James Monteiro was a normal kid. He liked building forts out of old wood and going on bike rides. His favorite cereal was Sugar Smacks. He was even the co-captain of his middle school basketball team. But at age 18, he was convicted for a drug-related crime and started cycling in and out of prison for 20 years. That year, he was one of 1.5 million people arrested for a drug law violation.
Monteiro’s father was abusive and an alcoholic; his mother was clinically depressed. When Monteiro was 15, his sister left for college and his brother dropped out of school to join the military. Left with no real support system, Monteiro also dropped out and got a job as an assistant manager at Ronzo’s Pizza on Thayer Street. That’s where he became involved with drugs, selling to Brown, RISD, and Johnson & Wales students.
Monteiro is one among many. Each year, the United States spends around $80 billion on its massive incarceration system, budgetary allocations that outpace spending on housing, transportation, and higher education. There are 2.3 million people behind bars — the largest prison population in the world. Prisons and jails are so packed that in 2011, the United States Supreme Court upheld an order to reduce the prison population in California by 40,000, down from 200 percent capacity to 137 percent. According to Justice Kennedy, the poor conditions in California prisons constituted “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Despite the exorbitant amount of people, time, and resources the US pumps into its criminal justice system, a 1994 recidivism study estimated that within 3 years of release, around 51 percent of ex-offenders ended up back in prison, while the risk of death for former inmates in the two weeks post-release is nearly 13 times the rate for the general populace. This paradox challenges the very purpose of the incarceration system; if its purpose is punishment, it seems to both overdue it and underdo it, as reflected in disparate sentencing policies. Possession of 28 grams of crack cocaine yields a mandatory minimum sentence of at least five years, while possession of at least 500 grams of powder cocaine results in the same sentence. Around 80 percent of sentenced crack offenders are African-American; the majority of powder cocaine offenders are white. In Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, she argues that these policies lead to a disproportionate number of convictions against poor African-Americans and other minorities. The statistics support her case: Even though all races distribute and use drugs at about the same rate, African-Americans and Latinos constitute 58 percent of the prison population, while they represent only 25 percent of the overall population.
If the purpose is reform, then it succeeds less than half the time. Incarcerated individuals often leave prison without any money, housing, employment, or support system, so they fall back into their old patterns of behavior, as indicated by the 51 percent recidivism rate. This was Monteiro’s verbatim trajectory following his first prison stint. “I got out of prison at age 23. I tried to get a job, couldn’t get a job. Back to drugs, back in prison. I had a high school GED and a criminal background. There was really no help,” Monteiro told the Brown Political Review.
The barriers to reentry are enormous. A report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that 68 percent of state prison inmates did not receive a high school diploma, leaving ex-offenders at a clear disadvantage upon release. More than 60 percent of formerly incarcerated individuals are unemployed one year after release, and those who do find jobs take home 40 percent less pay annually. Additionally, municipalities in most states require a criminal background check for all public housing applicants, and may deny housing applications on the basis of conviction history. As a result, one in five people who leave prison becomes homeless soon thereafter.
Employment is a key factor to success, propelling incarcerated individuals from poverty and uncertainty to comfort and stability. A study by the Justice Policy Center found that former prisoners who are able to secure employment within 2 months of release are far less likely to return to prison in the first year after release. Fortunately, there are a growing number of employers that are so called “felon-friendly,” including Ace Hardware, AT&T, and IBM. These companies have hiring practices that do not necessarily exclude ex-offenders and felons, although it’s unlikely that a criminal record goes ignored in the job selection process. Additionally, President Obama issued a federal mandate in November 2015 that eliminated the requirement that job applicants check a box on their applications if they have a criminal record. Although the mandate is only for federal government employees, it’s an important step towards what criminal justice reformers call “ban the box.”
Despite this progress, finding employment post-incarceration remains extremely difficult. In one study published by Princeton professor Devah Pager, two teams of 23-year-old male college students (the “testers”) applied to 350 jobs in Wisconsin. One team consisted of two African-Americans and the other of two whites; all were “bright and articulate, with appealing styles of self-presentation.” Their only difference was that one man on each team indicated a criminal record on their application. The results were discouraging: Among whites, applicants with criminal records were only half as likely to be called back as equally qualified applicants with no record. Among African-Americans, the odds were even worse. This study underscores the need for nationwide employment reform that protects individuals with criminal records from discrimination by employers, in addition to a federal jobs program that connects ex-offenders with employment opportunities.
Monteiro’s trajectory reflects the role of employment as a catalyst for stability and success. After his last stint in prison, he participated in a new state jobs program and landed a job at the Nonviolence Institute, an organization that targets the reduction of gang related violence in Rhode Island. After a few more successful job experiences, he now directs Prison Bridge, a program that improves access to post-secondary education for individuals transitioning from prison back into their communities.
But James Monteiro is the exception, not the rule. Most ex-offenders do not go on to direct nonprofits. Most do not attain college degrees. Most end up on the streets — jobless, homeless, and abusing drugs. Further, they are denied the right to vote, so they have no political representation, no voice. “When you come out into society, you’re basically locked out, looking at it going on around you. I think that’s harder than to actually be in prison,” Monteiro said.
American incarceration infrastructure must change. The current system wastes time, money, and inflicts harsh punishment while offering little reform. Although there is no easy solution, lawmakers can start by lowering sentences, improving employment opportunities, and providing incarcerated individuals with an efficient re-entry program. From there, the communities affected and the public more generally can attempt to grapple with the root causes of crime — racism, poverty, and inadequate education.