Tag: Rehabilitation

Locked Down: How Prison Lockdowns Undermine Mental Health and Rehabilitation in U.S. Prisons

Lockdowns are supposed to keep prisons safe. Too often, they function as mass isolation: damaging mental health, stalling rehabilitation, and deepening a humanitarian crisis.

During my 8 years of incarceration, I experienced numerous lockdown events.  It could be due to a fight in the yard or chow hall, an outbreak of an infectious disease like Norovirus, or a security sweep for weapons and contraband.  It might last for a few hours to a few days.  A security sweep might result in my property being tossed like a fruit salad onto my bed and my body strip searched, but that was the extent of my inconvenience. My few delayed meals or a sack lunch, a few missed shifts as a school tutor, canceled medical or library callouts, even a few missed visits do not begin to compare to what is happening now across the country.  Lockdowns were just part of the prison experience, but that all changed with Covid-19.

My wife is a Medical Assistant and was hired during Covid to work in the state prison near our house.  During the pandemic everything changed.  Just like out in the world, prisons went into complete lockdown.  No prisoner movement.  What necessary minimal services like medical came to the housing units.  All offsite prisoner transport stopped. No visits, no school or programing, no yard, weight pit of gym callouts, no church services or outside volunteers.  Prisoners were not allowed to interact with other people from outside their housing units. The routine upon which prison is built was stopped completely.  In most prisons this condition lasted not for a couple of months, but for over a year.  In a previous blog post entitled Anti-Social Distancing I wrote about the devastating effects that the pandemic had on prisoners.  The ripple effects of that time still reverberate in prisons.

In many U.S. prisons, “lockdown” no longer describes a rare emergency response to a riot or a narrowly targeted security incident. It has become a recurring operational mode: housing units sealed, movement halted, yard and dayroom time canceled, phones restricted, visits suspended, and education, treatment, and job assignments paused—sometimes for days, weeks, or even months. Reporting in recent years has documented extended lockdowns tied not only to violence but also to chronic understaffing and overcrowding, raising a stark question: When a prison can’t run its basic schedule safely, are we still operating a rehabilitative institution or merely warehousing human beings behind steel doors? [1]

What a Prison Lockdown Actually Means

Lockdowns vary by facility, custody level, and the event that triggered them. But in practice, a lockdown is a temporary suspension of normal movement and routines—often applied to an entire housing unit or whole prison—so staff can regain control, search for contraband, respond to violence, manage a shortage of officers, or contain disease outbreaks. Some lockdowns allow limited “controlled movement” (brief showers, medication lines, or staggered recreation). Others are near-total confinement to cell, with meals delivered to doors, minimal human contact, and sharply reduced access to healthcare, law library, religious services, and family contact.

Even when it is not formally “solitary confinement,” a prolonged lockdown can replicate many of the same risk factors: sensory deprivation, social isolation, loss of autonomy, and the collapse of predictable routines that help people regulate stress. That overlap matters because research on restrictive housing and solitary confinement consistently links extreme isolation to psychological deterioration, self-harm, and elevated suicide risk.

Mental Health: Why Lockdowns Hurt So Much

People enter prisons with high rates of mental illness and trauma histories, and many facilities already struggle to meet their clinical needs. The Prison Policy Initiative’s research library summarizes how common mental health diagnoses are in custody and how gaps in treatment persist. In that environment, lockdowns act like gasoline on a smoldering fire: they intensify stressors while simultaneously cutting off the very support: structured activity, social contact, counseling, movement, sunlight, and exercise that can keep symptoms from spiraling. [10]

  • Loss of routine and control: Predictability is a core mental-health stabilizer. Lockdowns replace schedules with uncertainty—When will the door open? Will medication be on time? Will family calls work today?
  • Isolation and conflict: Confinement increases loneliness and rumination, but it can also increase tension with cellmates in cramped spaces, producing hypervigilance and sleep disruption.
  • Reduced physical activity: Yard closures and canceled recreation remove one of the most accessible mood regulators.
  • Disrupted healthcare access: Even brief interruptions in psychiatric care, counseling, and medication continuity can trigger withdrawal, relapse, or acute crises.
  • Family separation: Suspended visitation and restricted phone access remove a major buffer against despair—especially for parents.

We should be careful with language: lockdowns and solitary confinement are not identical. Still, a large body of evidence on solitary confinement provides a warning label for prolonged, near-total lockdown conditions. A major systematic review and meta-analysis in Frontiers in Psychiatry found solitary confinement was associated with adverse psychological effects and higher risks of self-harm and mortality, especially suicide. When whole housing units are kept in conditions that approximate isolation, it is reasonable to expect similar patterns—particularly among people with preexisting mental illness. [3]

Lockdowns also leave residue. After weeks of enforced inactivity, people may emerge dysregulated—more irritable, less trusting, and more prone to impulsive behavior. That dysregulation can feed a vicious loop: tension increases, violence increases, administrators respond with more lockdown, and the psychological and social environment degrades further. Meanwhile, the skills needed for successful reentry: emotion regulation, conflict resolution, consistent participation in treatment—are precisely the skills lockdowns erode.

Rehabilitation: Lockdowns Don’t Just Pause Programs—They Break Them

Education classes, vocational training, substance use treatment groups, cognitive behavioral programs, faith-based services, work assignments, and reentry planning often depend on predictable movement and staff availability. Lockdowns disrupt all of it. Even “temporary” cancellations can have outsized effects because correctional programming is built on momentum: attendance requirements, sequential curricula, waitlists, and limited seats. Miss enough sessions, and a person can lose their spot—then wait months to re-enroll, if they can at all.

This isn’t a minor inconvenience. Research syntheses and policy reviews consistently find that prison programming, especially education and job training, can reduce recidivism and improve post-release employment. RAND’s work on correctional education summarizes evidence that educating incarcerated people improves post-release outcomes, and federal reviews describe programming as a key lever for reducing reoffending. When lockdowns suspend programming, they effectively suspend one of the few tools’ prisons have to make future communities safer. [8] [9]

Lockdowns also damage the human infrastructure of rehabilitation: relationships. Family visitation is often suspended, and calls may be limited or unreliable. Staff may interact with incarcerated people primarily through orders and door slots. Over time, this can shift the culture from “managed community” toward “permanent crisis mode.” Recent accounts describe facilities held in extended lockdown conditions because agencies lack enough staff to safely run normal schedules—an operational failure with deep human costs.

Are Lockdowns Increasing? What U.S. Data Shows—and What It Doesn’t

If you’re looking for a single national dataset that tracks the frequency and duration of prison lockdowns across all U.S. state and federal facilities over decades, you’ll quickly hit a wall: lockdowns are not consistently defined, measured, or publicly reported across jurisdictions. National statistical agencies such as the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) produce detailed annual reports on prison and jail populations, admissions, staffing, and mortality, but “lockdown-days per facility per year” is not a standard published metric. The Prison Policy Initiative even maintains resources explaining that many commonly requested criminal-justice datasets simply don’t exist in unified form—lockdowns being a prime example. [10] Here is one of the few examples from the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Example of lockdown data from the Illinois Department of Corrections for FY2020 to FY2025 showing the marked recent increase in lockdowns.

Still, we can responsibly analyze lockdown trends by triangulating from: (1) periods when lockdowns were system-wide (notably the COVID-19 era), (2) staffing and overcrowding indicators that predict operational lockdowns, and (3) investigative reporting and oversight findings documenting prolonged, non-emergency lockdown use. Note that throughout this article I have specifically included a series of images related to two state prisons in Wisconsin that made the news due to public protests regarding prolonged lockdowns and prison conditions.

1) The COVID-19 Shock: Lockdown as Public-Health Control

From March 2020 through early 2021, many prisons entered “modified operations” that resembled extended lockdowns: movement restrictions, suspended visitation, reduced programming, and quarantine/isolation practices. BJS documented the broader system impacts of the pandemic in prisons—including testing, infections, deaths, and major shifts in admissions and releases—showing how deeply COVID-19 altered daily operations behind bars. [4] Refer to my post Speech-less to read about the devastating effect that Covid-19 had on those incarcerated at that time.

Federal oversight also highlighted the mental-health danger of pandemic isolation. In a capstone review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ COVID-19 response, the DOJ Office of the Inspector General reported that the BOP told investigators that seven incarcerated people died by suicide from March 2020 through April 2021 while housed in single-cell confinement in quarantine units related to COVID-19—an alarming signal of how extreme isolation can interact with crisis stress. The OIG also described staffing shortages and morale challenges during the pandemic. [5]

At the time the BOP published facility-level COVID-19 statistics, which helped document disease burden and operational strain. That reporting was quickly ended even before the pandemic was declared over and the information was never translated into a standardized national ledger of lockdown frequency and duration.

2) The Staffing Squeeze: Lockdown as a Substitute for Adequate Operations

Outside of pandemic emergencies, one of the most commonly cited drivers of extended lockdowns is understaffing. When there aren’t enough officers to safely escort people to chow, yard, school, or the clinic, prisons cut movement. In its analysis of the national staffing crisis, the Prison Policy Initiative argues that understaffing becomes a self-reinforcing loop: fewer staff leads to more restrictive conditions and fewer services; conditions worsen; violence rises; staff burnout increases; recruitment becomes harder; and lockdown becomes routine. [2]

Data-driven reporting has underscored how severe the staffing decline has been. The Marshall Project reported that state correctional workforces dropped sharply after 2019, reaching the lowest mark in more than two decades in 2022, while many state prison populations began rebounding—creating a mismatch between staffing capacity and operational demands. In that context, lockdown becomes a predictable management response rather than an exceptional security measure. [6]

Stateline’s national reporting similarly describes prolonged lockdowns, sometimes lasting weeks or months—linked to understaffing and overcrowding, not disciplinary need. The key trend described is not necessarily “more lockdown events,” but longer lockdowns and more frequent reliance on lockdown-like restrictions as a default operating posture. [1]

Talib Akbar speaks during an Oct. 10, 2023, protest at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wis. WISDOM, a statewide faith-based social justice organization, organized the protest. Akbar was incarcerated for 20 years before his release in 2013 and spent at least 10 stints in solitary confinement, including a stretch lasting nearly a year. WISDOM and partner organizations called on the short-staffed Wisconsin Department of Corrections to lift restrictions on prisoner movement, reduce the prison population and invest in community-based programs that aid prisoner rehabilitation. (Meryl Hubbard / Wisconsin Watch)

3) Security Threats: Contraband, Drugs, Phones, and Violence

Lockdowns are also frequently used after violent incidents, when administrators suspect weapons, or when contraband flows overwhelm routine searches. A National Institute of Justice summary of a RAND-facilitated workshop on correctional security threats ranked insufficient staffing as the top concern among experts, with contraband (drugs, weapons, cellphones) generating the largest number of priority needs. Each of these threats can precipitate facility-wide shakedowns and movement freezes, especially when an agency lacks the personnel and technology to target responses precisely. [7]

So, are lockdowns increasing? We cannot prove a clean nationwide time-series increase in lockdown frequency and duration because the U.S. lacks standardized, publicly reported lockdown metrics across prisons. But multiple converging indicators suggest a real shift toward more extended lockdown conditions since 2020: pandemic-era modified operations, followed by persistent staffing shortages and overcrowding pressures that make normal programming schedules difficult to sustain. The lived reality described by oversight bodies and national reporting is consistent with longer and more routine restrictions—even if the number of discrete “lockdown events” is not measured uniformly.

Underlying Causes: Why Lockdowns Keep Spreading

  • Chronic understaffing and burnout: When posts go unfilled and overtime becomes constant, prisons cannot safely move large groups. Lockdown becomes the operational workaround. [1] [2] [6]
  • Overcrowding and facility design: Crowded units, dorm settings, and aging infrastructure make it harder to separate conflicts, quarantine illness, or run staggered movement without enormous staffing. [1]
  • Contraband markets and violence cycles: Illicit phones, drugs (including opioids), and weapons drive shakedowns and retaliatory violence, often followed by facility-wide lockdown. [7]
  • Policy incentives that favor control over care: It is administratively easier to cancel activities than to build staffing, training, clinical capacity, and targeted security approaches.
  • Unmet mental health and substance use needs: When treatment access is thin, crises escalate; crises prompt lockdowns; lockdowns worsen mental health; and the cycle continues. [3] [10]
Protesters call on the short-staffed Wisconsin Department of Corrections to improve prisoner conditions and lift restrictions on prisoners’ movement during a protest at the Wisconsin State Capitol on Oct. 10, 2023, in Madison, Wis. Meryl Hubbard/Wisconsin Watch

What Can Be Done: A Humane, Evidence-Based Path Out of the Lockdown Spiral

Calling this a “humanitarian crisis” is not hyperbole: prolonged, population-wide confinement in stressful environments predictably harms mental health and sabotages rehabilitation. The good news is that the solutions are not mysterious. They require political will, operational discipline, and transparency.

  1. Measure lockdowns—then publish the numbers. States and the federal system should track at minimum: lockdown start/end times, scope (unit vs. facility), reason codes, services suspended, and out-of-cell hours provided. Without data, the public can’t distinguish emergency necessity from routine deprivation. (The current lack of standardized lockdown metrics is a central barrier to trend analysis.) [10]
  2. Set enforceable limits and minimum conditions. Even during lockdowns, people should receive daily out-of-cell time, access to showers, medical and mental health care, and meaningful communication with counsel and family, with clear exceptions only for immediate, documented threats.
  3. Stabilize staffing—but don’t pretend hiring alone can solve mass incarceration. The staffing crisis is real, but it is tightly linked to the scale of incarceration. Breaking the cycle means improving working conditions (training, safety, schedules, pay) while also reducing the incarcerated population so staffing ratios are feasible. [2] [6]
  4. Protect program continuity as a public-safety priority. If education and treatment reduce recidivism, then suspending them for long periods should be treated as a risk to community safety. Build “lockdown-resilient” programming: cell-front coursework, tablet-based learning (where feasible), small-group controlled movement, and make-up sessions that prevent people from losing their place in sequenced programs. [8] [9]
  5. Expand mental health support during and after lockdown periods. Lockdowns are predictable stress spikes. Facilities should implement surge mental-health checks, peer-support access, and rapid referral pathways during restrictions, especially for people with known risk factors for self-harm. The evidence linking extreme isolation to self-harm and suicide risk makes this essential. [3] [5]
  6. Modernize contraband control without collective punishment. Targeted searches, intelligence-led investigations, and technologies aimed at drones and illicit phones can reduce the perceived need for sweeping lockdowns—while still addressing the very real threats highlighted by correctional security experts. [7]
  7. Strengthen independent oversight. Prolonged lockdowns should trigger automatic external review: documentation of necessity, timeline for restoration of normal operations, and a plan for services. Oversight findings during COVID-19 show why independent scrutiny matters. [4] [5]

Conclusion: Safety Without Humanity Isn’t Safety

Lockdowns will always exist in some form; prisons are volatile places, and emergencies happen. The crisis is the normalization of lockdown as routine management, whether driven by pandemic protocols, staffing collapse, overcrowding, contraband economies, or a deeper policy choice to prioritize control over care. The mental-health consequences are predictable, and the rehabilitation costs are measurable in missed education, stalled treatment, and weakened family ties.

Because the United States does not systematically publish lockdown frequency and duration data across jurisdictions, we can’t chart a definitive national curve the way we can for incarceration rates or admissions. But the available evidence strongly suggests the experience of lockdown has intensified since 2020; first through widespread pandemic restrictions documented by BJS and federal oversight, then through persistent staffing and capacity failures that keep prisons from operating normally. Treating this as a humanitarian crisis starts with telling the truth in numbers: track lockdown-days, publish them, and make “days of life” behind bars a metric of accountability alongside safety. [4] [5] [1] [2] [10]

Endnotes

  1. Stateline. Amanda Hernández (December 3, 2024). “State prisons turn to extended lockdowns amid staffing shortages, overcrowding.”
  2. Prison Policy Initiative. Brian Nam-Sonenstein & Emmett Sanders (December 9, 2024). “Why jails and prisons can’t recruit their way out of the understaffing crisis.”
  3. Luigi, M., Dellazizzo, L., Giguère, C.-É., Goulet, M.-H., & Dumais, A. (2020). “Shedding Light on ‘the Hole’: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on Adverse Psychological Effects and Mortality Following Solitary Confinement in Correctional Settings.” Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11:840.
  4. U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Carson, E. Ann; Nadel, Melissa; & Gaes, Gerry (August 2022; published August 25, 2022). Impact of COVID-19 on State and Federal Prisons, March 2020–February 2021 (NCJ 304500).
  5. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General (March 2023). Capstone Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic (Report 23-054).
  6. The Marshall Project. Shannon Heffernan & Weihua Li (January 10, 2024). “New Data Shows How Dire the Prison Staffing Shortage Really Is.”
  7. National Institute of Justice (April 6, 2020). “Experts Identify Priority Needs for Addressing Correctional Agency Security Threats.”
  8. RAND Corporation. Davis, L. M., Bozick, R., Steele, J. L., Saunders, J., & Miles, J. N. V. (2013). Evaluating the Effectiveness of Correctional Education: A Meta-Analysis of Programs That Provide Education to Incarcerated Adults (RR-266).
  9. Office of Justice Programs / Federal Probation. Byrne, J. M. (2020/2022). “The Effectiveness of Prison Programming: A Review of the Research Literature Examining the Impact of Federal, State, and Local Inmate Programming on Post-Release Recidivism.”
  10. Prison Policy Initiative. “Data toolbox” (includes guidance and a list of commonly requested data that doesn’t exist in unified form).

Hurts, Hang-Ups, and Habits: An Introduction to Celebrate Recovery

Celebrate Recovery (often called “CR”) is more than a weekly meeting—it’s a Christ-centered pathway for healing, discipleship, and restored relationships. Whether the struggle is addiction, anger, trauma, codependency, or the long aftermath of incarceration, CR offers a safe place to tell the truth and take the next right step—together.

While I was incarcerated one of the programs offered by the chaplain was an introductory course on Celebrate Recovery.  There was an AA program at the prison, and I knew a lot of guys who attended because they always had a coffee urn, but CR was different.  I had recently read Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life book and was looking for concrete information on healing. The old expression says “Time heals all wounds,” but mine weren’t.  I was in pain; my hurt wasn’t going away.  I was looking for a faith-based program that could provide me with an actionable process to systematically address my brokenness and guide me toward healing.

In this post, we’ll explain what Celebrate Recovery is, what a typical meeting looks like, and why the same CR principles that help people in church communities can also bring real hope behind bars through Celebrate Recovery Inside (CRI), the prison and jail extension of the ministry.

What is Celebrate Recovery?

Celebrate Recovery is a Christ-centered, 12-step recovery program designed to help people find freedom and healing from life’s “hurts, habits, and hang-ups.” It pairs a proven recovery framework (the 12 Steps) with Scripture and eight principles inspired by the Beatitudes (Matthew 5), emphasizing honesty, surrender, confession, growth, accountability, forgiveness, and service.

Celebrate Recovery began in 1991 at Saddleback Church (Lake Forest, California) with a vision for a recovery ministry where people could openly talk about Jesus Christ as their Higher Power; where the church could become a safe place for ongoing healing, not just a place to “have it all together.” What started as a single meeting has since grown into thousands of groups in churches and ministries across the U.S. and beyond.

Who is Celebrate Recovery for?

One of the most common misunderstandings about CR is that it’s only for alcohol or drugs. It’s for anyone who recognizes a pattern that’s hurting their relationship with God, others, and themselves. People often come to CR for things like:

  • Substance use and addiction (alcohol, drugs)
  • Compulsive behaviors (pornography, gambling, overspending, food issues)
  • Anger, control, perfectionism, people-pleasing
  • Codependency and unhealthy relationships
  • Grief, trauma, abuse, family dysfunction
  • Shame, anxiety, depression, and the isolating behaviors that often come with them

Celebrate Recovery in a prison or jail context: Celebrate Recovery Inside (CRI)

Celebrate Recovery Inside (often shortened to CRI) is the prison and jail extension of Celebrate Recovery.  It brings the same Christ-centered recovery pathway into correctional facilities. Many churches describe CRI as a natural “bridge” between the institution and the community, because when someone is released, they can often find a Celebrate Recovery meeting close to home and continue the journey with support rather than isolation.

Organizations that work in corrections note that CRI can address a wide range of life-controlling issues: alcohol and drug addiction, gambling, overeating, and more by dealing thoughtfully with the underlying hurts, hang-ups, and habits that often sit beneath the surface. Prison Fellowship, for example, partners with Celebrate Recovery to bring CR into incarcerated settings as part of larger life-transformation efforts, helping men and women grow spiritually and pursue freedom and new patterns of living.

Depending on the facility, CRI is often run as a structured series. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons’ volunteer listings describe Celebrate Recovery Inside as a 25-week Christ-centered recovery program with three core components—worship, step study, and open share groups—recommended weekly for about 90 minutes per session, using participant guides that walk-through lessons, questions, group guidelines, and the CR principles and steps.

What’s different “on the inside” (and why structure matters)

Recovery groups inside a facility operate within clear institutional boundaries and that structure can support growth. Many CRI ministries emphasize the same small-group guidelines used in community CR (sharing your own experience, no crosstalk, no fixing, confidentiality), while also honoring facility safety requirements and the reality that confidentiality has limits if someone threatens harm to self or others.

Why CRI matters: hope, accountability, and a reentry bridge

One theme that shows up repeatedly in CRI descriptions is identity: instead of being defined by an inmate number, an offense, or an addiction, participants are invited to be defined by what Christ can do in a life surrendered to Him. Prison Fellowship highlights how Celebrate Recovery Inside can help participants begin the process of making amends and strengthening relationships, including family relationships—while learning to live differently. Local church partners also emphasize that CRI can create a practical transition back into the community because CR groups exist in so many towns and cities.

For churches and ministries, CRI also creates a meaningful way to serve.  Trained volunteers partner with chaplains and facility leadership to show up consistently, model healthy boundaries, and speak hope. And because CR uses a shared language (principles, steps, sponsor/accountability, daily inventory), it can continue after release—when temptation, stress, and old environments often hit hardest.

What happens at a typical Celebrate Recovery night?

While every church is a little different, most CR ministries follow a consistent rhythm designed to be welcoming to newcomers and safe for honest sharing. Many locations offer a “general meeting night” that includes worship, teaching or testimony, and then small groups. Some also include a meal or fellowship time, childcare (when available), and a clear welcome moment that helps new attendees feel oriented without pressure.

1) Large Group

The large group hour commonly includes prayer, worship music, reading the CR principles/steps, and either a lesson or a personal testimony. Some groups also include a chip ceremony to celebrate milestones.

2) Open Share Small Groups

After large group, participants typically break into gender-specific open share groups (often also organized by issue area). This is where people share what’s really going on—without being interrupted, “fixed,” or judged. Confidentiality is a core expectation, and groups use guidelines to keep sharing safe and respectful.

3) Step Studies (deeper work during the week)

Many people eventually join a Step Study—a smaller, closed group (usually meeting on another night) that works through CR materials more deeply. Step Studies are where participants slow down, process their story, practice new tools, and build consistent accountability.

The heart of CR: 8 Principles and 12 Steps

CR is built on two complementary tracks: the 12 Steps (adapted to be explicitly Christ-centered) and eight recovery principles rooted in Jesus’ teaching in the Beatitudes. Together, they offer a structured path that moves from denial to honesty, from isolation to community, and from broken patterns to new life.

Celebrate Recovery describes this journey not only as recovery, but as a road that leads to salvation and discipleship—a practical, day-by-day way to learn surrender, obedience, honesty, and dependence on Jesus. In other words: it’s spiritual formation with traction, especially for people who have tried “willpower” and found it isn’t enough.

In many CR materials, each principle is paired with a Beatitude, and each step is paired with Scripture—helping participants see that recovery isn’t a side project to faith; it is part of learning to live the new life Christ offers.

  1. Realize I’m not God; I admit I’m powerless and my life has become unmanageable.
  2. Believe God exists, I matter to Him, and He has power to help me recover.
  3. Choose to commit my life and will to Christ’s care and control.
  4. Examine myself honestly and face the truth about my past and my patterns.
  5. Confess my hurts, hang-ups, and habits to God and to someone I trust.
  6. Submit to the changes God wants to make and ask Him to remove my defects of character.
  7. Make amends by forgiving others and taking responsibility for my harm when it won’t cause further injury.
  8. Give back by continuing to grow daily and sharing hope with others.

Celebrate Recovery vs. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA): what’s the difference?

Celebrate Recovery and Alcoholics Anonymous have a lot in common: both are peer-led, group-based recovery communities that use a 12-step framework and emphasize honesty, accountability, and helping others. The differences matter, though—especially for someone that is deciding where to start (or what to recommend to a friend or family member).

CategoryAlcoholics Anonymous (AA)Celebrate Recovery (CR)
Primary focusAlcohol addiction and sobriety support specifically.“Hurts, habits, and hang-ups” (a wider range of struggles, including addictions, compulsions, relational patterns, and trauma-related issues).
Spiritual languageRefers to “God as we understood Him” and a “Power greater than ourselves,” leaving room for different faith backgrounds.Explicitly Christ-centered and Bible-based; the steps are written to name Jesus Christ and Scripture as the foundation.
Core frameworkThe 12 Steps and 12 Traditions, as practiced in AA meetings worldwide.The 12 Steps (Christ-centered wording) plus 8 Recovery Principles rooted in Jesus’ teaching in the Beatitudes.
MaterialsAA literature (including the “Big Book”) is commonly used alongside meetings.CR curriculum and participant guides/step-study materials are commonly used, especially in Step Studies and CR Inside contexts.
Meeting typesVaries by group (open, closed, speaker, discussion, etc.), generally centered on sobriety and step work.Often includes worship + lesson/testimony + gender-specific open share groups; many ministries also offer closed Step Studies for deeper work.

Both AA and Celebrate Recovery have helped countless people take steps toward freedom. If you’re looking for a Christ-explicit environment with worship and a broad focus beyond alcohol, Celebrate Recovery may be a strong fit. If you’re looking for a sobriety-specific fellowship with flexible spiritual language and frequent meeting availability in many communities, AA may be a strong fit. In many cases, people benefit from participating in both while also receiving pastoral care, counseling, or clinical treatment as needed.

What to expect if you’re new

Walking into any recovery space for the first time can feel intimidating. Here are a few things that are typically true at most Celebrate Recovery meetings:

  • You can come as you are. You don’t need to have the “right words,” and you don’t have to share on your first night.
  • It’s okay to pass. In open share groups, people are usually invited—but never forced—to speak.
  • Confidentiality matters. The goal is to create a safe place where honesty is possible.
  • No one is there to “fix” you. Sharing is about telling your own story and listening with respect, not giving advice.
  • It’s peer support, not clinical counseling. Many people also benefit from pastors, licensed counselors, medical care, or treatment programs alongside CR.

An invitation: you don’t have to do this alone

At its core, Celebrate Recovery is a place where people stop pretending, start telling the truth, and learn how to walk—one day at a time in the healing power of Jesus Christ. If you’re carrying hurts you can’t outthink, a habit you can’t break, or a hang-up you can’t hide anymore, CR offers something many of us desperately need: community, clarity, and the next right step.

How you can engage with Celebrate Recovery

There are a few simple ways you can take the next step whether you’re seeking help, walking alongside someone who is, or sensing a call to serve people impacted by incarceration.

  • Visit a meeting. Consider attending a local Celebrate Recovery gathering to observe the format and see if it’s a fit for you. You can simply listen and learn.
  • Commit to the process. If you’re ready for deeper change, ask about a Step Study—consistent, guided work in a smaller group.
  • Support a returning citizen. Reentry is a vulnerable season. Encouragement, rides, accountability, and a welcoming church community can make a huge difference.
  • Serve “on the inside.” If you have a heart for jail/prison ministry, explore opportunities to volunteer in approved programs like Celebrate Recovery Inside, in partnership with chaplains and facility staff.
  • Pray and partner. Pray for healing, protection, and perseverance for participants and leaders—and consider how your church or small group could come alongside this work.

If you’re curious, consider visiting a local meeting as a quiet first step. You can simply listen, take in the format, and decide what you want to do next. If you’ve been impacted by incarceration—personally or through someone you love—remember that healing often includes both internal work (new patterns, new identity, new habits) and community support (people who will walk with you when life gets loud). Healing rarely happens in isolation—and you’re allowed to start small.

No matter your story, Jesus is not intimidated by it. Celebrate Recovery simply gives us a place to bring what’s true into the light—so grace can do what it does best: restore what’s been broken and teach us how to live free.

For more information about Celebrate Recovery or where you can find a meeting visit their website at https://celebraterecovery.com/.

If you are interested in learning more about the prison based Celebrate Recovery Inside program, I would recommend checking out the CRI Newsletter Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/CRInsideNews.

April Is Second Chance Month: Why It Matters More Than Ever

Every April, communities across the United States pause to recognize a powerful truth: No one should be defined forever by their worst mistake. April is Second Chance Month, a nationwide effort to raise awareness of the barriers facing people with criminal records and to promote policies and practices that support successful reentry, restoration, and community safety.

A Movement Rooted in Dignity and Opportunity

Second Chance Month was founded in 2017 by Prison Fellowship, the nation’s largest Christian nonprofit serving currently and formerly incarcerated people and their families. The initiative highlights a sobering reality: nearly 1 in 3 American adults has a criminal record, and many face lifelong obstacles long after completing their sentence. These barriers now numbering close to 44,000 legal restrictions nationwide, can limit access to employment, housing, education, and even basic civic participation.

Over the years, Second Chance Month has grown into a broad, bipartisan movement. Presidential proclamations have been issued consistently since 2018, and the United States Senate has repeatedly passed resolutions recognizing April as Second Chance Month. By 2025, 27 states joined more than 1,100 Churches, Employers, and Community partners in formally recognizing the month and calling attention to the need for meaningful second chances.

Why Second Chances Are a Public Safety Issue

Reentry is often framed as charity or social service, but research and experience show it is a core public safety strategy. Nearly 95% of incarcerated people will eventually return home, with approximately 600,000 people released from state and federal prisons each year, along with millions more from local jails.

The period immediately following release is especially critical. When individuals lack stable housing, health care, employment, or community support, the risk of recidivism increases—not just harming individuals and families, but entire communities.

Organizations like the Crime and Justice Institute (CJI) emphasize that the most effective reentry efforts align multiple systems from day one:

  • Housing and employment
  • Behavioral health care
  • Community supervision
  • Family and community supports

When these systems work together, beginning before and continuing through the early months after release; public safety improves, costs decrease, and people have a genuine opportunity to rebuild their lives.

A Personal Story Behind the Statistics

While the numbers are compelling, the heart of Second Chance Month lies in individual lives.

In a powerful reflection shared during Second Chance Month, Michelle Cirocco, a nonprofit executive and formerly incarcerated woman, describes the reaction she often receives when she shares her past: surprise. Despite her professional success, people struggle to reconcile her accomplishments with her history of incarceration.

Her message is clear: she is not the exception. She represents what happens when opportunity meets accountability, support, and belief in human potential. Millions of others, she reminds us, are still waiting for that same chance—not to be extraordinary, but simply to be seen as human.

Second Chance Month challenges the damaging assumption that people behind bars are a permanent “other.” Instead, it calls us to recognize what has always been true: People are more than the worst thing they have done.

Faith, Forgiveness, and Restoration

For many faith communities, Second Chance Month is deeply rooted in spiritual principles of Redemption, Mercy, and Reconciliation. Churches across the country observe Second Chance Sunday in April, offering prayer and support for people impacted by crime and incarceration.

Moving From Awareness to Action

As leaders from across Christian traditions have emphasized, there is no theological basis for stripping someone of dignity after they have paid their debt. Restoration of Individuals, Families, and Communities is both a moral calling and a practical necessity.

Second Chance Month is about more than recognition—it is a call to action.

Policymakers are encouraged to:

  • Sustain funding for evidence-based reentry programs
  • Promote cross-agency coordination

Practitioners are urged to:

  • Focus resources on the critical early months after release
  • Use data-informed, individualized approaches

Funders and partners are called to:

  • Invest in systemwide solutions, not isolated programs
  • Support scaling what works

And Communities including employers, churches, and civic leaders can play a transformative role by offering opportunity instead of judgment.

Michigan’s Success Story

In 2018 Michigan governor Rick Snyder declared April 2018 to be Second Chance Month.  Since that time Michigan has made progress and is addressing the needs of returning citizens in statistically meaningful and tangible ways. Recidivism rates have been reduced significantly as the Michigan Department of Corrections has increased its focus on Housing and Employment, Behavioral health care, Community supervision, and Family and Community support through its Offender Success Reentry Services program. Offender Success, formerly known as the Michigan Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative, is a public-private partnership that relies on unprecedented collaboration and teamwork between state agencies, human service providers, the faith-based community and private companies who share a vested interest in safer communities and opportunities for all.

Offender Success is a public safety program based on 20 years of research on what works to help returning citizens succeed. By providing needed support, resources and tools, we create safer communities, a better economy and increased quality of life for returning citizens and their families. Offender Success is a hand-up, not a hand-out.

Evidence-Based Programs

Research has shown that evidence-based cognitive programming helps reduce future risk. Programs include Violence Prevention Programming and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. OS Staff develop and monitor these programs, while also ensuring that prisoners are properly placed in these programs based on their parole board jurisdiction date. OS also works with counties throughout the state to provide evidence-based support to probationers through Community Corrections

The Offender Success Administration is housed within the MDOC’s Executive Office and has staff at prisons throughout the state.  Staff members include educators, school staff, institutional parole agents, specialists, and analysts who oversee various programs within the prisons and contracted services in the community.  The goal of this diverse group of professionals is to foster change and success for those in prison, as well as those on parole or probation.

There are four Major Areas of Focus: Evidence-based Programs, Education, In-Reach, and Community Supports for Parolees.

Education

Michigan is a national leader in correctional education and operates a school at each prison. Schools teach academic (high school equivalency), special education, and career and technical education programs. The MDOC also operates three Vocational Villages, which are the most immersive prison vocational programs in the nation, training students in high-demand trades. The MDOC also partners with a variety of colleges and universities that provide post-secondary classes and degrees to those in prison. 

In-Reach

Serving as the bridge between incarceration and the community, In-Reach is utilized by the parole board to provide a more focused opportunity to plan for reentry with the support of dedicated staff.

Community Supports for Parolees

Part of ensuring public safety and personal success is providing necessary supports, such as stable housing, basic supplies, or assistance finding or maintaining a job. The MDOC contracts with 10 regional administrative agencies that provide this assistance and more to eligible parolees throughout the state. Offender Success also oversees a mentoring program for those who are on parole, connecting them with those that have successfully gone through the criminal justice system as a positive peer support.

A Chapter, Not the Whole Book

Second Chance Month reminds us that a past mistake should be a chapter in someone’s story, not the end of it. When we remove unnecessary barriers, align systems, and choose dignity over stigma, we don’t just help individuals succeed. We build safer, stronger, and more compassionate communities for everyone. Let’s commit to seeing the person behind the record and to unlocking second chances that truly last.

The Valley of Dry Bones

A Call to the Church to Stand with Returning Citizens

Few images in scripture are as haunting—and as hopeful—as Ezekiel’s vision of the Valley of Dry Bones. A prophet stands in a wasteland littered with bones, remnants of lives that once held promise. God asks him a question that feels almost cruel in its obviousness: “Can these bones live?”-Ezekiel 37:3 It’s a question that echoes today in a place Ezekiel never saw but would have understood intuitively: the modern prison.

Prisons, like Ezekiel’s valley, are full of people society has written off as “too far gone,” “beyond repair,” or “better forgotten.” Yet the dry bones vision is not a story about death—it’s a story about what can happen when we refuse to accept that death is the final word. Below is why this ancient metaphor resonates so deeply with the realities of incarceration.

🦴 1. Dry Bones Represent Lives Stripped Down to Their Lowest Point

In Ezekiel’s vision, the bones are not just dead—they are very dry, long abandoned, beyond any natural hope of restoration. In prison, people often describe feeling the same way:

  • Stripped of identity
  • Cut off from community
  • Reduced to a number
  • Disconnected from purpose
  • Forgotten by society

Many incarcerated people talk about feeling like they’ve been placed in a valley where nothing grows. Their past mistakes overshadow their humanity. Their future feels predetermined. Their present feels suspended. The dryness is not just physical confinement—it’s emotional, relational, and spiritual desolation.

🌬️ 2. The Question “Can These Bones Live?” Mirrors Society’s Doubt About Redemption

When God asks Ezekiel whether the bones can live, the prophet doesn’t say yes or no. He says, “Only you know.” That’s the tension we live with today.

  • We debate whether people can truly change.
  • We argue about punishment versus rehabilitation.
  • We question whether someone who has done harm deserves another chance.

The valley forces us to confront our assumptions about human potential. Prisons force us to confront them too. The question is not whether transformation is possible—it’s whether we believe it is.

🧩 3. Restoration Begins With Being Spoken To, Not Spoken About

In the vision, the bones begin to come together only after Ezekiel speaks directly to them. Not about them. Not around them. To them. This is a profound detail. People in prison are often spoken about—by courts, by media, by policymakers—but rarely spoken to in ways that affirm their humanity or potential. Change begins when someone:

  • Calls a person by their name.
  • Sees their story beyond their crime.
  • Speaks hope into a place defined by despair.
  • Treats them as capable of growth.

Words alone don’t fix everything, but they can spark the first movement of bones coming together.

💨 4. The Breath of Life Represents What Prisons Cannot Provide Alone

In Ezekiel’s vision, the bones come together, flesh appears, skin covers them—but they are still lifeless until the breath enters them. This breath symbolizes:

  • Purpose
  • Dignity
  • Connection
  • Hope
  • A future

Prisons can enforce structure, routine, and discipline. But they cannot breathe life into a person. That requires:

  • Community
  • Education
  • Mentorship
  • Healing
  • Opportunity
  • Belief

The breath comes from outside the system—through relationships, programs, and the willingness of society to see incarcerated people as more than their worst moment.

🌱 5. The Valley Becomes an Army of the Restored, Not the Perfect

When the bones rise, they don’t become an army of flawless saints. They become an army of people who were once written off. That’s the heart of the analogy:

  • The vision is not about perfection.
  • It’s about restoration.

Many people leave prison determined to rebuild their lives, reconnect with family, contribute to their communities, and break cycles of harm. But they face barriers that often feel as impossible as resurrecting dry bones:

  • Stigma
  • Employment discrimination
  • Housing restrictions
  • Lack of support
  • Trauma
  • Chronic health issues
  • Aging behind bars

Yet, like the bones in the valley, many rise anyway—slowly, painfully, but powerfully.

🔥 6. The Valley Teaches Us That Transformation Is Collective, Not Individual

Ezekiel doesn’t resurrect the bones alone. The bones don’t resurrect themselves. The breath doesn’t come from within the bones. Transformation is a collaborative act. Likewise, prison reform, reentry success, and personal transformation require:

  • Community investment
  • Policy change
  • Compassionate leadership
  • Restorative justice
  • Support networks
  • Public imagination

The valley becomes a place of life only when multiple forces work together.

🌄 7. The Valley Is Not the End of the Story

The Valley of Dry Bones is not a story about death—it’s a story about what happens when we refuse to let death, despair, or desolation have the final word. Prisons can feel like valleys of dry bones. But the vision reminds us:

  • No one is beyond restoration.
  • No life is too fractured to be rebuilt.
  • No story is too broken to be rewritten.
  • No valley is too barren for hope to grow.

The question “Can these bones live?” is not a test of the bones. It’s a test of our imagination, our compassion, and our willingness to believe in the possibility of transformation. And if Ezekiel’s vision teaches us anything, it’s this:

Dry bones can rise. But only if we dare to see life where others see only death.

⚖️ 8. The Valley: What Returning Citizens Face

Ezekiel describes the bones as “very dry.” That’s not just death—it’s abandonment. Many returning citizens experience the same:

  • No ID
  • No housing
  • No job
  • No community
  • No sense of belonging
  • Nationally, many states see 40–60% of people return to prison within three years and 82% are rearrested within 10 years, showing how long incarceration impacts behavior and opportunity[1].

The valley is deep. These rates reflect not just individual choices but systemic barriers to reintegration. Based on the latest statistics, the state of Michigan is a bright spot.

Michigan’s recidivism rate is just 21%—the lowest in state history

79% of people on parole do not return to prison. Michigan’s success is not magic. It’s ministry in motion—practical supports that mirror the heart of the Gospel.

🌬️ 9. When God Says “Prophesy to These Bones”

In Ezekiel 37, God doesn’t tell the prophet to walk away. He tells him to speak life. Michigan’s reentry model does exactly that:

  • Helping people get state IDs and driver’s licenses.
  • Providing transitional housing.
  • Offering skilled trades training and post‑secondary education.
  • Connecting people to peer recovery coaches.
  • Supporting them before and after release.

These are not just programs—they are acts of restoration. They are the modern equivalent of Ezekiel speaking to the bones.

💨 10. The Breath: What Programs Alone Cannot Give

In the vision, the bones come together, flesh appears, skin covers them—but there is no breath until God sends it. Reentry programs can:

  • Train
  • House
  • Supervise
  • Prepare

But they cannot breathe hope, belonging, or identity into a person. That is where the Church becomes essential. The Church is uniquely equipped to offer:

  • Community
  • Purpose
  • Spiritual grounding
  • Mentorship
  • Love without condition

These are the things that turn structure into life.

📉 11. Reality Check: Not All Programs Work

The U.S. Department of Labor’s evaluation—shows the limits of fragmented reentry efforts:

  • 72% of participants received education or training.
  • 43% received occupational skills training.
  • Only 2.3% received on‑the‑job training — the most effective form of workforce preparation.
  • Participants were 5.1 percentage points more likely to be convicted of a new crime than the comparison group.
  • They were 4.1 percentage points less likely to be employed.
  • They earned $693 less on average in later quarters.

Why? Because partial support produces partial transformation. Programs that lack depth, continuity, and real‑world connection often fail to deliver lasting change, especially for individuals with serious prior justice involvement[5].

Bones rattled—but they didn’t rise. This is why the Church’s role is not optional. It is the missing breath.

What Churches Can Do: Five Actions That Bring Life to the Valley

These are practical, doable, deeply biblical steps.

✝️ 1. Become a “Second Chance” Church

Many formerly incarcerated people have a very difficult time finding a church that will allow them to worship with their congregation.  They are turned away because there is no plan in place to address the “security challenges” that some parolees might pose based on fear, misinformation and prejudice. Returning citizens are a class of the “least of these” that require special handling and care for the church accommodate them.  The plan should include how to:

  • Publicly welcome returning citizens.
  • Train greeters and volunteers.
  • Preach on restoration, not retribution.

A church’s posture can be the difference between someone rising or returning to the valley.

🏠 2. Support Housing Stability

Housing insecurity is nearly three times more common than homelessness alone[3]. Formerly incarcerated individuals often face:

  • Disqualification from public housing
    • Discrimination by landlords
    • Lack of savings or credit

This instability undermines health, employment, and family reunification. How the church can help:

  • Partner with transitional housing programs.
  • Offer rental assistance.
  • Create host‑home networks.
  • Adopt a returning citizen as a congregation.

Stable housing is one of the strongest predictors of successful reentry.

💼 3. Create Employment Pathways

Unemployment among formerly incarcerated people is 27%, higher than any national rate in modern history[2]. Those who do find work earn 50–60% less than the general population[2]. Stigma, lack of credentials, and legal restrictions all contribute to this economic exclusion. How the church can help:

  • Hire returning citizens for church roles.
  • Partner with local employers.
  • Offer resume workshops and interview coaching.
  • Provide transportation to work.

Work is hope. Work is resurrection.

🤝 4. Build Mentorship and Discipleship Teams

Programs in prison like Keryx work because they include aspects of revival, peer led small group accountability, Spiritual engagement and service.  Freedom Dreamers and others have created similar programs to provide these necessary functions to returning citizens and the church can help by offering more opportunities in every community.

  • One‑on‑one mentorship.
  • Small groups for returning citizens.
  • Peer support led by formerly incarcerated members.

People rise when someone walks with them.

🙏 5. Advocate for Justice and Restoration

The church can provide a strong voice of reason and compassion in public discourse by:

  • Supporting ID access, housing reform, and fair‑chance hiring.
  • Partnering with MDOC and local reentry coalitions.
  • Educating your congregation about the realities of reentry.

Advocacy is prophecy in action.

Conclusion: The Church as the Breath in the Valley

The path after prison is steep and full of obstacles. But with:

  • Stable housing
  • Fair employment opportunities
  • Access to education
  • Community support
  • Policy reform

…success becomes not just possible, but sustainable. We must stop asking whether people can succeed after prison—and start asking whether we’ve given them a fair chance too.

Ezekiel watched as the bones rose—not because they were perfect, but because God breathed life into them. The Church is called to be that breath today. Michigan’s success shows what happens when a community invests in restoration. The US Department of Labor’s findings show what happens when support is fragmented. The valley is real. But so is the God who raises the dead. And He invites His people to stand in the valley and speak life.

Here are several faith-based programs in Michigan actively supporting returning citizens on parole or probation. Notably, Michigan’s low recidivism rate (21%) is linked to strong community partnerships—including churches and ministries offering housing, mentorship, and job support.

🙌 Faith-Based Reentry Programs in Michigan

1. Good News Ministries (Detroit)

  • Focus: Transitional housing, spiritual mentorship, job readiness
  • Services: Bible studies, recovery support, employment coaching
  • Website: goodnewsdetroit.org

2. Celebration Fellowship (Ionia & Muskegon)

  • Focus: In-prison worship and post-release discipleship
  • Partners: Christian Reformed Church, MDOC
  • Unique Feature: Operates inside prisons and continues support after release
  • Website: celebrationfellowship.org

3. Crossroads Prison Ministries (Grand Rapids)

  • Focus: Bible correspondence courses, mentorship
  • Reach: Serves incarcerated and returning citizens nationwide
  • Website: cpministries.org

4. The Isaiah House (Detroit)

  • Focus: Faith-based transitional housing for men on parole
  • Services: Recovery support, spiritual formation, job placement
  • Affiliation: Catholic Charities of Southeast Michigan
  • Website: ccsem.org

5. Nation Outside (Statewide, faith-rooted)

  • Focus: Advocacy and peer-led support for formerly incarcerated people
  • Faith Connection: Founded by justice-impacted Christians; partners with churches
  • Website: nationoutside.org

6. Prison Fellowship (National, active in Michigan)

  • Focus: Angel Tree, in-prison ministry, reentry support
  • Michigan Presence: Works with MDOC and local churches
  • Website: prisonfellowship.org

Michigan’s Offender Success network is a statewide reentry initiative run by the Department of Corrections (MDOC) that provides housing, employment, health, and mentoring support to parolees and probationers. It’s a key reason Michigan’s recidivism rate is just 21%—among the lowest in the nation.

🛠️ What Is Offender Success?

Offender Success (OS) is Michigan’s comprehensive reentry system designed to help individuals succeed after incarceration. It operates before and after release, with staff embedded in prisons and communities statewide.

🔑 Four Major Areas of Focus

AreaDescription
Evidence-Based ProgramsCognitive behavioral therapy, violence prevention, and other risk-reduction programs tailored to parole eligibility.
EducationHigh school equivalency, special education, career/technical training, and college degrees. Includes Vocational Villages—immersive trade schools inside prisons.
In-ReachDedicated staff help parolees plan for reentry before release, bridging prison and community.
Community SupportsHousing, job placement, health services, mentoring, and basic supplies provided through regional agencies and local partners.

🏠 Services Available to Returning Citizens

Eligible parolees and probationers may receive:

  • Residential Stability: Transitional housing, rental assistance, landlord partnerships
  • Job Placement Assistance: Resume help, employer connections, transportation support
  • Health & Behavioral Health: Referrals to providers, recovery coaching, peer support
  • Social Supports: Clothing, food, vital documents, mentoring, faith-based connections

🤝 Faith-Based Partnerships

Offender Success actively collaborates with:

  • Churches and ministries offering housing, mentorship, and spiritual support
  • Local advisory councils that include faith leaders
  • Community coordinators who connect parolees to faith-based services

Faith organizations can join the network by contacting their regional Offender Success coordinator or attending local advisory meetings.

📍 How to Get Involved

  • Churches can offer space, volunteers, or mentorship
  • Service providers can join local advisory councils
  • Returning citizens should speak with their parole agent to access services
  • Families can call 2-1-1 or use the Calvin University/MDOC Resource Map (Returning Citizen Services) to find local help

📚 Footnotes

  1. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 30 States (2021) ↩ ↩
  2. Prison Policy Initiative, Out of Prison & Out of Work (2020) ↩ ↩
  3. Urban Institute, Housing Challenges After Incarceration (2022) ↩
  4. RAND Corporation, Evaluation of Reentry Programs (2023) ↩ ↩
  5. U.S. Department of Labor, Reentry Employment Opportunities Study (2024) ↩

Digging Deeper

Are Michigan’s reentry efforts actually more successful than the rest of the U.S.?

To be fair in the treatment of the data that I referenced in this blog entry, I have included the following assessment to highlight the differences in how the data was reported. It is difficult when combining data sources to ensure that the comparisons are accurate unless the definitions of key terms and methods of data collection and reporting are the same. The Michigan Department of Corrections, the US Department of Labor and the Bureau of Justice Statistics are not all using the same definitions so any comparisons must be understood to be more representative of magnitude than an exact arithmetic interpretation. The data is simple a useful tool to draw attention to the success rate of programs that are working better than programs in other states.

High‑level comparison

DimensionMichiganRest of U.S. (typical)
3‑year return to prison~21% returned to prison (≈2 in 10)Roughly 2–3x higher in many states (often 40–60%+)
TrendHistoric low, declining over last decadeGenerally flat or modestly declining, still high overall
FramingState explicitly credits reentry supports (IDs, housing, education, jobs)Reentry often fragmented, uneven by state and county
ProgrammingStatewide, coordinated through MDOC with budget lines for reentryPatchwork of state, county, nonprofit, and federal grants
Evidence qualityAdministrative recidivism data, descriptive but not causalMix of BJS stats + scattered program evaluations, few rigorous

1. Recidivism outcomes: Michigan vs national picture

Michigan’s Department of Corrections reports a 21.0% recidivism rate, defined as people who return to prison within three years of parole—its lowest rate on record and a 79% “success rate” for those paroled in 2021.

Nationally, federal studies typically find that around two‑thirds of people released from state prisons are rearrested within three years, and a substantial share are reconvicted or returned to prison. Even allowing for definitional differences (rearrest vs return to prison), Michigan is clearly performing much better than the national norm on basic recidivism metrics.

Key point: Michigan is not just slightly better—it’s in a different tier of recidivism performance.

2. What Michigan is actually doing differently

Michigan’s own reporting repeatedly links lower recidivism to “full circle” reentry support, not just to tougher supervision. Core elements include:

  • IDs and licenses: Help obtaining state IDs or driver’s licenses before or shortly after release—critical for work, housing, and services.
  • Housing supports: Investment in transitional housing and help finding stable placements.
  • Employment & training:
    • Job placement assistance and employment services.
    • 14 skilled trades programs operating inside prisons.
    • 12 post‑secondary education programs, with thousands of graduates.
  • Recovery & behavioral health: Funding for peer recovery coaches and recovery resources.
  • Continuity of care: Emphasis on support during incarceration and on parole, not just at the gate.

This is closer to a statewide reentry ecosystem than a loose collection of programs.

3. How that contrasts with much of the U.S.

In many other states, reentry looks more like:

  • Higher baseline recidivism (often 40–60%+ return to prison within 3 years).
  • Fragmented services—short‑term grants, county‑level programs, and nonprofits with limited capacity.
  • Weak housing infrastructure—very few dedicated transitional beds, long waitlists, and strict exclusions.
  • Limited in‑prison education—far fewer post‑secondary options and trades seats per capita.
  • Minimal ID/benefits preparation—people leave without IDs, health coverage, or a clear plan.

So, while Michigan is not perfect, its combination of IDs + housing + education + employment + recovery is more comprehensive than what many states offer.

4. Caveats when comparing Michigan to “the rest of the U.S.”

Raw comparisons can mislead. Important caveats:

  • Different definitions: Michigan’s 21% is “return to prison within 3 years of parole,” not “any rearrest.” Other states or federal stats often use rearrest, which is always higher.
  • Population differences: Michigan’s prison population has declined to its lowest level since 1991, which may mean more selective incarceration and parole practices.
  • Policy context: States differ in sentencing laws, parole practices, and community supervision intensity—all of which affect measured recidivism.
  • No randomized evidence at the state level: Michigan’s data show strong association, not definitive proof that reentry programs caused the lower rate.

So: Michigan looks genuinely strong, but we should treat it as a promising model, not a controlled experiment.

5. Reframing “success” beyond recidivism

  1. Michigan is outperforming national recidivism norms, with about 1 in 5 returning to prison vs much higher rates elsewhere.
  2. The state has institutionalized reentry supports (IDs, housing, education, trades, recovery) in a way many states have not.
  3. The direction of change (historic low, downward trend) matters as much as the level.
  4. True success should also track:
    • Stable employment
    • Stable housing
    • Health and recovery
    • Family reunificaiton
    • Long-term desistance, not just 3-year returns.

What’s in a name?

William Shakespeare asked that question in Romeo & Juliet. “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Juliet was not allowed to associate with Romeo because he was a Montague. If he had any other name, it would have been fine. She was complaining that his name is meaningless. If the rose had any other name, it would still be the same. So, with Romeo- he would still be the same beautiful young man even if he had a different name.1

Our name is how we are identified from birth.  It represents us conceptually to others.  Hearing someone’s name that we know often brings their face, personality, or character to mind.  We can remember conversations, funny anecdotes, or life encounters that inform our opinion of who they are. When we hear a stranger’s name it is just a name until we have information to associate with it.  Information may come in the form of gossip passed along from another person, social media viewed online, or news reports. 

Back in the day before the internet, employers would review applications and resumes to screen for potential job candidates.  Calls or letters would be sent to verify employment history.  References would be contacted to gain information necessary to inform the hiring process.  Businesses routinely run background checks on job candidates and active employees to determine if they should be disqualified from employment opportunities. Once I was fingerprinted because the FBI had to check to ensure that I did not have any mafia connections when I applied to work as the lab manager at a landfill.

Modern hiring practices have changed significantly because of the potential of litigation regarding the release of information that could be considered negative regarding a former employee.  Your previous employer will now only confirm that an individual worked for the company.  To get information, many employers have turned to third party companies that collect massive amounts of information about individuals from a wide variety of companies and government agencies that have commoditized their vast databases.  Information about credit worthiness, social media posts, along with court filings and criminal convictions are available instantaneously. 

I was recently fired from a job after 6½ years because of a change in hiring policy.  When I was first hired the policy was that you could not have a criminal conviction in the last 7 years.  A new change to the policy specified that you could not have certain specific convictions period. My employer knew who I was based on years of interaction- a hardworking, intelligent, dedicated, and loyal employee. Yet based on a single entry in a background check I was dismissed without any opportunity to explain.

The issue with computer data has always been “Garbage In, Garbage Out”.  The information is only as good as the source.  While it may be useful in this age of information overload to get information in small, overly simplified bites, context is everything, as it is in life.  When we spend our lives with a person, we will have a much better image of who they are than if we only read the sensationalized headlines about what might be the worst day in someone’s life.  And yet it is those snapshots, those life events presented without context by which our society makes life altering decisions about other people.

Case in point is SORNA, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.  In 1994 the Wetterling Act established baseline standards for states to register sex offenders.  Megan’s Law in 1996 mandated public disclosure of information about registered sex offenders and required states to maintain a website containing registry information.  The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which includes SORNA, created a new baseline of sex offender registration and notification standards.2 The registering and tracking sex offenders went from being a tool useful to law enforcement to a modern-day Scarlet Letter.  It is the public shaming, disenfranchising and discrimination of people who, in addition to many serving long jail/prison sentences, now face additional civil penalties including restrictions on where they can live and who they can live with.

In July of 2025 President Trump signed an executive order entitled “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets”.3  In Section 3 the order zeroes in on registrants who are homeless, instructing the Department of Justice to “substantially implement and comply with” the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) for individuals with no fixed address. It calls for mapping and monitoring the locations of homeless sex offenders, effectively treating poverty as a risk factor warranting heightened surveillance.

The order goes even further. If a homeless individual is arrested for a federal crime, they may be evaluated under 18 U.S.C. § 4248, a statute that allows for indefinite civil commitment of individuals deemed “sexually dangerous”—even after they’ve completed their sentence. That’s not rehabilitation. That’s preemptive detention.

This isn’t about protecting the public or preventing new offenses. It’s about maintaining a narrative that portrays registrants as permanent threats, regardless of evidence. And it comes at the expense of people who are already marginalized—those struggling with mental illness, addiction, or simply trying to survive without stable housing in a system designed to push them out.

Supporters of the executive order may argue it’s a step toward restoring order. However, safety rooted in fear and endless punishment is not justice; it’s containment. What this order reveals isn’t reform, but the further cementing of a system that punishes for life, with no offramp, no redemption, and no demonstrated public benefit.4

In the Old Testament King Solomon wrote in Proverbs 22:1 “A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.” This verse emphasizes the importance of a good reputation and the value of being respected over material wealth.  It suggests that a good name reflects one’s character and integrity, which are more enduring and impactful than material possessions.5  This is a lesson that anyone who has been to prison learns the hard way. Not everyone that gets convicted is a “hardened” criminal.  And once your good name is gone, it is impossible to get it back.

Many people that I met in prison were there because of one bad choice that was not in line with who they are, how they were living or their belief system.  The downfall of Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter 3 was that they believed the lies of the Satan and ate of the forbidden fruit.  Romans 3:23 says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Yet the Bible is a narrative on redemption.  In both the Old and New Testaments God used people that went to prison to do great things. I have a tee shirt that says, “All my role models went to prison: Joseph, Paul, Peter, John, Daniel and Jesus.”  God used ordinary people, fallen people, people who sinned.  He redeemed them, he changed them, and he used them for His glory.

In our society we have lost this prospective.  Forgiveness has been replaced by Condemnation.  Restoration has been replaced by Punishment. Redemption has been replaced by Damnation. There were two other people crucified on Golgotha with Jesus. Their choices are the same ones that we must all make.  Either we choose to believe or we choose to reject the promise of eternal life.  Yet it is the crowd surrounding the condemned that were jeering, hostile and calloused to the barbarous, gruesome execution taking place. These people are the true face of evil.

“There but for the grace of God go I” is an old proverbial phrase used to express empathetic compassion and a sense of good fortune realized by avoiding hardship. An early version was ascribed to the preacher John Bradford who died in 1555. 6  The Keryx volunteers that go into prisons say the same thing.  There isn’t much that separates them from those in prison, just that they did not get caught.  What our society needs today is more John Bradford’s and more Keryx volunteers.  Men and Women of faith that acknowledge the saving grace of Jesus, not just in their own lives but in the lives of others.  People that get involved, get to know people for who they are, not a stereotype or a caricature. 

End Notes
1          ‘What’s In A Name’: Phrase Meaning & History✔️

2          Legislative History of Federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification | Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking

3          Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets – The White House

4          Trump’s Executive Order Confirms the Registry Machine Isn’t Going Anywhere – Women Against Registry

5          What does Proverbs 22:1 mean? | BibleRef.com

6          Quote Origin: There But For the Grace of God, Go I – Quote Investigator®

July 2017 Letter

(Excerpt from a letter)

Greetings Brother,

Happy Independence Day. As a veteran I salute you and want to thank you for your service in defending this country and the ideals that it stands for on this day of commemoration of the birth of our nation. I pray that people would take seriously the words of our founding fathers when they said, “with liberty and justice for all.”

Thank you for your letter. I am sorry to hear that they sent you someplace without the programming you need. Hate to think they they’ll move you again. I’ve come to the conclusion that the MDOC is like Michigan weather- wait 10 minutes and it will change: personnel, policy, proceedure, direction, purpose, intension, and goals. It’s always too hot, too cold, too dry, too wet, or too windy. It just can’t seem to satisfy anyone and all we do is talk about it.

I’m sitting here on my patio looking at the flowers I have planted, listening to the birds singing, feeling the sunshine on my face and not a soul in sight. Just me and my thoughts. I pray it won’t be much longer and you’ll have an experience like this for yourself. Till then use your imagination to hear the wind chimes and leaves rustling, the smell of grass and flowers, and the view unmarred by fences.

I recently celebrated my 53rd birthday. I went out to lunch with my parents and brother to an Asian fusion resturant. You might say that I’m living the new normal for my life. It’s not my old life and not certainly one I could have expected but it has love, peace and blessings in abundance.

“I do not think that all who chose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road. A sum cannot be put right; but only by going back till you find the error and working afresh from that point, never by simply going on. Evil can be undone, but it cannot ‘develope’ into good. Time does not heal it. The spell must be unwound, bit by bit.”

C.S. Lewis

This is from the preface to The Great Divorce. Lewis was writing about Heaven and Hell and how we should live on earth. I cannot help but notice that it is a perfect picture of what prison rehabilitation should be. It addresses the importance of not condemning individuals out of hand. It confronts the fallacy that longer prison sentences are a deterent to future crime. It speaks to the need for counseling, education, personal reflection, and recognition of the need for change.

A keen observer of the human condition, Lewis understood the concepts of God’s grace, forgiveness, and healing. His writings spoke to a world torn apart by war 70 years ago, and are yet relavent today. His works are found in libraries and bookstores and should be on your reading list.

We must all take responsibility for our own reformation. No one can reform you, you must want it for yourself. Lewis’ writings provide cogent arguments for why you should want this. It is up to society then to insure that the MDOC provides the right atmosphere in which reform can take place. Society should want this because it is in the best interest of everyone to ensure the safety and security of all its members, including ‘the least of these’ represented by those convicted of crimes against the society. Without this compassionate concern on the part of society, its elected representatives, and those entrusted with the care and management of the inmates, what hope have we of changing ourselves and being given credit for the change if this is not the case.

I pray for you regularly. I pray for your health and safety, that the time goes quickly, and for grace and favor with the parole board.

Your Brother in Christ.

Cheapskates

cheapskateThe MDOC requires inmates to work while they are incarcerated unless they are medically unable to or in the GED program.  As with so many other things the reality is far different from the policy.  Inmates do a lot of waiting and that includes on lists to get into school or a job.  I wanted to be a tutor as my first choice from day 1 in prison and since there were no Level IV tutors at my facility I had to settle for a job as a Unit Porter cleaning bathrooms and mopping floors.  When I got to Level II, I was able to get on the waiting list for a position in the school to open up.  In the interim I again worked as a Unit Porter.  When I was moved to another facility, I choose to simply go on the waiting list for a tutor job.  It took a year for a position to open up.  I knew guys who would purposefully choose jobs with long waiting lists simply to avoid working.  The Parole Board couldn’t hold it against you if you didn’t work so long as you were on the waiting list.  It was all part of the game.

The MDOC is exempt from the minimum wage law for paying inmates.  It might be fair to call it slave labor since without inmates working to perform so many functions from food service to facility maintenance, the cost of incarceration would be far more expensive.  According to the Policy Directive 05.02.110 prisoners who are assigned to work and/or school shall be paid and/or receive stipends for the assignment.  Pay rates for most positions range from approximately $0.74 to $3.34 per day depending on the classification of the job as unskilled or skilled.  Students get paid a stipend of $0.54 per day to attend GED classes.  With a satisfactory performance score the rate increases to $0.59.  This translates into a monthly stipend of approximately $10.50 – $12 a month.  With no other source of outside financial support that level of compensation is comparable to those who are indigent.

According to the PD, Unskilled Entry Daily Rates start at $0.74 and rise to $0.84 after 2 months.  Semi-skilled rates start at $0.94 and are eligible for a 15% increase if the inmate possess the related certification, such as a porter who has completed the Custodial Maintenance Technology program on their current prefix.  In other words, if you earned a CMT certificate the last time you were in prison you won’t be eligible to take the program again and won’t get credit for having taken it previously if assigned a position as a porter on your new bit.  In other words, you’re qualified for the job but won’t be compensated for your knowledge because you were dumb enough to come back to prison.  This is a major disincentive to working, but obviously not enough of a disincentive to keep a person from coming back to prison in the first place.  It seems to me that the rules have been written in a way to exclude the maximum number of inmates from earning the higher pay scales in almost every job classification.

Skilled positions such as Tutor start at $1.24 per day with higher pay rates for having a college degree resulting in a maximum daily rate after two months of $3.34.  Or least it used to be this way.  In October 2018 the department changed its policy so that only college degrees in the specific field qualified for the higher rate.  In other words, only those with a teaching degree who worked as a tutor would get the higher rate.  My double major in Chemistry and Biology might no longer afford me the higher rate of compensation and I have no plan on returning to prison to find out.

The PD also has a few exceptions where inmates who have been in certain positions such as Food Service could continue to receive pay and bonuses if they started the work assignment prior to April 2008 when the pay structure was changed to eliminate the bonus.  The catch is you must remain in the same assignment at the same facility and earn above average performance reviews.  If the inmate is transferred to another facility, they would no longer be eligible for the bonus.  The departments work around for this in 2008 was to transfer a significant number of Food Service workers.  I came to prison after this happened, but I heard about how unhappy it made the workers to lose a bonus which allowed them to earn over $100 a month in some cases.  My Level II bunkie was one of the few lucky ones who was still on the job and earning a bonus.  He earned around $90 per month wiping down tables and mopping floors in the chow hall.  He actually made more than I did working as a tutor with my college degree.

In February 2019, the clause in the Advanced Education/Training Pay Scale was applied to inmates working as clerk/facilitators for programs such as Sex Offender Programming (SOP).  The result was that some of these inmates went from earning $3.34 to $1.77 per day.  This is nearly a 50% pay cut.  The PD does not provide the rationale behind the decision to reduce pay by specifying such a narrow definition of acceptable college credit as those “in a field of study related to the position.”  Anyone that has completed an Associates or Bachelor’s Degree should have more than enough knowledge of basic reading, writing, arithmetic, science and history to work effectively as a GED tutor or serve as a clerk and perform the required tasks and responsibilities at a higher level of competency than those with a GED or high school diploma.  I’m not sure how many library majors end up in prison but it’s good to know that they will be compensated at a higher rate for their knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System.

Pay scales for Braille Transcribing and MSI are not included in the PD but from what I remember the inmates working MBTF were paid piecemeal for the projects they work on.  Different types of projects required certifications in different areas such as educational transcription, graphics, mathematical or musical notation and several other specific areas.  The guys in my unit that worked at MBTF earned over $200 per month and could max out with the maximum annual MDOC allowed compensation.  Not only that but many banked projects for when they were to be released from prison so that they could be paid at even higher rates so they could have money for their transition back into society.  Not only that they would then be eligible for work as a professional braille transcriber out in the world.  I wanted to apply for this program, but it required a minimum of 8 years before your ERD to even apply for the program and take the entrance exam.  I believe that there were less than 20 jobs available in MBTF, so they account for less than a tenth of one percent of inmates.  Right on the MBTF website they cite the low cost of prison labor as one of the reasons for their success.

MSI factories make everything from clothes to mattresses to printed forms and eyeglasses.  There were factories making many various products at 10 prisons located all over the state.  There was a factory at my first prison and those inmates could earn up to $200 per month.  If there were large orders, there was also overtime on the weekends in order to complete them on time.  The number of inmates employed by MSI is small, but I don’t know the number but it’s probably less than 2,000.  MSI sells its products to jails and prisons across the country in addition to the MDOC facilities and the low labor cost is no doubt a competitive advantage over commercial companies they are in the market with.

All of this begs the question: Why when the cost of living always goes up is the MDOC reducing compensation for inmate labor?  Commissary prices go up and many inmates can’t even afford basic hygiene items on what they are paid.  Many don’t have outside support or owe so much in restitution, court costs, and fines that the department takes most of what their people put into their accounts.  For some even their prison earnings are garnished if they have more than $50 in their account, so it doesn’t even pay to work.  For the rest prison pay doesn’t buy much.  The maximum amount that can be spent in the commissary is $100 every two weeks, which doesn’t mean anything if all you have is $12 to show for a month’s stipend as a student.

In some other states’ inmates are employed by private corporations and paid a living wage.  A portion of their earnings are placed into a trust account to help them after they’re paroled.  Another portion goes to paying down restitution, court costs, and fines.  The rest is available to the inmate to spend.  Prison is a pretty miserable place and being able to purchase a few items beyond the basic necessities goes a long way towards a positive mindset. And a positive mindset goes a long way toward rehabilitation.  Low wages encourage theft since they have nothing to lose.  Low wages mean hardship and deprivation that wear down the body and the mind which can lead to long term mental, emotional and physical problems that will last long after they are released.

Wages paid to inmates should not be a way for the department to make budget.  That would literally be “penny wise and Pound foolish.”  Cost of living is a factor in determining pay for everyone else, why shouldn’t it apply to inmates.  If you want to send a message and “correct” inmates, then teach them the value of honest work.  Nothing speaks to a person’s self worth more than compensation that respects the individual’s service. I don’t mean that inmates should be paid the state’s prevailing minimum wage but maybe bring in more factory jobs that pay like MSI and follow the model used by other states that allow inmates to save for the future. For in-house positions acknowledge the value of higher education, training, and experience to create a new pay scale that more adequately compensates inmates for the necessary functions that they perform.  Being a miser and a cheapskate is not the way to rehabilitate human beings.

Sabotage

self sabotage

A guy with a parole in his pocket gets caught with spud juice.  (Happens more often than you would think.)  His “friends” tried to talk him into closing his brewery, but he told them that he needed to stack up coffee bags since he was going to Detroit Reentry Center (DRC) for a residential substance abuse program and he needed to be able to buy heroin while he was there.  His friend’s comment was I guess he didn’t really want to go home.

Guys on parole are sent back to prison for violating the terms of their parole because of drinking or drugs all the time.  Equally as often it is something else like staying out after curfew, missing work or meetings with their PO or having police contact because they got into a fight or were out joy-riding.  This happened to a guy I know, and the observation of another parolee was “I guess he didn’t serve enough time.”

Whether in prison or on parole some guys have their eyes on the wrong prize.  Instead of focusing on gaining and keeping their freedom they are seeking other things.  You’d thing they would know better than to play with fire, but it’s obvious that they didn’t learn their lesson from being burned the first time.  For some it takes a long time to figure out what is truly important.  There is statistical proof that people age out of crime.  People in their forties and fifties are significantly less likely to commit crimes than people in their teens and twenties.  Prison has a revolving door for those who continue to commit minor felonies and receive sentences from 2-5 years in length.  Three strike laws were enacted to address these habitual offenders by increasing the length of their sentences in the hope that they would learn their lesson. 

According to recidivism rates those who committed major crimes such as murder or rape and served long sentences are less likely to reoffend and return to prison than those who committed crimes like domestic abuse or selling small quantities of drugs who received shorter sentences.  You never hear of someone who spent two 10 to 20-year sentences in prison going back with a third sentence which is basically a life sentence.  So, it is true that with age comes wisdom.  Even the most stubborn, hard-headed, strong-willed outlaw learns that if they stay in the game too long there are only two options, either be carried out in a pine box or hauled off in handcuffs.  The older they get the better retirement looks.

For those in prison eagerly looking forward to their parole there is another form of sabotage that happens.  Sometimes other people in prison, who may have years to go before they will even be considered for parole or have already been denied parole will try to get someone else’s parole revoked.  You might say that misery loves company.  There are those in prison who would go out of their way to do this for any number of reasons.  They could be bored, racist, malicious, vindictive, or simply sadistic by getting pleasure from causing pain to another person.  For this very reason I know a guy who didn’t tell anyone in prison that he got his parole, let alone his parole date.  The morning he paroled, he got up early, dressed in his street clothes, packed his stuff, and went to the officer’s station.  He didn’t say a word to anyone.

In prison kite writing is a way of life for some.  Kites are notes written to the administration.  There is a mailbox in every housing unit, and it is easy to write the warden or unit counselor.  Most do this by signing someone else’s name in order to remain anonymous.  They make allegations about another individual which may or may not be true, but sufficiently provocative to draw the reaction of staff.  This is known as “dry snitching.”  It is a passive aggressive tactic that works well enough that it’s not going away any time soon.  Claim that someone is threating you, that so-n-so is doing such-n-such, or that your bunkie has a cellphone, shank, drugs, or other serious contraband, then sit back and wait for the show to start.  Nothing can ruin your day like being called off the yard to see the Inspector to answer questions about an allegation that you sexually assaulted another inmate.

Getting a Class I Misconduct after receiving your parole and prior to release will result in the loss of your parole and earn you a 12 to 24-month flop.  It might even raise your security level or get you rode off the compound.  At the very least you will have your property tossed like a fruit salad, be forced to prove your innocence, and lose sleep trying to figure out who wrote the kite.  In a place where you are guilty until proven innocent the threat is real, and you need to constantly watch your back. 

I had a cubemate that started stealing from me the last month prior to my parole.  I had started to sell off my possessions that I wasn’t going to take home.  Prison is not like death, you can take your personal property with you, but why would you?  I would come back to the cube after work and find something small missing like my earbuds.  We both knew that I wouldn’t do anything about it and risk my parole, so every couple of days something else would turn up missing.  Then this guy who didn’t have anything was able to get a black market TV.  I’m sure my other cubemates knew what was going on, but nobody said anything.  On the morning I left prison I slipped under his bed and used my padlock to secure the TV’s power cord to the bed.  This would force him to cut the cord in order to move the TV.  There were a number of sweeps through the housing unit at that time looking for TV’s that weren’t on the inmate’s property card and securing the TV to his bunk would make it impossible for him to hide it.  I hope that there is a special place in hell for prison thieves.

Of course, it is those that sabotage themselves like in my opening example that is the primary problem.  Prison isn’t about rehabilitation.  Programs like the Phase I and Phase II substance abuse classes that are required for those whose crime involved alcohol or drugs or for individuals who have a history of substance abuse, but from what I’ve seem most people treat the class like a joke.  For more serious cases there are residential treatment programs where more in-depth programming and counseling is available. With the demand for bed space in these programs there tends to be a mentality on the part of those running these programs to simply push the inmates through so that many of the participants come out unchanged.  Change doesn’t happen unless the individual wants to and for many going to prison wasn’t hitting rock-bottom yet.  Intellectual arguments, reciting facts and figures, or telling horror stories about others isn’t enough to persuade many who are happy in their addictions to want to change.  They have learned to say the right things to convince the powers that be that they have changed.  They get their long-awaited paroles but can’t fly straight long enough to get out or complete their parole.  In the end the only person they have fooled is themselves.

Nothing New Under the Sun

(cartoon by J.D. Crowe/Press Register) SC 1 ST Berkeley News – UC Berkeley

King Solomon famously stated in Ecclesiastes 1:9 that “there was nothing new under the sun.”  Three thousand years ago man’s folly was already tending to repeat itself.  Patterns of behavior and the propensity to do evil were well documented back then.  Man’s inhumanity to man is the same old sad tale repeated over and over, unfortunately it is not limited to those who choose to do evil.  While researching for the writing of this blog I have read a number of prison memoirs and research papers and it is apparent that the observations that I make about prison and prison life cross both space and time.  From a World War II German Military prison to 1970s Great Britain; from California to Texas to Michigan and prisons in between; from the 1930s until today, written by theologians and PhDs to the uneducated, unifying themes regarding prison life and treatment of prisoners demonstrate that my observations of life inside the MDOC in many ways are both honest and disturbing.

Ones does not expect in the twenty-first century to encounter ideas and practices discredited long ago to be the standard operating conditions.  That America and all it claims to stand for has been set aside in one area of governing a civil society is both disturbing and alarming.  As I was writing this essay there were images of yet another police shooting of an unarmed black man on the news and an advertisement for a new TV drama about a group of criminal investigators whose job was to ensure that the innocent were not wrongly convicted.  The abuses of the criminal justice system are finally making headway against the “tough on crime” agenda of the politicians, police, and corrections agencies in this country.  Grass roots organizations are cropping up in every state of the union calling for reform.  Even the president, whether you agree with his polices in general or not, has gone against the conventional wisdom of his political party and seeks to introduce some reforms into the federal corrections system.

A recent news article put a spotlight on the fact that we are not talking simply about convicted felons, but that a much larger number of people accused of misdemeanors that don’t even carry jail/prison time are serving time simply because they can’t afford bail.  According to a 2016 report by the Department of Justice over 11 million people pass through 3000 jails in the US every year.  People are even dying in jail from lack of urgent medical care and proper oversight in over-crowded and antiquated facilities.  During the recent arctic cold blast, a jail in Brooklyn, New York was plunged into darkness and freezing cold for several days when the electric and heating service to a portion of the facility was interrupted by an electrical fire.  The inmates were apparently tapping S.O.S on the windows of their cells calling for help.  The warden of the facility denied the severity of the problem even while inmates were calling the defenders office and pleading for help.  My own experience in jail was a cell so cold that frost formed on the inside of the window, no extra blankets and only a thin cotton jumpsuit for warmth in a room so cold you could see your breath.  So, I can empathize with the desperation of the situation and believe that it is true contrary to the official statements of the warden.

George Bernard Shaw once said “Some men see things as they are and ask why.  Others dream things that never were and ask why not.”   I find myself falling into the first category.  Don’t get me wrong, we need dreamers but after living through the nightmare of prison I don’t sleep very well at night.  Change must happen and the longer it is put off the higher the cost both financially and in human terms.  That is the point of prison reform.  Not just the recognition that there is a problem but there needs to be action taken to address the issue.  Not studies to determine the severity of the problem or pilot programs to explore alternatives.  The experts have already done these.  It is up to the people to demand that those in leadership of our government stop denying or minimizing the problem but take the advice of those whose occupation and preoccupation is focused on the problem.  It is like global warming.  People look at the cold winter and ask where is this so-called “global warming?”  The problem is that global warming is a poor term often used out of context when the issue really is “human activity induced climate change.”  A short catchphrase doesn’t properly encapsulate the issue.  The use of the phrase “prison reform” has the same sort of problem.  People look at crimes reported on our 24/7 news cycle and think that our society is less safe than it once was.  FBI crime statistics have shown that crime rates for all major categories have decreased steadily since the 1980s.  They then give credence and credit to the stricter laws and harsher penalties for causing this trend.  Research has shown that other factors have had a greater effect on crime reduction and that the stricter laws and harsher penalties have actually hindered what would have been even larger reductions to crime rates.

Prison reform is about addressing the underlying causes of crime and taking a reasonable approach to punishment.  Broken homes, single parent families, education, addiction, and poverty are at the core of prison reform.  Shutting off the street to prison pipeline that is responsible for the severe overcrowding, and all the problems that come along with that is what we are talking about.  The racial disparities in incarceration rates among the minorities from urban environments.  The aging infrastructure of prisons and jails that our society can’t afford to maintain let alone build more.  The erosion of respect for others different from ourselves that allows us to justify treating them not just poorly but as subhuman.   As somehow not deserving of basic human rights even thought they are enshrined in the Constitution.  This is was prison reform is about.

To know about a crime either before or after it occurs and failing to do anything with that knowledge is to be considered an accessory and makes one guilty by association.  So, wouldn’t it be true then that to ignore the advice of experts regarding the urgent need for prison reform could rise to the level of criminal negligence at the very least, or a gross misconduct in office and breach of trust by politicians who cling to alternate facts or decry reporting on prison problems as fake news?  For once I would like to see Solomon proved wrong that there is something new under the sun.  I pray that the logjam will be broken, and long overdue reforms will be instituted to our criminal justice system.  This will only happen when the people hold their representatives accountable and demand better treatment of our brothers and sisters, our sons and daughters, our friends, neighbors and aliens.

House Arrest

house arrest

Being on parole is not freedom.  Too many guys coming out of prison think that having received a parole that they have earned their freedom, that their sentence is complete.  But that is not the case.  While on parole you are still under the control of the MDOC.  Parole is prison without the razor wire.  You have a parole agent who keeps track of you, meeting regularly to monitor your compliance with the stipulations of your parole specified by the Parole Board.  They have absolute control over whether you stay out or return to prison for any parole violations.  On parole you must successfully complete some specified term living in the community, sometimes with severe limits on where you can go and what you can do.  This varies from person to person and is based on the crime committed and other factors.

A typical parole can last up to 24 months.  The stipulations of the parole generally require that the parolee maintain regular employment.  You must also pay a supervision fee and any outstanding debts incurred during incarceration in addition to any unpaid court costs, fines and restitution associated with the felony conviction.  Frequently programming such as AA or NA may be required for those with a history of alcohol or drug abuse.  Additionally, some receive their paroles with program requirements waved while they were in prison because they were classified as “low risk” to re-offend during a psychiatric examination but must now take programming from an approved vendor as a condition of parole.  Failure to successfully complete programming will result in a revocation of parole.

After the conditions of sever deprivation, loss of personal control and decision making in prison some are so focused on redressing the privations that they quickly violate the terms of their parole.  For some it is satisfying the urge to indulge in their addiction for alcohol or drugs.  For others it is about hustling to get the money together to resume their lifestyle.  However most of these hustles are illegal.  Once a person has been in prison the odds of them returning are greater that they will return to prison than the odds for a person who has never been going for the first time.

tether-e1552099483450.png

To address this problem the MDOC has tightened the conditions of parole in some instances so that it is in actuality “house arrest.”  All excursions from the residence must be approved in advance.  Many are paroled on GPS tether to prevent cheating.  At this level of control, the parolee is practically helpless and becomes reliant on family and friends to take care of many of the tasks that they would like to do for themselves, thus continuing to experience the conditions they experienced in prison.  With this level of control those without a support network are at a severe disadvantage.

Housing itself is a problem.  Transitional housing is in sort supply and in many communities is non-existent.  Those coming out of prison may only have a matter of weeks to find employment and permanent housing before being forced to leave the Parole halfway house.  Then there is the problem of finding affordable housing for those with a felony conviction, especially sex offenders.  Many apartment complexes and landlords will not rent to felons.  In some places such as Oakland Co there are a few rental companies that will but not in every community and not in sufficient numbers to address the current level of demand.

Employment is not as much of a problem as it used to be given the present economic environment.  However more needs to be done to train felons for jobs that pay a living wage.  Many are forced to take minimum wage jobs without benefits or career potential.  The MDOC has made changes to its Employment Readiness initiative over the last few years by revamping their vocational programing but much more needs to be done to ensure that people coming out of prison are employable.  Movements to “Ban the Box” have gained traction in the last few years to at least give felons an opportunity to interview for a job before they are eliminated from consideration for a position in some places like the city of Detroit.

While commendable movements like this are just the tip of the iceberg.  So many are coming out unprepared to hold steady employment due a lack of a basic education or even basic literacy skills.  As a tutor I saw it every day first hand, the lack of interest or desire to join mainstream society.  The smug satisfaction on many of my students faces knowing that they could simply wait out any requirement to earn a GED let alone make satisfactory progress toward earning one and still get a parole.  No thought toward a living a life as a productive member of society.

For many who have served long prison sentences returning to society has significant challenges.  Technology has changed everything: smart phones, the internet, shopping, the workplace, even cars.  Nothing looks familiar to someone who last saw the free world in the 1980s or 1990s.  Life is far more complex than it was, especially from the perspective of someone who has lived a very simple and highly controlled life.  The ability to learn and adopt technology can have a very steep learning curve for someone who isn’t familiar with it.  Then to make it more complicated parole stipulations may prevent the parolee from accessing technology.  Sex offenders are prohibited from having smart phones or computers with internet access.  Some convicted of financial crimes are prevented from having bank accounts.  A convicted murderer on parole has fewer restrictions than many other felonies.

One thing that is certain is that no one really wants to go back to prison but for some it is easier than reintegrating back into society.  What is needed are advocates and mentors; either family, friends or strangers willing to help parolees make the transition.  There are faith-based organizations, church and para-church ministries and other not-for-profit organizations out there that have programs to help.  The problem is that there are not enough organizations, people and resources available in all the places that they are needed.  Secondly, the information available to prisoners preparing for parole is often out of date and incomplete.  Inmates aren’t able to communicate with these organizations easily or effectively to make the necessary arrangements.  Since many don’t have someone on the outside to make arrangements for housing or employment in advance when they are paroled it becomes an immediate crisis.  The last thing a parolee needs is more stress.

Many inmates when preparing for their parole hearing make a Parole Plan in which they lay out what support is waiting for them upon release.  Unfortunately for many it is ‘pie in the sky.’  What looks good on paper in order to impress the parole board may not be worth the paper it is written on.  For example, the employment opportunity that I listed in my Parole Plan was voided by one of the stipulations of my parole.  For some, they are forced to parole back to the county in which they were convicted rather than being allowed to choose a location with more access to resources because they don’t have family there.

Something else to note about parole is that the conditions stipulated by the parole board remain in effect for the duration of the parole.  There is no easing of restrictions based on the completion of certain milestones such as completion of required programing or finding gainful employment.  Parole agents may in some cases have fewer contacts with the parolee but can at anytime show up unannounced to check on you.  For the most part parole is stick and no carrot, there is no reward for cooperation and good behavior.  No graduated easing of restrictions to allow for a true transition back into society.  In some cases, parole officers will make it even more difficult for their parolees by denying requests to approve housing, employment or other activities for reasons that seem mercurial at best.  They may also actively seek to find reasons to revoke a parole or to at least scare the parole with threats of incarceration-the scared straight approach.

While there have been changes to parole in recent years to reduce the number of parole violators being sent back to prison, still more needs to be done.  The MDOC needs to do a better job of preparing the 95% of their inmates that will return to society.  There should be more Reentry programming that focuses on linking those soon to be paroled with agencies and organizations that will be able to provide access to services, programs, resources in the area where they will be paroling.  Access to employment services including in-prison hiring interviews, pre-enrollment for Social Security, Veterans benefits, and Medicaid would go a long way to preparing parolees for success.  Parole should be a transition, not more punishment.  A way to help put the parolee on the right track rather than a revolving door back to prison.

A report published by the PEW Charitable Trust entitled “Policy Reforms Can Strengthen Community Supervision – A Framework to Improve Probation and Parole” was published on April 23, 2020. This report documents many of the issues that I identified in my article and some of the new ideas being incorporated by some agencies to address the problems that lead to re-incarceration. A PDF copy of the report is attached if you would like to learn more about this issue.

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