Three ‘E’s of ReEntry | Nicholas Crapser | TEDxHumboldtBay

imagine for a moment the worst thing you've ever done the thing that causes you the most guilt or shame now imagine that this thing or event precedes you in all aspects of your life it's printed on your business cards it's on your social media pages and it's available for anyone to find on the internet with very little effort in fact imagine the worst thing that you've ever done was put it on your shirt what would your shirt say how would what people read about you on your shirt effect meeting new people going out on a date getting a job or picking your kids up from school what would your shirt say I'm a liar I drive drunk I'm a bad parent I've abused my child what would your shirt say for millions of Americans this metaphoric shirt is a reality the worst thing that they've ever done precedes them in all aspects of their life and it's available for anyone to find on the internet with very little effort of course we're talking about people with criminal convictions and those that were formerly incarcerated I sure my talk with you today not only is someone who has some education on the subject but also someone that works with this demographic of population daily and someone that has spent time in prison although my record dates back more than a decade ago in many ways I still wear that shirt from my past I'm a drug addict I have a criminal record the United States of America has roughly 5% of the world's population but more than 25% of the world's prison population we incarcerate more people than China more than Russia and more than North Korea now either were the most evil people on earth or were doing something really wrong with our justice system what if the price tag at being number one eighty billion dollars eighty billion dollars now I for one have a very difficult time wrapping my mind around 80 billion dollars if I were capable of saving ten thousand dollars a day every single day it would take me twenty-one thousand years to save eighty billion dollars what else could we buy for eighty billion dollars the average cost of a college education in the United States is around twenty thousand dollars per year for eighty billion dollars we could fund four million years of college education or approximately 1 million four-year degrees how many people are incarcerated in the u.s. currently in the United States there are over two point two million people locked up with an additional four point seven on some type of parole or probation once again big numbers right if you add those two numbers together the number of incarcerated people in the number of people that are on parole and probation it's roughly equal to the entire population of the state of Washington or the state of Arizona or the combined entire population of Wyoming Vermont DC Alaska North and South Dakota Delaware Montana and Rhode Island if you broaden the net so to speak to the America the amount of Americans that have a arrest record not just a criminal record the number becomes one in four over 25% of the American population has an arrest record of some kind which incidentally is more than the number of Americans that possess a college degree so take a second look around you look at the four people that are sitting closest to you which one of them has an arrest record what does the person with an arrest record look like what is their shirt say what are 95% of the men and women that are locked up in this country have in common ninety-five percent of the men and women in this country that are incarcerated have a release date that means that ninety-five percent of the people that are incarcerated will at some point in time just like me return to their communities that number works out to be about 600 to 700 thousand people per year so roughly the population of Seattle returned to their communities only about 5% of the population in prison are sentenced to life sentenced to death or well otherwise died during their prison sentence so why solving for why why do people return to prison for the rest of this talk I want to share with you what I believe in the biggest reasons that people return to prison and then I want to share with you what I'm calling the three e's of successful reentry lastly I want to share with what you what you can do and how you can help the prison system in America is very good at punishment but not at all effective at rehabilitation this means that the very reason the individual went to prison in the first place goes largely untreated and when they returned back to their community are in the same place that they were pre incarceration in addition many individuals come out of prison with more problems and in many ways worse off than when they went in many individuals returned to their community homeless indigent no jobs no specialized training and no specialized education for those individuals that do have a place to return to they're returning to the same environment that got them into trouble to start with the only difference is now they have a new metaphoric shirt to wear for everyone to see to read and to judge the three E's of successful reentry are largely based on my personal experience leaving prison you see I was very fortunate to be released to an organization that specialized in helping individuals coming out of prison this organization provided me with housing job leads treatment and counseling but most of all this organization provided me with support fast forward many years later I have the privilege of working for that same organization providing the same services to other people in similar situations here are the three e's of successful reentry environment employment and education environment is a wide category it speaks to where the individual works but also speaks to where the individual lives and who the individual spends their time with very important in there is that support the network that they have made up of positive pro-social influence employment is critical to a solid foundation as employment builds self-efficacy employment also helps the individual move towards self-sufficiency employment has been shown to reduce recidivism sadly the majority of jobs available for individuals with criminal records are not living wage jobs education another wide category kind of in two parts here I think of education the traditional sense and the not so traditional sense the traditional sense College trade schools basic education but in the not so traditional sense like psychoeducation treatment and counseling as this type of education is essential for an individual to move through life's problems to deal with drug and alcohol drug addiction and alcoholism and to navigate the challenges of the future the organization that I work for today the one that helped me so much is called sponsors sponsors is dedicated to helping individuals who return from prison to become productive law-abiding and taxpaying citizens we've been doing this work since 1973 and our record speaks for itself research on our program has shown a reduction in recidivism by approximately 50% 50% why isn't there our sponsors in every county in our country frequently our staff give tours of interested people politicians law makers law enforcement concerned citizens they come into our property the interest is there the desire is there but it takes more than interest in desire it takes more than an organization it takes community support and community buy-in the picture behind me was taken on a cloudy day in Oregon this is a mural at our main campus you right near a community gardens a local artist designed this mural but our community got together to paint it our staff members our clients our neighbors our supporters our community all got together to take a small piece and paint this mural this illustrates and what it takes to put an organization like sponsors together it takes community support and takes community buy-in now I know I promised you three e's but helping the returning citizen with the three ease of successful reentry leads to possibly the most important or bonus e empowerment when we help individuals to the three e's of successful reentry we're empowering them empowered individuals know how to advocate for themselves advocate for their needs and in turn help others as promised here's your call to action hold your officials accountable let your officials know that you're tired of business as usual that you're tired of throwing money at a system that does not work for far too long we keep feeding this system that does not work tell them that you want a organization like sponsors in your backyard to address the needs of your high recidivism jails and prisons should be used as a last resort and not as a first response create partnerships at our agency we create partnerships with local employers who look at our clients and give them second chances forging partnerships with local employers is not only beneficial for the returning citizen but it's also beneficial for the economic development of the community believed in people believe in 2nd 3rd 14th or 50th chances who are we to say when the individuals time to actually get it is I was very fortunate that I had a small group of people friends family a judge and a small group of others who believed in me when I was having difficulty believing in myself create reentry organizations like sponsors there isn't enough low-income housing in our country in general but especially not for people with a criminal history I haven't had so much as a traffic ticket in over a decade but if I needed to rent a house even in the funkiest area of town I would still face difficulties because of my past reentry organizations like sponsors are an integral part of a public safety system addressing all the needs of individuals in one place not only helps the individuals confidence but also decreases the chances that they'll go back to prison wouldn't it be nice to be known as something number one in something other than mass incarceration wouldn't it be nice to be known as the country that solved the problem as opposed to perpetuated advocate advocate for those who do not have a voice advocate for those whose voice no one will listen to advocate to repeal harsh mandatory sentencing laws elect progressive district attorneys and judges and sheriff's and give give of yourself give of your time mentor returning citizens there are not enough people to do this work and it can be very rewarding help individuals to rewrite the messages on their shirt I am a good person I'm worthy of another chance I'm worth more than the mistakes of my past if we want to make a positive impact on our nation's recidivism it begins the moment the returning citizen re-enters our community thank you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 11,038

Rating: 4.8608694 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Education, Criminal justice, Social Change

Id: aEWUg1zeUsg

Length: 14min 41sec (881 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 30 2018