The Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy held an all-afternoon Re-Entry Symposium on November 15 focusing on initiatives for formerly incarcerated individuals in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The first panel, composed of public officials, addressed programs currently implemented in Massachusetts, as well as challenges and vision about what could be improved. The participants were moderator Anthony Benedetti, chief counsel of the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS); State Representative Brandy Fluker Oakley; Commissioner of Probation Pamerson Ifill; Andrew Peck, undersecretary of the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS); Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins; and Meghan Winston, chief parole supervisor of transitional services at the Massachusetts Parole Board. Benedetti opened by asking the panelists to discuss the systemic innovation and developments in their respective areas.
State Representative Oakley responded to Benedetti’s question with one of her own. “How do you actually have innovation,” she asked, “in a system that is archaic?” The issue might not be innovation within the system, but the system itself, she said. She acknowledged the hard work of her fellow panelists and the efforts of legislators to financially support programming, but argued that it’s not enough. “At the end of the day, we are truly tinkering around the edges of a system that is not serving us in this day and age,” Oakley said.
Re-entering individuals from prisons and jails number 10.8 million as of 2019, the most recent statistics available.
Re-entering individuals from prisons and jails number 10.8 million as of 2019, the most recent statistics available. What happens to them when they walk out the door? Are they prepared to re-enter society? How about the individuals who have spent decades behind the walls and are entirely unfamiliar with cell phones, ATMs, and laptops? The data are troubling. According to a 2023 Department of Justice analysis, 82 percent of individuals released from state prisons were rearrested during the ten years post-release with 43 percent being rearrested within the first year and 62 percent reincarcerated. The number of individuals on probation or parole total just under 3.7 million.
Carceral facilities and the challenges facing incarcerated persons have, however, seen some evolution. “This is no longer your grandfather’s incarceration facility,” Sheriff Tompkins said. For example, when he first arrived at the sheriff’s department back in 2002, he noted that many of the residents were only identified by the crimes they committed such as assault and battery, domestic violence, and drug muling. Over time, however, many of the underlying problems of residents, particularly behavioral health and substance abuse disorder, are also being recognized, and in some facilities, treated.
System-level barriers and social deterrents came to mind for Peck, the public safety and security undersecretary, when evaluating innovation in his area. His goal is to identify and eliminate the obstacles that the system creates, or as he put it, the “legislation tripwires.” Peck explained: “We can create any type of treatment program, support program, but if someone is at risk of being unhoused, if they have food insecurity issues, they’re going to fail. Creating that foundation where people can actually be successful has really been a critical focus point for us.”
“It is fundamentally important that when people walk into court houses, they see people who speak their language and look like them and have the same life experiences.”
Commissioner of Probation Pamerson Ifill
Probation commissioner Ifill is, in a manner of speaking, looking to put himself out of work. “Our intent is to close more prisons and jails,” he said. The task involves interventions and behavioral efforts that address racial and ethnic disparities. “It is fundamentally important that when people walk into court houses, they see people who speak their language and look like them and have the same life experiences,” explained Ifill, the state’s first Black commissioner.
Supporting formerly incarcerated persons after their release is also critical. Sheriff Tompkins described one of his office’s recent programs called “Family Matters.” Acknowledging that a certain percentage of the carceral population comes from chaotic or dysfunctional households, the program serves as an intermediary. “We have to work with the families and the individual. We can’t just walk a person to the door after they served their time and say, ‘good luck,’” Tompkins said.
Other issues raised by the panelists included hiring staff with treatment and health backgrounds and increasing communication among departments, including the parole board, CPCS, and the legislature. For Ifill, support also requires funding short-term and sober housing.
The event’s second panel consisted of individuals directly engaged in on-the-ground initiatives, working for and with formerly incarcerated individuals, as well as those who were formerly incarcerated. The panel addressed what a successful re-entry looks like, what the current landscape in Massachusetts is for re-entry, and the investments, developments, collaborations, and conversations needed to help improve re-entry both in the state and nationally.
Patrick Conway, director of the Boston College Prison Education Program and moderator of the second panel, emphasized that expecting people to be successful if their re-entry doesn’t begin until release, is a mistake. “A lot of times re-entry should be starting on the inside” so the incarcerated have the time and support to prepare for what they will face.
The panel included Nurudeen Alabi, who became a student in the BC’s program while serving time in the men’s medium-security prison in Shirley, Massachusetts. A few years before his release, Alabi became one of the eighty individuals admitted to the full-time bachelor of arts program at BC since its establishment in 2019.
Expecting people to be successful if their re-entry doesn’t begin until release, is a mistake.
Patrick Conway, director of the Boston College Prison Education Program
“During the first semester it just blew my mind with the courses that I was offered—philosophy, theology, English,” Alabi said of his experience at Shirley, adding that it opened his eyes to another side of life. Post-release, he has continued his studies with BC, benefitting from the program’s one-semester transitionary term that helps formerly incarcerated students integrate into campus life. “It was a little nerve wracking, but I had the support of my professors and other individuals as well as librarians,” he told the audience.
Other panelists, Beth Carter, director of re-entry and program services at Project Place, and Leslie Credle, executive director of Justice4Housing and herself a formerly incarcerated individual, discussed the critical importance of providing jobs and housing for those who are leaving carceral institutions.
Credle proudly shared that HUD had just adopted six of Justice4Housing’s twelve policy recommendations, which will now become federal law. “We were able to dismantle the public housing system and change the punitive housing laws,” Credle said. Carter talked about the need for businesses, including healthcare facilities and universities, to employ formerly incarcerated individuals. She noted that some companies are hiring people coming out of prisons and jails but more training and opportunities are necessary.
Holistic programs are needed to teach tasks such as using a computer, paying bills online, or, even more difficult, reuniting with family members.
Another facet of leaving prison is dealing with trauma. The panel explained that many of those facing re-entry come from broken homes and struggle with PTSD. Holistic programs are needed to teach tasks such as using a computer, paying bills online, or, even more difficult, reuniting with family members. It was noted that many individuals have children in foster care and in order to get their children back from the Department of Children and Families (DCF), they have to have a stable home.
Panelist Kristin Dame, director of private social services at CPCS, highlighted that community plays a vital role in the lives of those leaving carceral institutions. “For individuals who are coming out, the sense of belonging to a community is huge. We take for granted having families and community with us. If you are someone who has lost everyone in your family, or you had an offense that was considered so terrible no other community will accept you, you’re looking for some community support. But the way our system is developed is that people cannot support each other,” she lamented.
Though complex and ongoing, the issues presented at the Rappaport symposium are gaining visibility and traction. As Peck of the EOPSS declared, this is a societal problem, and working collectively together is the only way to fix it. “We have to do a better job, but we can do it better together.”
Photographs by Reba Saldanha