How Atlanta Is Turning Ex-Cons into Urban Farmers
politico.com
politico.com
Prison quality varies dramatically around the country. Some prisons are only interested in turning a profit or keeping the lights running, so youll be scrubbing dishes and floors for "shit tickets" and soap. These places are miserable. the people who work at these places are equally miserable. they barely earn more than you. These places serve no purpose but to make shareholders rich. they only make money so long as you are there.
Good, state run prisons, have every incentive in the world to offer competent education in farming, machining, or trade (part of what I learned.) A good prison can help heal your soul, and learn about yourself.
The real challenge isnt getting ex-convicts to work, its getting employers to hire them. Since in the US youre legally required to disclose your former convictions and felonies, most ex-convicts are barred from ever rejoining the workforce (or society for that matter.) Its biblical retribution.
convicts arent evil demons. Most of the circumstances that landed them in prison would really surprise you. Entrepreneurship might just be the only way to break out of the sorry cycle of unemployment, and I for one really hope Atlanta turns this into something sustained.
Commercially run prisons where the operators get paid based on a lack of recidivism in former inmates rather than the time those inmates spend at the facility could help with alleviating some of the problems with the current prison system in the US.
However, with these institutions in particular I'd say the metrics a pretty well-defined:
- both prisons and healthcare: Lack of recidivism, time until you're a productive member of society again
- prisons and universities: Economic welfare of former 'inmates'. Some universities for example operate on a business model where they get paid a share of the graduate's income for a few years after graduation.
Sure, like many metrics these probably could be gamed but they're way better than current metrics, including those state-run institutions of these kinds operate with (if they have any metrics at all, that is).
What is hard is not just finding good metrics (that cannot be gamed), it is finding good metrict (that cannot be gamed) that can also provide profits to good players.
Obviously, there's no guarantee that a former inmate won't commit another crime even if the rehabilitative measures he experienced while doing time were exemplary. However, there's also no guarantee that in the university example a graduate will find a well-paid job. Still, there are universities that have successfully implemented this business model.
There's a whole industry that's predicated on this kind of uncertainties: The insurance industry. While there's no guaranteed outcome risks and probabilities can be calculated and factored into the price of a service.
The question perhaps is: What value do we as a society allocate to a former convict likely not committing crimes in the future anymore but contributing to society instead?
Considering the alternative, i.e. a former convict not only being a liability to society but also being highly likely to commit crimes in the future, I'd that service should come with quite a high price tag.
You weren't punished forever. Forgiveness existed.
You weren't in debt forever. There was an end in sight.
Look up "Jubilee".
IF ONLY we had that today.
I think the only thing coming close to this concept has to do with your credit history, and things falling off after 7 years.
-- Hannah Arendt
Also, you are not legally required to disclose your former convictions, unless you are asked. It is smart to do so, though.
Although an interesting though I've had is that in the future people might get sent to jail on purpose for a non-violent offense because they'll essentially educate you while providing free room and board. There was a 60 minutes episode on an inmate who essentially was able to educate himself enough about the law to help appeal other convicts sentences and he became a lawyer when he got out.
I know if I was homeless I would consider it
Now while that is the intent, it does not mean it has not been corrupted. My main point is your idea of learning a skill is 100% what the Bible encourages. Not the punishment. Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone and all that.
Perhaps it's time to return these institutions to their proper purpose by actually discussing what we think should be a crime, and what we think the consequences should be from the ground up.
Good luck with that though when we can't even decide if the other side is evil or not.
specifically recognizing the difficulty returning citizens have in getting back on their feet. When the labor pool for returning citizens is so small, so constrained, and the jobs aren't that great, it's just another factor working against their reintegrating into society.
I for one think the ban the box movement is an absolutely fantastic idea, and hope it gains steam.
This made my whole day, maybe my whole week. I can also say I agree wholeheartedly. There's something magical and healing about plants, and getting your hands in the dirt. I highly recommend it.
Then you could realistically launch in other cities like Detroit that appears to be tailor made for this type of program.
Programs like this really give me hope, I wish there were more incentives from the government to spark innovations like this; monolithic solutions like food stamps and medicaid are strong programs that I support, but on the other end I'd like to see more funding for "micro-service" programs like this that solve issues on a census tract scale.
That being said, farming is the least economically interesting thing to do.
You made an assertion, I'm curious how you will back it up, if at all.
The stage is yours.
Of course slavery has become illegal, segregation rules as well. But obviously you cannot make the past disappear instantly. Nowadays there are areas in which there are only black people living, those areas are unfortunately poor and large. Presumably a lot of crime happens there, which should also be no surprise because the area is so poor. People get imprisoned, even worse, sometimes the police has a negative bias towards black people.
So yes, and nowadays the state endorses putting the people back on the field? These seems almost insulting to me. Probably it's easy for me to think like this, I don't live in the U.S. but on the other hand probably all developed nations have a archaic past. It's one thing to deal with it and another thing to pretend it didn't happen.
"It's like printing money."