The pressure cooker of incarcerated life is one that people adjust to out of necessity. The rules of interaction are drastically different, and often more brutal, than a life lived without bars.
One of the reasons the American rate of recidivism (the percentage of former prisoners who are rearrested) is so high is that prisoners are trained into the prison lifestyle and find themselves unable to readjust once returned to society.
This is exactly the issue being stressed in Illinois right now as the battle is joined to keep transition centers across the state open. Illinois Gov. Quinn has plans on the table to close fourteen facilities across the state, including many that help ease convicts back into the social patterns of everyday life.
The PJ Star brings us one convict’s view:
Convicted felon John Flood credits a state transition center with helping him get his life back on track after prison and testified Tuesday that Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to close them would have a disastrous effect on inmates looking for a fresh start.
‘They know how to do prison; they don’t know how to do the world,’ said Flood. The 54-year-old spent nearly two years at Westside Adult Transition Center in Chicago after his theft sentence before landing a maintenance supervisor job.
Readers of our books are well aware that we find it vital to bring these people back into society. Mental health programs, substance abuse programs, inmate halfway houses, and transitional centers like the Peoria Adult Transition Center are essential in order to reduce recidivism.
Facilities like these help to provide a lifeline to those trying to adjust to the outside world. When released, prisoners often end up drifting back into the same criminal circles that got them behind bars to begin with. Many times this is due to feeling like outcasts or as though they are unable to function in the normal world.
Transition programs ease them from one environment to the other, helping to support their efforts to re-learn the world. Closing centers like these is a blatant invitation to failure and expense, and it is our hope that Gov. Quinn will alter his stance on the issue.
Keep in mind the convict, Mr. Flood. In his testimony he said he had nowhere to go without the Westside transitional center. Now he is leading a productive life on the right side of the bars.
Image by *clarity*, used under it’s Creative Commons license
