A group of men sat in folding chairs arranged in a circle in the recreation room of an old church in Philadelphia. As they waited for the Prison Society’s April Hope Alive meeting to begin, they ate slices of pizza and chatted amongst themselves about the challenges of building a new life outside of prison: the chaotic environment of halfway houses, the struggle to find meaningful work, maintaining recovery from addiction. Some had been incarcerated for a few years – others, decades.
Thousands of people return home from Pennsylvania state prisons each year, a process known as reentry. Many of them begin the work of rebuilding their lives having little more than the clothes on their back, yet encounter a lack of support when they return to the community, both material – such as help with housing, employment, and transportation – and emotional.
Finding the motivation to overcome common challenges
The monthly Hope Alive meetings provide continuing peer support to people in the Prison Society’s mentoring program, as well as others starting a new life in Philadelphia after prison. At the April meeting, the discussion topic was motivation – what motivates you to keep moving forward in life?
Jacob, 37, had come to the meeting straight from his job as a concrete laborer in the suburbs of Chester County, a more than two-hour journey requiring two buses and a train. Such arduous journeys are not uncommon for people who have returned from prison, with one study finding that one-third don’t have a car to use for work or emergencies. Jacob completes the trip twice a day commuting from his halfway house in Philadelphia while he saves up for a car.
Jacob said it was the little things that kept him going, like being able to text his son in the morning after breakfast, or enjoying the vivid colors of the trees in bloom on his lunch break at work.
Tony, 41, who had been home for little more than a month, said part of what motivated him to stay out of prison was to no longer be a drain on his family’s time and money – the 8-hour round trips to visit him in prison, for example. He was aware of the statistics showing that nearly two-thirds of people released from Pennsylvania prisons are reincarcerated within three years.
“I have to beat the odds,” he said.
Tony had been home for little more than a month and was still looking for an employer willing to hire someone with a criminal record.
“I’m in the door, everything’s looking good, and then you divulge that information and it’s like ‘Ehhh, we’ll give you a call’ – and you never get a call,” he said.
According to a report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, one-third of people released from federal prisons in 2010 were still jobless four years later.
Tony said that part of the problem is that, while workforce training and other resources for formerly incarcerated job-seekers exist, people often have to meet certain qualifications or encounter other barriers to participation. Reentry programs needed to take a more welcoming approach, he said.
“‘You need help? Come on in. We'll meet you where you at.’”
