The Politics of Hope
Dan Cain, President, RS Eden

Much has been made about the breakdown in the social fabric among our youth; particularly youth of color.  Growth in crime rates, media coverage of select heinous crimes. as well as a growing recognition that entertainment, whether it be print, or electronic, has strayed from promoting anything remotely pro-social, have all of us focused on the development of our kids, and the things that influence that development.

These musings are not likely to result in any quick fix prescription for the predicament in which we find ourselves.  Hopefully they will weave an understandable explanation of one person’s analysis of contributing factors to why we are where we are.

For nearly three decades we have systematically made the world a much smaller place for large segments of our population.  Not one to engage in conspiracy theories, I can only assume we did so by accident and with good intentions.  But we’ve done so nonetheless.

Beginning in the 1980’s, we refocused our public safety efforts by prioritizing enforcement and incarceration over rehabilitation and re-socialization.  

The so called “War on Drugs” is simply one example. When Richard Nixon first coined the term in 1971, he signed into law legislation appropriating $155 million. $105 million of that was targeted toward treatment and rehabilitation, $55 million toward enforcement and interdiction.  Thirty six years later the proportion of substance abuse resources directed at treatment and rehabilitation has fallen from that 66% figure, to less than 20%, with over 80% directed toward enforcement and interdiction. 

Human service resources, to address things like addiction and mental illness which often contribute to crime, have become less available.  Between 1987 and 1997, U.S. spending on substance abuse treatment declined by over 11%.  During the same time frame, the percentage of inmates serving sentences for drug offenses increased by over 200%. 

Throughout the criminal justice system as a whole, we have increased the number of people in prison by nearly 400% in the past 25 years, while the overall population in the country grew by just over 30%. We have gone from releasing 192,000 inmates from State and Federal corrections facilities in 1980, to releasing nearly 700,000 in 2007.

In addition, over that same time period, we increased sentences for nearly every crime category, sometimes by as much as 100%, assuring that when people did achieve release they would be more disconnected from the community they left.

Did I mention that nearly 50% of the increase in inmates and releasees are people of color?

You might ask yourself, what does this have to do with hope?  I’m coming to that. 

Not only did we increase the prison, and by extension the parole, population over time, but we also imposed significant collateral consequences for anyone having a mark on their record.  In Minnesota alone, we have legislated over 200 restrictions on where a person can live, what jobs they can hold, what loans they can apply for, and whether or not they need to notify the authorities and neighbors when they move.  In addition, as a society we have advanced to where background checks, which used to be accessible only to those hiring for sensitive positions in National security, now can be, and are, required for employment at McDonalds.

A fourfold increase in people coming back to the community with  no treatment, no job, no place to live, and no fear of prison is the beginning of a recipe for despair, but it doesn’t end there. 

Inmates tend to procreate at higher rates than the population as a whole.  Something about having a child can create hope in even the most hopeless individual.  And regardless of how you felt about your parents, they were largely responsible for forming your world view, at least through your formative years.  Ask a six year old if they are Democrat or Republican, prefer Ford over Chevrolet, eat meat or are vegetarian, and they will invariably mimic their parents.  The point being, parents who lack hope raise kids who lack hope.

And people who lack hope tend to create an alternate reality.  If one doesn’t feel they can achieve status, belonging, achievement, recognition and love in the larger society, they assign essentially the same value to things that are anti-social.  Addicts and thieves take pride in becoming the best addicts and thieves.  They create heroes and rituals that are the mirror opposite of those in pro-social venues.  They basically say, “if you won’t let me into your club, I’ll create my own”.  Rap and hip-hop artists redefining some of the most despicable words in the English language; gangsta, bitch, ho and the dreaded N word; as terms of honor and endearment, did not happen by accident.  Nor did the fact that inner-city kids, particularly kids of color, embraced them.  We have allowed it to become cool to present an image that is anti-social, even to the point where an aging, white, hipster wannabe, like Don Imus, thinks it’s ok to pose; not to mention the Maple Grove white kid who wears his pants low, and his cap cocked ace/deuce, while cranking up the bass and speaking fluent ebonics.

We are nurturing a culture of hopelessness by limiting opportunity and resources for those who need access to redemption and reintegration.   And we do so at our own peril.  When we legislate a prohibition for a felon to hold a certain job, particularly if the job relates to the crime they committed, it may make sense.  The same holds true to limiting access to public housing, where vulnerable people reside.  But when we take these actions 200 times, it’s not unlike death by a thousand paper cuts, each one may be viewed as  no big thing, but collectively they cause us to bleed to death.  And dead is dead, regardless of the vehicle.  The collective result is, we have made the world considerably smaller for those already prone to poor decisions.

Creating, instead of limiting, opportunity is not “hug a thug”, it’s a cornerstone of public safety. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t hold offenders accountable, it does mean that we must provide a means for them to gain access to normalcy.  And regardless of whether we choose to do so, or continue on our current path, our actions will have exponential generational impact. 

The following recommendations are presented as part of a package to reverse some of the limitations on successful offender reentry:

• Create a sustainable funding subsidy for supportive, transitional housing
• Modify eligibility for substance abuse treatment to include a creation of a “culturally specific” designation for those programs that serve a predominantly criminal justice population and fully fund access to those programs.
• Expand the employment protections offered under Minnesota Statutes Chapter 364 (the Criminal Offenders Rehabilitation Act) to non-public entities.  Failing that, expand them to include any entity that does business with a public entity.
• Create a “Certificate of Rehabilitation” and a process for obtaining it and then make those who hold it a protected class under civil rights regulations.
• Limit liability for negligent hiring for those business who knowingly employ ex-offenders
• Limit liability for those landlords who knowingly rent to ex-offenders
• Create a tax-break incentive for employers and landlords who employ and rent to ex-offenders
• Create oversight for those companies that do criminal background checks with remedies for those victimized by erroneous or outdated information
• Eliminate access to arrest data, where the arrest does not result in a conviction, for all but law enforcement and corrections
• Examine and modify the collateral consequences that have been legislatively created so that they comply with the intent of Chapter 364
• Fund enough supervising agents to bring caseload sizes down to 1980 levels
• Consider expanding the discretionary release practices currently in place for the Challenge Incarceration Program and the newly created CRP program to other non-violent offenders, allowing for a limited time cut for participatory behavior while incarcerated.  As a second part of this strategy, dedicate funds saved on shortened incarceration to the reentry effort.

Fostering hope in our most problematic and vulnerable citizens, is a necessary building block to assure that hope exists for us all.