Ronald L. Krannich - The Ex-Offenders New Job Finding and Survival Guide: 10 Steps for Successfully Re-Entering the Work World

Never fear This, too, shall pass!

Anonymous saying for overcoming setbacks

D OING CAGE TIME CHANGES many things, especially your mind, relationships, and selfesteem. So whats your story for the past several months or years? If it involved being locked down and told not to think outside the box, chances are you just completed a mindnumbing experience primarily focused on physical and mental survival. Youre not the same. Your newfound freedom may be filled with unexpected challenges since you are now expected to make it on your own initiate smart reentry decisions simultaneously about housing, transportation, employment, health, and finance with hardly a nickel to your name. Wow! and Whoa!

Welcome to the Free World where youre labeled an exoffender or excon. As youll quickly discover, few things are ever free in this costly roller coaster world. Everything more or less has a price. While you may try to hide your past, youll have to address it many times as you move ahead. But at least you can shape and control your future. In fact, you are well advised to focus on your future rather than remain stuck in your past with all its negativities. The past is history; the present should be your prologue to a new and exciting future. If you need a prayer of hope, it should be this: May you always live in better times.

We literally live in an arrested society that creates a great deal of costly collateral damage in the name of justice. Popularly dubbed a system of mass incarceration run largely by a mixed bag of police, lawyers, prosecutors, judges, and jailers who make lifealtering decisions. The criminal justice system in America reveals some unsettling numbers that should challenge its long history of practices in the name of law and order:

One in three adults in the United States has an arrest or conviction record, which translates into 77 million people with red flags in their background.

At the same time, the United States has the worlds highest and most costly incarceration and recidivism rates for its nearly 7,400 correctional facilities:

25 percent of the worlds inmates are locked up in the United States, which has only 5 percent of the worlds population.

707 out of 100,000 adults are locked up; by comparison, Japan has 51 per 100,000; Germany, 87 per 100,000; China, 172 per 100,000; and Cuba, 510 per 100,000.

2.3 million people are locked up in federal and state prisons. Nearly 12 million people circulate in and out of prisons, jails, and detention centers each year!

Offenders are managed by nearly 500,000 correctional officials who suffer from PTSD at a rate thats twice as high as the military (34% vs. 14%) and who have the highest suicide rates of any profession (twice as high as police officers).

It costs $208,000 per year to jail someone in New York City and $210,000 per year to house a juvenile offender in California.

5 million+ individuals are on parole or probation.

Over 70 percent of prisoners are serving time for nonviolent offenses.

1 out of 3 women prisoners in the world are jailed in the United States.

Nearly 70 percent of U.S. prisoners are locked up for drug offenses, often minor.

Nearly 70 percent of exoffenders fail at reentry they become recidivism statistics as they return to prisons and jails within three years of release.

This ostensibly failed system also has shocking racial, ethnic, and economic overtones those arrested and jailed are disproportionately poor and black. Often living on the edge and unable to afford costly jail time (making bail or bond), many detained individuals immediately fall into a legal nomans land (arrested and caged but not convicted nor sentenced) that effectively pushes them over the edge as their Free World quickly collapses around them. Indeed, incarceration for the poor often means the loss of jobs, housing, family, and friends as well as increased indebtedness, anger, and rage.

Theres also growing evidence of law enforcement biases police harassment of suspicious-looking and disrespectful minorities: Blacks are five times more likely to be incarcerated than whites, and hispanics are twice as likely to be locked up than whites. According to 2015 U.S. Census Bureau data, the racial and ethnic breakdown is as follows:

What are the individual and community costs of such a system? Numerous studies document the devastating effects such mass incarceration has on black communities, families, parenting practices, socialization, education, employment, and economic advancement. In fact, the United States incarcerates a higher percentage of its black population today than South Africa did at the height of apartheid! From an embarrassing historical perspective, America also has more blacks in prison today than it had as slaves in 1850. In other words, criminal justice done the U.S. way helps perpetuate a wellworn historical cycle of poverty, hopelessness, and dysfunctional relationships that often characterizes black communities that are well justified in calling this what it apparently is institutionalized criminal and judicial racism.

Many of these arrested individuals experience difficulty in getting jobs, housing, and credit because of an overreaching criminal justice system that literally destroys lives in the name of justice. Its a costly system that is creaking at the seams. It will not long endure in its present state. However, in the meantime, you and millions of others must cope with this system as part of your reentry challenge. To a certain degree, it requires you to suck it up (This, too, shall pass) and move on to hopefully better days ahead.

Since were not going to change the world here, the remainder of this book is literally about how you can best suck it up with purpose and sanity in the months ahead. Maybe someday you can change this disturbing world of mass incarceration. Lets hope so as we get on with the immediate task at hand your successful re-entry.

So youve paid your courtmandated debt to society. Now its time to focus on your future. But, first, lets not forget your rap sheet. Whats on it? Is it accurate? If you dont know, check it out by requesting a copy of your rap sheet through your state repository agency, which can be found through this website: www.hirenetwork.org . Take a good look at your public snapshot. Do you appear scary and untrustworthy to strangers? Just how forgiving is society of your background? How well will family members, friends, and strangers accept you? Are you mentally prepared for what may come next, especially rejections from prospective employers because of your notsohot image? Will your criminal record accompany you throughout life? Who will you initially hang out with? Will they help or hinder your reentry? Are you on your own, or will you seek assistance from individuals and community groups that are familiar with the challenges facing someone with your background? Will you become a story of successful reentry, or will you soon return to prison and add more negatives to your rap sheet? Time to transition to a jobwinning resume!

What comes next as you reenter the Free World and start to shape the next stage of your life? How do you plan to make it on the outside? Have you had an attitude, motivation, and selfesteem checkup recently? Do you have goals and dreams? Is there a purpose to your life? Do you have a bucket list? How realistic are you about your future? Do you know what you do well and enjoy doing? Can you locate employers who need your skills and share your goals? Will you be truthful when asked if youve ever been convicted of a crime? If asked, how will you explain your criminal record? How well do you handle multiple rejections? Whom will you approach for assistance? How will you go about landing a decent job? Will you keep that new job and turn it into a longterm and rewarding career that could well change your life and the lives of those around you?