing all the while talking about being tough on crime. The best way to be tough on crime is to reduce it," said Brooks.

Blaine, who accepts responsibility for his choices, thinks not being able to take college courses may have killed his momentum. After being released, he returned to the streets and got a low-paying job. He soon became distracted by the lure of abundant drug money, drug use and the street lifestyle. To the surprise of no one, he found himself back in trouble.

"Being incarcerated I gained knowledge of what I wanted to be. But when I reached a certain level, I felt the support wasn't there. There just wasn't enough to grab onto," said Blaine.