Hi,

I'm a college student/activist who has been deeply shaken by the prison system's lack of justice and its failure to correct the problems it was intended to rectitfy. I've heard much about the difficulty of enduring a prison sentence, but I feel that less is told/documented about what life is like for those ex-offenders. I'd be very interested to learn how people manage coming out from a penal institution and adapt to "normal life", and whether there is anything people can do on a local level that would be helpful for people who are in the process of trying to readapt.

Thanks,

Josh

I really like the site

I just want to let you know that its nice to have someone that is actually interested in bettering things...thankyou,but I DON'T have any real solutions unfortunately because I would not know WHERE to begin on this one....I know a lot of people you would say are completely "institutionalized" and almost quite frankly..CAN NOT adapt to normalsy anymore and so they continue repeating the same mistakes etc..one thing I know they started doing in Ga. is giving companies a big tax deduction if they would be willing to hire felons.I do think that if prison systems would offer much more extensive alcohol and drug support systems that would help,education without all of the ridiculous stipulations they demand...putting it all in a nut shell..if theyd just offer much more positive things to better people with I really do believe a lot of things would/could change.Sometimes I have actually wondered if they do infact refuse a lot of these things to actually KEEP peole down and in the system ,after all,would they all have jobs if people like "us" were not in and out of the system?It might sound kind of crazy and paranoid to you that I say this but if youve ever been INSIDE the system as I have then you would KNOW and you would actually SEE just how mean ,rotten,vile,and nasty the MAJORITY(NOT ALL)but the majority of the people who work there really are.Most of them ENJOY and seem to prey on our misery,even take their problems and frustrations out on us,humiliate and demean us etc....they could start off by firing about 75% to 85% of the correctional officers...that alone would be a great service..no sarcasm intended.

Hi Joshua

What specifically would you like to know? Are you interested in integration, employment, social contexts, interpersonal relationships, group dynamics, mental health, interaction, recovery? The ex-offender condition is as complex and multifaceted as the prison and justice systems. Although superficially grief is experienced by many ex offenders, there are many variables that contribute to issues. There has to be a sort of classification of all the things that come to play in this. Let me know. Sorry to have tied this to knod but that is the way I perceive it.
Peace
Maria

thank you for caring.........but personally i am still patiently waiting for my fiance to return to me!!!!! but when that day comes.......if u r still here in 609 days, i will give ya info.! :D

Hi Joshua, I have not been incarcerated but my man was for just under 5 years. I can tell what I saw. He told me a few things.. Like the day he was released... He grandmother had to pick him up He said he felt like a cat in the car, equilibrium was off,and she stopped by Wal-Mart to buy him things like underwear, socks, pants..etc.. He said he tried to go in with her but was so overwhelmed by all the people, movement, and noise. He had to wait in the car for her to get the things. I noticed that he ran right to the bars at night, we didn't start seeing each other until he was out for a month, though I knew him before. He and his old friend just started going nuts at the bar though neither of them picked up women, they just danced the nights away. During the day he hardly ever left the house. He never really got dressed , In a "normal" sense, He wore sweat pants all the time. He had a medical issue so he couldn't go to work for 3 months after he got out. He wouldn't go to the store unless it was the corner store and he waited anxiously to get letters from the peolpe. When I started goign out with him he was just getting to leave the house for longer periods of time (1 hr or so)but it was hard to get him to go to the store let alone to a movie!! He eventually got a job and he went all out, he is a workoholic! He would spend dawn til dust working and eventually we started doing normal things, movies, shopping, dinner and drinks..etc.. He became a foreman at work and had a company vehicle. He started to buy a house, which he lost when he went back. He would have had everything he wanted by now had he not gone back. He was usually quiet most of the time, he really didn't talk a lot even after we have been together for 2 years nows. There were other things I noticed through out... like if I came up behind him I had to say something before I touched him or even sometimes got to close, I could not touch him to wake him up until just recently (before he was violated) and he always sat with his back to a wall or something that someone else couldn't get behind him.
I hope those are things you were asking about... If not sorry about my rambling :D

Lisa

I do not know how to edit my post but I forgot to finish a sentence...

He waited anxiously to get Mail from the people he was incarcerated with for the first 5 or so months.

He was also very uncomfortable around woman, I noticed if we were alone he did fairly well talking to me but If we were in group of people (mostly men) he would seem to ignore me, not purposely) but all the same. I had to always point that out to him so he wouldn't do it.

Blah, Blah ... Lisa

Ummm... Did anyone notice that the original post was dated from two years ago??? January 2002???

That's sad. So nobody ever responded to him back then...

Deb

It was a good question though! Do you have any observations now?, about how ex-offenders re-enter the real World?? It is sad that know one answered him but it really doesn't surprise me. ;)
Lisa

It's like being 18 alll over again. becoming responsible for yourself after being told day in day out how to live. people sometimes give a newly realeased ex-con a difficult time. jobs that an ex-con may be qualified for;they will not be hired to perform. second chance is a myth for the ex-con. society feels that a felon is not a threat so he/she works construction through a agency or fast food nothing in the hospitality field too much of a risk.