THE VOICES OF RE-ENTRY WORKERS

As a mentor and professor, Dr. Chrysanthi Leon talks with many students who are interested in careers in re-entry. She understands and witnesses the complexities of the field, and wants to communicate to future service providers and advocates some of the learned wisdom about what motivates and sustains the work of those working in re-entry. Dr. Leon and Maggie Buckridge have been interviewing those working as educators, policy advocates, activists, leaders of nonprofits, lawyers, and clergy members about their experiences and how they understand their work. Many of our participants have their own incarceration experiences, which you will see inform how some people talk about re-entry.

Within this project, Maggie is particularly passionate about the re-entry of those convicted of sex offenses into religious communities. The United Methodist Church has been her starting point, given her familiarity with the tradition as well as its organizational structure and approach to re-entry of this population. She has interviewed many individuals involved in the United Methodist Church about their experiences in both policy and practice.

Working in re-entry is not easy in this period of mass incarceration, where our country stigmatizes and often fails to meet the basic needs of those leaving correctional facilities. Those working and volunteering in re-entry can face burnout and vicarious trauma. We invite you to listen to the voices of those working in this challenging sphere.

I believe that everybody has the ability to be redeemed

I definitely love to get involved with reentry work, seeing the impact it had on me and other clients.

I was going in knowing that I was going to be working with people who have committed sexual offenses.

I don’t judge somebody by whatever crime they committed.

I tell people that just because I advocate for this population doesn’t mean I condone what they’ve done.

I advocate for them because these are still men.

I mean, they are not to be defined by the worst thing that they’ve ever done.

I think when I’m able to talk to somebody in person, they’re able to see the passion I have.

I feel that they understand why I advocate for these men and women.

I’ve had amazing conversations with people and when they actually hear my whole story, it begins to help change their thought pattern.

I’m able to help change the narrative, you know, and that’s what it’s about, breaking down labels.

I mean, yes, some of them do go back to prison, but watching those that have been able to stay out, to thrive, to succeed…

I mean, your past does not define you.

I mean, you might be told some things that are going to tug at your heart.

I think mostly, it’s just a mindset that somebody has, you know.

I did see numerous officers who were by-the-books and had a lot of violent tendencies.

I mean, it was bad then, but it is extremely worse now.

I just feel sorry for those individuals who are incarcerated now.

I believe that everybody has the ability to be redeemed.

I say let’s abolish the registry.

I believe if we need a registry it needs to be only for law enforcement.

I am very passionate about the impact education had on me.

I know, I’m not going to be able to have the same impact on everyone.

I’m doing everything I can.

I mean, the question is about separating trauma from the work.

I am not in a situation that’s going to cause me harm anymore.

I think that would be life changing for them because they don’t have a support system.

I’ll never forget, it’s said that prisons breed anger.

I think if we went from retribution and incapacitation to rehabilitation there would definitely be a dramatic change.

I mean, what is the point of actually incarcerating somebody?

I tell them, you know, “I wish that I could go back and change it”

I took somebody’s life.

I regret it.

I don’t want people to feel like what we did was justified.

I am able to help change the narrative

I was going in knowing

I was going to be working with people who have committed sexual offenses

I don’t judge somebody by whatever crime they committed

I went into this job not judging these men for the offenses that they committed

I share

I tell people that just because I advocate for this population doesn’t mean I condone what they’ve done

I get a lot more flak for advocating for this population

I am very vocal on Twitter and social media

I am able to talk to them - you know, it’s about educating people

I am able to talk to somebody in person

I have had amazing conversations with people

I am able to help change the narrative

I had an opportunity to preach last Sunday at a church in Pennsylvania

I asked them

I am like - how many of you guys actually went up and had a conversation with the person?

Robert Falconer

I am as sold out to Christ as anyone you'll ever meet

I get up in the morning

I get in the room, and get on my knees

I told the Lord

“I don't know what to do today

I don't know who to take

I don't know how to work this”

I've been doing that for 10 years

I can't tell you why we do it for success reasons

I do it out of obedience to Christ

I let him worry about the success

I don't have a picture of success for people in my head

I do what scripture tells me to do

I obey that, God has to meet my bills

I had to empty my bank account

I have no savings

I have no money

I can't ask God for money

I’ve got $5

I can't ask God for it if it's in my pocket

I don't have enough money to pay the rent in the bank account

I don't care

I always say, we get people that need to transition, because they have no place to go “I don't care about your Jesus

I don’t want to live with anybody

I got to have a place to land in the community

before I even put out rental applications

I'm gonna work two jobs

I'm going to be out of your hair, two months.

I, you know,

I'll follow your rules and everything” and fine, that's fine with me.

Ashley

I owned a doula company

I um - my background

I went to Divinity School

I graduated from Divinity School in 2002 and worked for a lot of nonprofits, but none for criminal legal reform

I worked for an organization

I was the national field organizer there

I did a lot of progressive campaign work with communities of faith and then had my first child, and had a doula present at that birth at a birth center

I decided

I kind of wanted to be a doula

I was a practicing doula

I did that for about a decade and founded my own doula agency

I was working at a downtown hospital, stepped out of the room to get ice chips for my client and there was a gurney in the hallway that had been brought in from a county jail and there were a pair of handcuffs hanging off the side of the gurney. And it was an image that stopped me in my tracks, it was nothing I had seen on a labor and delivery floor before

I asked a OB friend of mine who was walking by, you know what, what's that about I started to contemplate what that experience was like

I went home and started researching states where it was legal to shackle women in birth I started doing more reading. Read Just Mercy on the Stairmaster at the YMCA one day and had my midlife crisis there

I was being spoken to on some level

I had been in another city previously

I had been doing doula work here

I wanted to figure out how to be a prison doula

I just started exploring what was happening in my state

I met

I met a woman named Patricia who had experienced shackling

I think when she fell the first time.

And without ever seeing a doctor, although being taken out to the ER, they said they couldn't see her because it happened eight weeks ago and it wasn't an emergency anymore. She ended up miscarrying in her jail cell or her prison cell

I met her, she was freshly out and home

I had kind of this dual goal to stop shackling in [my state] and to start a prison doula program

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I have been changed
I have been sexually abused
I fought back
I protected myself
I protected my brother
I killed our abuser
I heinously murdered him
I was arrested
I was charged
I was sentenced
I found grace
I got an education
I got out
I gave back
I educated
I reformed
I changed
I fight for reform for all
I advocate for equal treatment
I advocate for reentry
I break down labels
I don’t write off
I have passion
I have forgiven
I have been redeemed
I have changed the narrative
I found my village
I went to college
I married a beautiful woman who loves me
I speak to educate
I speak to advocate
I have planted the seeds
I have rehabilitated
I have re-entered
I was a felon
I broke the trauma to prison pipeline
I am successful