c. 2003 Religion News Service

(Samuel K. Atchison is an ordained minister and has worked as a policy analyst and social worker to the homeless. He currently is a prison chaplain in Trenton, N.J., and a fellow of the George H. Gallup International Institute in Princeton, N.J.)

(UNDATED) A recent report issued by the Philadelphia Consensus Group on Re-entry and Reintegration of Adjudicated Offenders notes approximately 35,000 prisoners will emerge from the Philadelphia Prison System and return to their families, neighborhoods and communities in 2003.

According to former Philadelphia Mayor W. Wilson Goode, who established the Consensus Group in March 2002, the returning prisoners face myriad problems. “Prepared or not, they’re coming back into our communities _ too often homeless, addicted, unemployable and with AIDS.”

In an attempt to address this situation, Goode established the Consensus Group last year after participating in a similar group that reached consensus on a comprehensive set of public policy initiatives related to President Bush’s faith-based initiative. The work of both groups was facilitated by Search for Common Ground, a Washington-based organization that focuses on conflict resolution.

Reflecting the perspectives of Philadelphia’s district attorney, police commissioner, former prison commissioner, chief public defender, and a broad array of inmate advocacy groups and community and religious leaders, the report includes 29 recommendations designed “to reduce recidivism, enhance public safety, and help returning offenders live responsible, productive lives.”

The work of the Consensus Group in Philadelphia reflects a refreshing change in criminal justice policy that is just beginning to take hold nationwide.

For more than a generation, the focus of criminal justice and public policy professionals was on removing criminal offenders, whether violent or nonviolent, from the streets for long periods of time. The epidemic in drug- and gang-related crime that characterized inner-city life, especially in the 1980s and 1990s, was countered by a legislative and public relations assault designed to respond to the fears of the populace. This counter-assault included measures that imposed a period of parole ineligibility for some crimes, eliminated parole entirely for others, and lowered the age at which youthful offenders could be tried as adults.

The purpose of these initiatives was both to make the community safer and to make the citizenry feel safer. The effect, however, was one of overkill. Record numbers of criminal offenders continued to be incarcerated _ more than 2 million by 2000 _ even as the actual crime rate, among violent and nonviolent offenders alike, went into a fairly steep decline.

Moreover, it led directly to the massive prison exodus currently facing the nation. In the last three years alone, more than 1.7 million prisoners have been released from prison. At the same time, there are few programs or policies in place to assist the inmate and his family upon release from prison.

Thankfully, however, an increasing number of initiatives are being developed that focus on the needs of ex-offenders and their families. This is due in part to the attention being paid to the work of faith-based organizations as a result of Bush’s faith-based initiative.

For example, the federal government’s Serious and Violent Offender Re-entry Initiative encouraged local community and faith-based organizations to partner with their state department of corrections or juvenile department of corrections to aid re-entry and reintegration of ex-offenders into their communities.

Policy research organizations like Philadelphia-based Public/Private Ventures are developing demonstration projects to measure and help maximize the effectiveness of groups that serve inmates and their families.

As with the Philadelphia Consensus Group, there is a growing recognition that the issues facing inmates and their families dramatically impact society as a whole.

As John DiIulio Jr., former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, told The New York Times last year: “The moment has arrived where people _ right, left and center _ recognize we have a practical opportunity and moral obligation to do much more with this population of men. It’s not that these men are victims and therefore we had better give them this. They’ve paid their debt to society. They’re coming out. We have the resources. We can do more and better by these men and by their children and their families. That’s where the consensus has come.”

DEA END ATCHISON