Returning Citizens

  Relevant Facebook Posts on this topic.

Three Reports from the RAND Corporations

Maryland Reentry Roundtable Collaborative
Monday, September 16, 2019
9:30 am to 4:00 pm

Implementing Seamless Reentry through stakeholder collaboration and continuous improvement

Prisoner reentry is the process by which prisoners who have been released return to the community. Seamless reentry is an effective combination of services and resources that remove barriers and hurdles preventing returning citizens from succeeding as productive and contributing members of society. Many types of programs have been implemented with the goal of reducing recidivism; from 2001 to 2004, the federal government allocated over $100 million for reentry programs.

“the Task Force envisions a statewide comprehensive and evidenced-based Reentry Initiative that involves multiple stakeholders, including state and county corrections, law enforcement, social service government agencies, non-profit service providers, faith-based organizations, and the families of those incarcerated.”
(Final Report on Prisoner Reentry, Maryland Taskforce on Prisoner
Reentry)

The Maryland Alliance for Justice Reform (MAJR) is convening a
full-day statewide reentry roundtable aimed at generating solutions
to challenges impacting seamless reentry. The collaborative is
centered around six themes and consists of a morning and afternoon plenary, breakout sessions, panel discussions, and a report-out. The roundtable will achieve the following outcomes:
–Facilitate ongoing collaboration between stakeholders
–Develop a plan of action for implementing seamless reentry
–Foster continuous improvement

Location: Westminster Hall, University of
Maryland Law School-519 W. Fayette Street.,
Baltimore, MD 21201
Time: Check-in begins a 9:30 am. The event is
from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

Why Koch Industries Is Asking Businesses to Hire Former Prisoners  “Employment is most important indicator of whether a person’s going to be able to re-enter and rehabilitate, and not recidivate,” Avery says. “We know sending someone back to prison is so much more expensive than investing up-front, so it just doesn’t make economic sense [not to].” See the full article in Barron’s

Learn How Certain Charges Can Be Erased (Expunged) From Your Records.  Explore this webpage for more information about expungement and the process. If you have questions, ask a lawyer, such as those who volunteer at expungement clinics. Learn where and when expungement clinics will be held. Go to https://www.peoples-law.org/expungement-and-changing-your-criminal-record

Ban the Box on College Applications

Maryland Fair Access to Education Act

One of the many collateral consequences that reentering Maryland citizens face is a requirement to declare their criminal history as part of the initial college application to Maryland state colleges and universities.  This practice is discriminatory and places a barrier to higher education for people trying to improve their qualifications and job prospects.  Studies show that asking about prior criminal history as part of the initial college application greatly reduces the successful application rate for former convicts.  And if campus safety is the main justification for asking about criminal records, studies also show that “the box” has no measurable impact on campus crime.

Read the complete fact sheet here.

Reentry: From Prison to the Streets; Making it Work

A Report from the New Jersey Reentry Corporation, Sept 2017

The report demonstrates how these targeted investments have the potential to save close to $189 million in state resources, while statistically improving measured outcomes based upon national and state data. Over these past years, we have developed a model of six integrative services that enhances the prospect of successful reentry: addiction treatment, sober structured housing, training and employment, linkage to healthcare, legal and MVC license services, and mentoring.

Read the report: click here.

Maryland Fair Chance Business Pledge

Every year, thousands of employable Marylanders are denied chances for jobs.  With a criminal record, many employers automatically discard a job application—even if applicants have been found not guilty, had charges dismissed, or have successfully completed any sentence and probation.  Without gainful employment, even well-qualified and skilled workers may struggle to support themselves, their families, and their community.

Read more about the Maryland Fair Chance Business Pledge

One Returning Citizen’s experience

The FACE, Freedom Advocates Celebrating Ex-Offenders, program helps build each ex-offender into a productive member of society. The program provides life skills, spiritual support, case management, employment connections, and more. FACE has been running since 2002 and has been providing transitional housing since 2011.

“It takes rehabilitation and a strong mindset to be able to come back into society.”

Hargrove said he and other ex-offenders could strengthen each other by combining what they learned on the inside of the institution with what he has learned on the outside. Hargrove puts tools in place for the people in his program, but it is up to them to use them properly.

 

Returning Citizens eligible for Medicaid in Maryland

Those leaving the corrections system are known to have higher rates of infectious and chronic diseases but often face hurdles securing Medicaid coverage for a number of reasons, including because some lack proper identification. Now, however, those leaving prison and jail in Maryland will be presumed eligible to sign up for Medicaid, the government-run health program for the poor, as part of a five-year agreement with federal authorities announced. Read the full article in the Baltimore Sun

GBC wants more hiring, workforce training for ex-offenders

The Greater Baltimore Committee released a report recommending businesses and government be more open to hiring ex-offenders and provide more resources for those exiting jail.

Returning citizens can face employment barriers including an inability to pass a background check, housing discrimination, lack of transportation access, stereotypes and employer reluctance, the report says. Such barriers leave ex-offenders with few options for re-entry and even lead some to return to criminal activity. See the Sun news article about this release.

Collateral Consequences

Collateral consequences of criminal conviction are the additional civil state penalties, mandated by statute, that attach to criminal convictions. They are not part of the direct consequences of criminal conviction, such as incarceration, fines, or probation. They are the further civil actions by the state that are triggered as a consequence of the conviction. They include loss or restriction of a professional license, ineligibility for public funds including welfare benefits and student loans, loss of voting rights, ineligibility for jury duty, and deportation for immigrants, including, in the case of the United States, those who, while not U.S. citizens, hold permanent resident status. See more at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collateral_consequences_of_criminal_conviction

A Home After Prison – NYTimes (6/21/16) – Many people who return from prison often live illegally with their families or friends in public housing, for lack of other options, and put those on the lease at risk of eviction. It’s much better for public safety, as well as for them and their families, if we help people live out of the shadows. We must take a hard look at how we treat people who have repaid their debt to society. Many of them return to communities that have been devastated by generations of tough-on-crime policies. We should use public housing policy to help people with convictions succeed, not continue their punishment.

The collateral consequences of a criminal conviction—legal sanctions and restrictions imposed upon people because of their criminal record—are hard to find and harder to understand. Now it will be easier to do both. Congress directed the National Institute of Justice to collect and study collateral consequences in all U.S. jurisdictions, and NIJ selected the ABA Criminal Justice Section to perform the necessary research and analysis. The results are now being made available through this interactive tool.

For a thorough list of over 1000 specific collateral consequence regulations in Maryland see: http://www.abacollateralconsequences.org/search/?jurisdiction=24

The American Bar Association has an impressive list of resources including:

  • After Prison: Roadblocks to Reentry, A Report on State Legal Barriers Facing People with Criminal Convictions, LEGAL ACTION CENTER (2004), available at http://www.lac.org/roadblocks-to-reentry/upload/lacreport/LAC_PrintReport.pdf.
  • Internal Exile: Collateral Consequences of Conviction in Federal Laws and Regulations, AM. BAR ASS’N COMMISSION ON EFFECTIVE CRIMINAL SANCTIONS (Jan. 2009)
  • Margaret Colgate Love, Jenny Roberts & Cecelia M. Klingele, Collateral Consequences of a Criminal Conviction: Law, Policy and Practice (NACDL/West 2012).
  • Restoration of Rights Project, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYERS (2012), available at http://www.nacdl.org/ResourceCenter.aspx?id=25412&libID=25381
  • Think Before you Plead: Juvenile Collateral Consequences in the United States, AM. BAR ASS’N CRIMINAL JUSTICE SECTION, available at http://www.beforeyouplead.com

“Collateral Consequences” in Maryland. Students in the University of Maryland’s School of law issued this  Report on the Collateral Consequences of Criminal Convictions in MD (2007) examining the consequences of incarceration for the state’s returning citizens.

The Collateral Consequences Resource Center (CCRC) is a non-profit organization established in 2014 to promote public discussion of the collateral consequences of conviction, the legal restrictions and social stigma that burden people with a criminal record long after their court-imposed sentence has been served. The Center provides news and commentary about this dynamic area of the law, practice and advocacy resources, and information about how to obtain relief from collateral consequences in different jurisdictions.  See http://ccresourcecenter.org/

The CCRC has an up-to-date report on Maryland Restoration of Rights, Pardon, Expungement & Sealing. See http://ccresourcecenter.org/state-restoration-profiles/maryland-restoration-of-rights-pardon-expungement-sealing/

Margaret Colgate Love: “A New Approach to an Old Subject: The Uniform Collateral Consequences of Conviction Act.” This paper appends a state-by-state list of laws enacted in 2013-2014 dealing with relief from the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction. Also appended to this paper is Sarah B. Berson’s article “Beyond the Sentence – Understanding Collateral Consequences” which discusses the National Institute of Justice’s database. See http://www.leg.state.nv.us/Interim/77th2013/Exhibits/ACAJ/E091214H.pdf

“The Collateral Consequences of Arrests and Convictions under D.C., Maryland, and Virginia Law.” by The Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights & Urban Affairs. A report written in 2014 surveys the legal discrimination against returning citizens. See: http://www.washlaw.org/pdf/wlc_collateral_consequences_report.pdf

Here is an important New York Times op-ed about collateral consequences in Maryland: “In the United States, only those who are convicted of the most serious crimes get life sentences. But everyone who enters the criminal justice system can be marked for life. Even the briefest minor interaction with the justice system can leave someone with a criminal record — and a permanent barrier to a job, housing, education or an occupational license… Read the full article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/24/opinion/have-you-ever-been-arrested-check-here.html?_r=2

Other Re-entry Issues

“I hope Hogan keeps his campaign promises and leads Maryland out of the age of “life means life.” Doing so would downsize the prison population of elderly, sick, dying men and women who seek a chance to reconnect with the social contract. Taxpayers would benefit, and so would elderly incarcerated American citizens.” Read the full column by Larry Bratt in the Washington Post.

The Constellation is being renovated in dry-dock. While the ship itself is undergoing a renewal, so are many of the men who are working on her. The project is a collaboration between two important programs of the Living Classrooms Foundation , Historic Ships in Baltimore and Project SERVE .

“Ban the Box.” National Public Radio explored how banning a single question commonly asked by employers could help returning citizens find jobs in their communities and reduce recidivism. You can listen to or read their story.

Federal Agency Reentry Council.  Looking for some terrific resources to educate the community? Check out the Council’s series of “Mythbusters” on reentry.  They address a variety of subjects, and each is short and easy to print.

NAACP Toolkit. The Successful Re-Entry Project: Working Towards Justice, Dignity and Redemption contains updated information, advocacy tools, guidelines for communication, and ways the National NAACP office can provide support to people working in this field. It is designed as a dynamic set of strategies and information to support advocacy for best practices and sound policies at the local, state, and national level.