Generally, prisoners who are released from prison (especially if after a very long sentence, and/or for a serious crime) have a tough time finding a job - employment is hard enough for a normal crime-free person, let alone a convicted felon.
What happens if they just can’t find a way to make a living? Do they qualify for welfare, some sort of housing, or are they just wandering the streets?
(question specific to the USA)
No cite, but many become “institutionalized”. They end up doing more crime because it’s the only life they know, OR, they want to go back to prison. I know someone personally in this exact situation.
If they have no friends or family willing to take them in, they can get welfare benefits, including Temporary Rental Assistance, which will pay their rent for up to two years. After that, it’s either get disability, go into a homeless shelter, or wander the streets.
As part of their pre-release planning, they will work to find a place to live; some are released directly to homeless shelters or transitional housing programs. Eligibility for rental assistance and other welfare benefits depends largely on their state.
In Missouri, the state has programs that help released prisoners find jobs. I’m not too up on how it works, but I think they partner with companies; the companies get some sort of tax break or something out of it besides workers.
I work for a non profit which does a lot of this. Basically a state will require you to have a job before making you eligible for parole and make it a condition of your parole or probation. This is why you will find a lot of former convicts doing cold-calling and collections, jobs that no one else wants but they can get.
They often don’t perform well or long, because they only take the job as a condition of their parole.
The bigger problem I find is state IDs that now must be mailed and the ex-cons have no address, and can’t or refuse to qualify for addresses at homeless organizations to get one.
If you have served your sentence and are released without parole, then of course you don’t need a job. But again without a state ID, it makes any welfare/medicaid service nearly impossible to get.
Housing is another thing that is out of the bag, unless you’re an ex-con with children, you will win the lottery before you get placed.
Our organization works with both state referrals and people that come on their own or through other avenues (other than government). I tend to only handle cases that aren’t govt referred due to the restrictions the state places on what we can or cannot tell them, for instance, our state refuses us the ability to tell them how to dress, because it infringes on culture issues. (sorry you’re not going to get a job in jeans for most places but I can’t say that to govt referred clients, but that’s another thread).
A lot of state tie these programs into food stamps, for instance to get the food stamps you must DO SOMETHING for them, like go to work(state paid programs), take GED classes, go to rehab or use our program to help you get a job.
The real problem lies in the fact an ex-con looking to go straight will probably make minimum wage and have a boss. So it’s work 8 hours for someone who is “bossing them,” or being a “drug runner” (example) and making the same wage in an hour or so, and since you’ve already been to prison you don’t care if you’re caught. (In reality there is little shame in going to prison, but again that’s a different thread).
No one is truly unemployable because places like cold call centers and collection agencies will take anyone. And there are creative ways of getting around the background checks (all legal).
It’s more about motivation, acceptance of your crime and punishment and willingness to move on that make or break someone. I can tell you my “success” rate from a state referral was less than 5% and more than 80% when they come to us o their own or via another channel, which can tell you how good state programs are.
I think it horrendous, the hurdles our society places in front of an individual who has “served their debt to society.”
In light of the difficulty assimilating into the economy, of course, there is considerable recidivism.
Many ex-cons apply for SSI.
Many of them had been receiving SSI before incarceration, which terminates their benefits.
And it is hardly an exaggeration to say that our prisons are the most significant mental healthy care facilities in many places.
This. I’ve never been in trouble with the law but I suffer from major depression to the point where I went from being a Wall Street tax lawyer to basically a full time mental patient and in my new “line of work” I cross path with a lot of ex cons, many of which probably wouldn’t be in that situation if they had been properly diagnosed when they were younger. Also, as already been said, many become institutionalized which makes sense. To paraphrase someone in one of my support groups, a large maximum security prison is basically its own city which, perhaps most importantly, means that it has its own economy and you can go from being a successful businessman on the inside to being virtually unemployable when released which probably explains the high rate of recidivism in this country.
I guess the question is - what happens to anyone who is unemployable for some reason and is dumped in the middle of a big city? If the city or state has support facilities for homeless, maybe they can take advantage of them.
Another item not mentioned here but very relevant (watch the last few episodes of Orange Is The New Black) is that “pile on the punishment” states in a very Khafka-esque manner make released inmates pay for the cost of their release - you pay your probation officer costs, your pee test costs, etc. etc. or else go back to jail. Not exactly the formula for returning to the straight and narrow, but politicians are not worried since ex-felons typically cannot vote.
Practically speaking, it is next to impossible for these people to get a job in the US, so yeah, they end up back in the joint. I read, I don’t remember where, that in some countries it is illegal to discriminate against former prison inmates.
For real. It’s like every ex-felon is supposed to suddenly win a mini-lottery and strike wealth, or acquire some degree that makes them indispensable to employers.