Towards a More Humane Justice System
by Christopher Watler
Project Director of the Harlem Community Justice Center,
a project of the Center for Court Innovation
Every Thursday for the past three years a small crew of committed faith volunteers have come to the Harlem Community Justice Center to provide refreshments and support to parole clients in our reentry program. This effort, part of a unique collaboration with The Interfaith Center of New York and Network Support Services called Circles of Support, is embedded within a larger collaboration the Justice Center has with the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision that allows parole clients to be supervised in the community.
Circles of Support engages families and the faith community to work on behalf of the men and women who are returning from prison to Harlem. At its core Circles of Support is about building the social capital of the formerly incarcerated and the neighborhood. For communities with high levels of incarceration, like Harlem, the frequent removal and return of men and women from prison weakens social capital. Dina Rose and Todd Clear have written cogently about this. According to their research, increased “social disorganization” resulting from incarceration disrupts a neighborhood’s ability to “regulate behaviors” and interrupts key familial and work relationships.[1] They conclude that: “A comprehensive approach to reentry that fosters social capital and collective efficacy involves recognizing that reentry is not just about the individual coming home; it is also about the homes and communities to which ex-prisoners return.”[2]
We can’t end mass incarceration and racial disparities in public safety without a robust partnership with families and the faith community. Families and faith partners can have a positive impact in the lives of men and women returning from prison. For example, family members can help returnees on parole to stay motivated. They can serve as advocates for their loved one in the parole process by accompanying them to appointments and helping them to assert their rights. Parole officers can help families to understand the parole process and encourage parole clients to work with their family on their goals. The more informed family members are the better they will be as helpers and advocates for their loved one.
In communities with high rates of incarceration, poverty and weakened social capital have left many families unable to effectively deal with life’s daily challenges. Of course, for some parole clients their immediate family may not be helpful to their reintegration. I remember a conversation with a young man who was admonished by his parole officer for continuing to smoke marijuana. He said to me, “Mr. Watler they don’t understand. Everyone in my family smokes, including my mother and grandmother. I can’t just stop.” Our approach in situations like this is to work with the parole client to expand the definition of family to include other significant persons who are willing to help.
Circles of Support involves faith volunteers who provide mentoring and support to our parole clients. For parole clients with limited family support faith volunteers serve as a consistent source of advice and guidance each week. The approach is best described as a “ministry of presence,” which grew out of the faith community’s response to 9-11 when faith volunteers comforted victims and were present for first responders at the World Trade Center site. Volunteers provide refreshments and toiletries for the men and women who are reporting. They also provide a sensitive ear and advice.
When a parole client first comes to the Justice Center they are filled with mixed emotions. Initially we thought just offering some coffee and refreshments from faith volunteers would encourage engagement. However, many recently released parole clients are shy about engaging the volunteers and certainly did not know what to make of free refreshments being offered at a parole reporting site.
Undeterred, the volunteers began going out into the waiting area to serve refreshments and greet the parole clients. This was sometimes awkward as the volunteers, many of whom are older and not at all experienced in working with persons who are formerly incarcerated, would struggle to make small talk. Yet, over time these informal conversations led to regular check-ins where parole clients would come in to say hello and let the faith volunteers know how they are doing. The volunteers would also ask them what they needed. Sometimes a person would want someone to pray with them, more often they wanted someone to listen.
Faith volunteers do more than just welcome men and women home at the Justice Center. Through simple acts of charity and loving support, the faith volunteers have changed the culture of our parole reentry program. They have made the program more humane by listening without judgment and encouraging without fear. If one were to stop by on a Thursday morning you might not be able to tell who was a parole client, parole officer, case manager or volunteer.
The Circles of Support collaboration has profoundly changed the way our parole officers and case managers work with families and the faith community. We now host an annual Family Reentry Day Block Party and family gatherings as part of our reentry work. Last summer we held our first leadership training for formerly incarcerated persons in Harlem called Raise My Voice. Graduates of the program are now paid motivational speakers who have spoken at churches as far as Greenwich, Connecticut, as well as local youth programs and foundations. Later this year we will publish a free curriculum from the training to encourage other communities to do the same.
Our faith volunteers have also become more knowledgeable about mass incarceration and are now advocates in their houses of worship. They regularly open their spaces to Circles of Support events. These are all exciting developments, but there is so much more work to be done.
There is an opportunity for us to end mass incarceration in our lifetime. This is not just the work of justice reformers within the justice system. Communities that have been impacted by mass incarceration must also be full partners in creating a more humane and effective justice system that does as much to prevent harm as it does to hold those who violate the law accountable. Men and women who have experienced incarceration must lead with us if we are to succeed. Their experiences and talents can be a source of great strength as we pursue justice and what Abraham Lincoln described in his first inaugural address as the “better angels of our nature.”
The Circles of Support Program is made possible through a grant from the J.C Flowers Foundation.
[1] Dina R. Rose & Todd Clear. Incarceration, Reentry and Social Capital: Social Networks in the Balance. In: Prisoners Once Removed: The Impact of incarceration on Children, Families and Communities. P. 313-338. Urban Institute Press. Washington D.C (2003).
[2] Ibid. P. 337.