Mass incarceration of african american in the united states: the specific case of male juvenile delinquents

III- Once They Are Released...

A) The Prison Label: A Burden

After a second part where I specifically put my interest in juvenile detentions centers, in this part, I will still try to analyze the impact on the youths but also on young African American males. The thing about the prison label is that it you're labelled a criminal as soon as you're released and you face discrimination in employment, housing, education, public benefits and jury service. Those labeled criminals can even be denied the right to vote. Jeremy Travis, writer of the book But They All Come Back: Facing the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry, said: «In this brave new world, punishment for the original offense is no longer enough; one's debt to society is never paid.»^97(*) Indeed, many of the people who plead guilty of whichever they are accused or are not necessary told what would happen to them: to be deemed unfit for jury service and automatically excluded from juries for the rest of your life; the possibility to be denied the right to vote. These are rights that are considered fundamental in this country: something 30% of African American men will never be able to do again because they are labelled as «felons».^98(*)

What has been described before is just a part of what will not be possible to do once you have that «felon» labelled. As a member of the American Bar Association described: «The offender may be sentenced to a term of probation, community service, and court costs. Unbeknownst to this offender, and perhaps any other actor in the sentencing process, as a result of his conviction he may be ineligible for many federally-funded health and welfare benefits, food stamps, public housing and federal educational assistance. His driver's license may be automatically suspended, and he may no longer qualify for certain employment and professional licenses. If he is convicted of another crime, he may be subject to imprisonment as a repeat offender. He will not be permitted to enlist in the military, or possess a firearm or obtain a federal security clearance. If a citizen, he may lose the right to vote; if not, he becomes immediately deportable.»^99(*)

What is even more shocking - in a way- is that judges are not required to inform criminal defendants of some of the most important rights they are forfeiting when the plead guilty in a felony.^100(*) All of these civil penalties make it impossible for ex-offenders to live in U.S mainstream society. How are they supposed to adjust to life after prison when their chances of rehabilitation are close to zero? As said before, it does not matter if you have actually spend time in prison; as soon as you are branded a felon, you're barred from public housing, and have to check the box indicating a felony conviction on employment applications for nearly every job.

With all of this, it seems more than logical that most people labeled felons go back to prison. According to a Bureau of Justice Statistics study: «About 30% of the released prisoners in its sample were rearrested within six months of release.»^101(*)«Within three years, nearly 68% former offenders are rearrested at least once for a new offense.»^102(*)What happens is that they are stuck in a nasty cycle that give most none other choice but to go back to prison. Loïc Wacquant has called this phenomenon a «closed circuit of perpetual marginality.»^103(*) Poverty, which is often what lead many of those young black men to prison is exactly what they find again when they get out of prison, and in an ever worse way than it was before.

Another point to dive into is the families which are a significant part of what happens next as well. Those who rely on public assistance and have relatives incarcerated may be reluctant to allow them to stay in their house because of all the disproportionate policies regarding ex-offenders. Indeed, public housing officials are free to reject applicants simple on the basis of arrests, regardless of whether they result in convictions or fines. The impact of the War on Drugs and the fact that it targets mainly young black men introduce anxiety in these families, where most of the time, the father or the son is a prey of the current system. The fear of being evicted, which as it has said in the first part happen regularly, contributes to millions of families being destroyed.

The question of work is another tricky thing for former inmates. Indeed, to find work is one of the top priority of former inmates. A Vera Institute study found that during the first month after release from prison, they are more preoccupied with finding work than anything else.^104(*) Failing to find or hold a job can have dire consequences: more time in prison.All these constrains - deprivation of work; inability to provide for your family- lead them to depression and violence. This is the what the U.S society has to offer to people who have served their time. I have an example in Nell Berstein's book with David, who was 17 when he was convicted of armed robbery. Now he is 22. He wants to start over, have a job and have a decent life. The problem now is that because of his time locked up and the stigma that came with it, what he wants to achieve may be impossible for him. When describing how he feels, David said:» That's where most of my anger comes from. Everywhere I apply, it's like, `Your background, your background.' That's the only thing I hear back from the jobs. `You meet the qualifications, but your background check...'».^105(*)

To switch to the youths, a review of multiple studies found that 70 to 80% of youth released from juvenile facilities are rearrested within two or three years.^106(*) It echoes what many have said: the fact that most of those who are locked up as teenagers return to prison as juveniles, adults, or both show what a failure the justice system is from top to bottom. The primary aim is to keep the citizens safe and to rehabilitate most of the delinquents (especially since most have been locked up for non-violent offenses). But it's not really what is happening. The system has failed society and has wiped away any hope to rehabilitee that most of the people want.

B) Struggle And Trauma After Prison

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is common among the released prisoners. What many, if not most, people go through in juvenile facilities or prisons are life-changing experiences even if they may not be able to realize it on their own. Re-adaptation to today society may be the hardest thing for many who return home.

Eddie Ellis, who was serving 15 years in prison for manslaughter (he killed a guy who pointed a gun at him) described to some Middlebury student on their week end student symposium what it felt like to «live» after prison and deal with the traumas. When his family asked why he was eating alone, he answered: «Mama, I says, this is what I am used to. I am used to being in my cell. I am used to eating alone. This is how I am comfortable»^107(*) Eddie Ellis also opened up about the struggles he faces when he goes to movies «too dark and people moving too much», to a restaurant «I sit with my back to the wall so no one's behind me», or in the subway»if it's too crowded I get off».

The rest of this interview is in the appendices but this part is the most important as it highlights again the grave trauma that follows someone who has been incarcerated. A study by UWM psychology professor Shawn Cahill and his students found that Americans who have been incarcerated are almost twice as likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder than people who have never been to prison.^108(*)

As it has been said throughout this paper, the reaction to traumatic events is always more difficult and has more impact on children and adolescents. An interview with Will on Burning Down The House gives some great details about the struggle you face once you're out of juvenile detention. He was 15 when he went behind bars and 21 when he got released. Will recalls that the first few weeks were difficult as he understood that the world had moved on - some of his friends included - when he was away.^109(*) As he said: «The transition getting out is actually harder than being in jail. They bring you in as a youngster and let you go as an adult, so you've never had the opportunity to be independent [...] Then all of the sudden they let you out[...] now all of a sudden, you're a grown man and you got to learn all these things for yourself.»^110(*) Something as simple or complex actually as dating is something troubling for someone who has been away for so long. Regarding this topic, Will continued and said: «I was a kid,» referring to the last time he went on a date. «All you had to do was ask a girl, `Will you go with me?' and it'll be all right. But now if I ask a girl, `Would you go with me?' she'll be like, `Where, and in what car?'» «It's not about just your relationship with the girl anymore, it's about what you can offer her.»

About how he was affected to this day to his experience, Will mentioned that: «To this day, I don't feel right unless I have someone telling me, `This is the right thing to do.' Someone who's watching me. Am I walking in a straight line? Even when I am by myself, I am wondering how do I look, am I doing the right thing?»^111(*)

Being super cautious to people is also one of the thing that has had quite an effect on Will. «When people are being nice to me now, or trying to be courteous, I always get kind of - like if people offer me something, there has to be an ulterior motive. That's another internalized idea I got from jail. I can't just receive something from somebody as a gift without feeling like there's something attached to it. `What do you want from me?' I don't trust genuine giving.»

It's difficult to expect teenagers/young adults to be rehabilitated when first, once they are released, they have this kind of a scarlet letter on them that scream «Convict», and second, the trauma that they experienced and still experience once outside. The problem is when this trauma is not dealt with, it turns into rage and disdain towards a large part of society. Darren, a former inmate said that to him, some youth choose not to participate in today's society because nobody has been able to protect them from the abuses they have endured in juvenile prison and nothing has shown them that they can actually succeed and have a chance to be happy. Darren talked about some of his friends that are in this case: refusal to be a part of this society. «I have friends who don't want to work, they don't want to pay taxes, because of the traumatizing experiences they had within the infrastructure of the system,» he explained. «They are conscious as to why they choose the position in society that they do, after coming through an experience like that.» «Not only that,» he went on, «but some have the perspective that people who were paying taxes that paid for [their incarceration] were responsible, so if they do harm to those people, they don't really care, because they feel like [the taxpayers] failed them in the first place. That's a position that some of these young so-called prisoners, re-enterers, violators, hold.»^112(*)

Darren hit the nail on the head at this point because these young people's experiences have been filled with nothing but trauma and it is almost impossible to expect them not to feel this way if you understand the consequences on a psychological level that being locked up has had on them.

C) Reform Of The Justice System: Some Signs Of Hope?

Different factors over the last couple of years have led to some reforms and a drop in the number of juveniles confined: - 39% from a high of 108,802 in 2000 to 66,332 in 2010.^113(*) It's important because it means that there is a certain shift in the treatment of juvenile delinquency. It has been shown with the closure of more than 50 facilities in 18 states between 2007 and 2011. Some states, who were known to be in favor of locking up juveniles such as California, Louisiana, New York, Illinois and Texas have taken a completely different approach. The example of California is the best: their daily population in juvenile centers have dropped of more than 90% - from 10, 000 in 1996 to 922 in June 2012.^114(*) The same goes for Texas, after the scandal of the sexual abuse in the mid-1990s, the state has closed 9 youth correctional facilities and the numbers of young people detained went from 4,700 in 2006 to 1,500 in 2012.^115(*)

Some of the outrageous mistreatment of children and a couple of events.The 2010 Great Recession has made the cost of mass incarceration too high to continue to fund, especially since it was show that mass incarceration was counterproductive, especially for the youth. A couple of studies since the last decade about adolescent brain have pointed out that the brain is not fully developed untilyou are around 20.^116(*) Basically, it means that some teenagers sent in adult court are not judged accordingly. That is something the U.S. Supreme Court has taken into account for the juveniles safety as Nell Berstein explained in the tenth chapter of Burning Down The House: The End of Juvenile Prison: «Roper v. Simmons in 2005 abolished the death penalty for juveniles; Graham v. Florida in 2010 barred mandatory sentences of life without parole in noncapital cases; and Miller v. Alabama in 2012 extended the protection against mandatory life sentences to all juveniles, regardless of offense, all relied on the understanding that there were fundamental differences between the adolescent brain and the adult brain.»

Then, some scandals in several states such as bribery in Pennsylvania - where judges sent children to for-profit prisons for non-violent offenses - and widespread sexual abuse in Texas led to this shift.^117(*) Adding to this what has been said in previous parts regarding the fact that locking up the youth failed to rehabilitee them but actually led to more crime and that most of them upon their release suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and were unable to have a stable life, leading to recidivism made it possible to realize that a change was fundamental. This radical change, which has been seen all across the country, has led the majority - as Nell Bernstein has pointed out- to ask themselves an important question: Are juvenile prison really needed?

Let's take the example of the New York state which has completely changed its approach to juvenile issues thanks to Gladys Carrion. She was the commissioner of New York's Office of Children and Family Services - she now leads the New York City Administration for Children's Services - and during her time as commissioner, she has completely transformed child welfare and the juvenile justice system of the state of New York. What she has achieve in the state of New York is astonishing: From 2007 -when she started to 2012 -, New York State has shut down eighteen facilities and halved the numbers of juveniles held in state institutions. Gladys Carrion was also able to save $74 million from the closures of the facilities and cash them to support community-based alternatives to incarceration.^118(*) It is not a small achievement at all if we refer to the 2006 Human Rights Watch and American Civil Liberties Union who released a report, which called New York «among the lost hostile juvenile justice agencies we have ever encountered».^119(*)

Gladys Carrion made no mistake when she was how racial biased the system was in her State. Indeed: «More than 60 percent of youth from New York who were in custody were being held for misdemeanor-level offenses. The overwhelming majority of those in institutions were young people of color.» To that, she made it clear that: «it literally broke my heart to go in and look at these kids that are all black and brown. And I'm thinking, these could be my kids. They look like my son. They look like my nephew. These are all black and brown faces, and I can't stand it.»^120(*) She went on: «it became evident that too many young people were being placed in state juvenile institutions because of mental health needs or other social service needs, not because these young people pose a significant threat to public safety.»

She highlighted the failure of the system, especially when it comes to its cost: «New York spent $272,000 a year [per youth] to operate a failed system. We know that incarcerating young persons is not in their best interest.»

Having been such an advocate to the cause of young children and teenagers, Gladys Carrion has been praised by the Department of Justice for her effort to put an end to the abuses in the correctional facilities. As a commissioner, Gladys Carrion has met several judges with whom she has tried to argue that the facilities - in which many youths were detained - lacked everything and some did not even have mental health services to deal with the issues adolescents were going through. In her own words, Gladys Carrion said: «After that meeting, the judges almost had to stop sending kids to me. They just stopped... It was very important to cultivate that [relationship], because they control the front door.»^121(*)

The fact that she took it to the media on a local and national scale to denounce the failure of the New York justice system did not help make her job easy but she still fought to ensure that it was done properly.

According to her, the key to make such a change possible is to be willing to lose your job rather than compromise your value.

«It requires a tremendous sense of urgency.» She said. «You really, really have to care about young people and be committed that this can't continue one day longer. You have to feel it. In every young person in my facility, I see my son or daughter, I really do. There can only be one standard. The standard we have for our own children is the standard that we need to have for young people that we institutionalize.»^122(*)

Gladys Carrion is saying something that may seems obvious but it is the most basic start to actually have an impact on the reform of the justice system: to actually care about the people suffering from it as if they were your loved ones. That is why she added: «We have to want for each child what we want for our own sons and daughters. There has to be a simple standard. These children matter.»

The changes brought by Gladys Carrion have to be sustainable in order to transform the system once and for all, at least in the state of New York for now. The questions of these reforms - not only for New York but for the whole country - is whether it will last and if there will be complete shutdown of juvenile facilities and whether the help provided for young children and adolescents - those of color, since they are the ones targeted by the justice system - will make a difference and have an impact strong enough to make sure that the overwhelming majority of young people of color don't end up in prison or owe a debt to society that will never truly be fully paid.

* ⁹⁷Jeremy Travis, But They All Come Back: Facing the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry. Also seen in Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In the Age of Colorblindness.

* ⁹⁸Brian Kalt, «The Exclusion of Felons from Jury Service,» American university Law Review, Vol 53, October 2003.

* ⁹⁹ American Bar Association, Task Force on Collateral Sanctions. Introduction, Proposed Standards on Collateral Sanctions and Administrative Disqualification of Convicted Persons.

* ¹⁰⁰ Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In the Age of Colorblindness. Page 143.

* ¹⁰¹ Jeremy Travis, But They All Come Back: Facing the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry. Also seen in Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In the Age of Colorblindness. Page 94.

* ¹⁰² Idem.

* ¹⁰³ Loïc Wacquant, «The New `Peculiar Institution': On the Prison as Surrogate Ghetto,» Theoretical Criminology 2000.

* ¹⁰⁴Martha Nelson, Perry Dees, and Charlotte Allen, The First Month Out: Post-Incarceration Experiences In New York City. Also seen in Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In the Age of Colorblindness. Page 148.

* ¹⁰⁵Nell Berstein, Burning Down The House: The End of Juvenile Prison. Page 183.

* ¹⁰⁶ Idem. Page 182.

* ¹⁰⁷Robert Keren, «Life After Prison», http://sites.middlebury.edu/middmag/2011/03/08/life-after-prison/

* ¹⁰⁸Sarah Mann, «Psychologist finds link between PTSD and prison». http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-05-psychologist-link-ptsd-prison.html

* ¹⁰⁹ Nell Berstein, Burning Down The House: The End of Juvenile Prison. Page 187.

* ¹¹⁰Idem. Page 188.

* ¹¹¹Idem. Page 189.

* ¹¹²Nell Berstein, Burning Down The House: The End of Juvenile Prison. Page 193.

* ¹¹³Idem. Page 201.

* ¹¹⁴ Idem. Page 202.

* ¹¹⁵Nell Berstein, Burning Down The House: The End of Juvenile Prison, Page 202

* ¹¹⁶ Gary Gately, «Experts: Brain Development Should Play Bigger Role in Determining Treatment of Juvenile Offenders» http://jjie.org/experts-brain-development-should-play-bigger-role-in-determining-treatment-of-juvenile-offenders/105927/

* ¹¹⁷ Nell Berstein, Burning Down The House: The End of Juvenile Prison, Page 204.

* ¹¹⁸Nell Berstein, Burning Down The House: The End of Juvenile Prison, Page 214.

* ¹¹⁹ Idem. Page 215.

* ¹²⁰ Idem. Page 217.

* ¹²¹ Idem. Page 220.

* ¹²²Nell Berstein, Burning Down The House: The End of Juvenile Prison. Page 221.