2. The information age makes criminal background checks available for anyone who pays the fee. The result is that information that was previously unavailable is now being used to discriminate in the areas of housing and employment. Furthermore, the communities most impacted by this discrimination are the communities that have historically suffered from discrimination; communities of color. Criminal records must be accurate! It is far too easy in the information age for information on criminal background checks to be out-dated or inaccurate. Rapid record-correcting mechanisms must be put in place so that ex-offenders do not lose opportunities and dignity while waiting for the information available on line about them to catch up with their rehabilitation and progress.
3. Prisons are not State Hospitals. With the rise of mental health diagnoses among inmates, the gap between mental health access both in corrections and more significantly upon exit from corrections poses a particularly pernicious pull of ex-offenders back into the system. Providing treatment in correctional facilities and during transition into communities reduces the likelihood of re-offense and increases public safety. Prisons are not an appropriate mental health intervention. Rather, diversionary community-based programs are necessary for individuals at the point of first contact with justice system and during transitions from secure facilities.
4. If collateral punishment is to continue as a trend, transparency and truth in sentencing demands that all consequences be shared with the offender and defense council prior to any conviction being entered or plea agreement accepted. All collateral sanctions resulting from incarceration must be carefully examined to ensure that once offenders have served their time, they do not face unnecessary and unfair side-effects that continue to hinder their quality of life and opportunity to succeed. We have a corrections system designed with the intent to punish and correct criminal behavior, it serves no rehabilitative or humane purpose to continue punishing ex-offenders after serving their time with collateral effects.
5. It is the responsibility of the State to provide rehabilitative opportunities for offenders. Prisons must prioritize rehabilitation. 95% of incarcerated individuals return to their communities. The State is responsible to assure that returning offenders, where reasonable, have access to the tools necessary for them to effectively reenter the community as a full participant including rehabilitative services, identification, a reasonable supply of medication, application for health care, access to housing and employment. It is incumbent on the State to prepare willing individuals to become productive members of their communities. Preparing incarcerated individuals improves public safety and helps promote healthy individuals, families and communities. Ex-offenders must be prepared to re-join society with the capacity and commitment to succeed.
6. Punishment should fall on the offender and not the children, families and communities. The families of offenders and ex-offenders suffer along with them as they journey into corrections and back to community. Upon incarceration families bare the loss of income, bonds between children and spouses are jeopardized when individuals are placed in facilities that are inaccessible based on geographic distance and children often face stigma and suffer from depression. Upon release, too often families must choose between reunifying with the ex-offender or losing valuable resources such as access to public housing and welfare benefits. When an individual is incarcerated and/or released, children and families should not share the punishment. Furthermore, the difficulty for an ex-offender to find housing, employment and medical services impacts children, families and communities.
7. We demand pragmatic and cost-effective approaches to public safety. Whereas employment, particularly meaningful employment at living wages, is demonstrated to reduce recidivism more than any other variable, our current approach to criminal justice fails to adequately address barriers to employment and therefore guarantees that those incarcerated now are likely to incarcerated at some point in the future as well. As a community, if we fail to address the barriers facing ex-offenders, children, families and entire communities suffer. The magnitude of the capital expenditures devoted to corrections and public safety warrant, at the very least, policies and practices that do not result in a capital divestment of the most vulnerable and impacted communities.
Core Principles
1. All punishment should have a beginning and an end. Sanctions should be applied only after due process. Un-adjudicated punishment, often referred to as collateral consequences, result in condemning an ex-offender to a life of isolation and exclusion. Current practices create a permanent population of second-class citizens. Ex-offenders deserve a second chance after they have served their time. They deserve fair access to housing, to employment, to credit, and to higher education. As individuals transition from corrections to community they also deserve, when appropriate, fair access to public assistance and restoration of one of their most important rights as citizens their voting rights. Ex-offenders are not asking for special consideration, rather, they are asking for fair consideration.