Regarding "The Homecoming of Prisoner 908B0643": I tip my hat to City Newspaper and Tim Macaluso for the in-depth look at the journey of reentry through the lens of service providers and a couple of people facing the awesome and sometimes brutal journey of reentry.
Reentry is a journey of epic proportions fraught with loneliness and terror. As one who has worked directly with former offenders for the last several years, let me tell you, reentry ain't easy. As I say to those who have come to my office seeking training and employment: "No one has ever said to me, ‘I can't wait until tomorrow morning so I can go out to Attica and knock on the front door and ask them to let me in.' And no one has ever said, ‘I can't wait until tonight to shoot some smack.'" Yet the drug availability is always waiting in the wings, and even a minor violation can get former offenders thrown back into the prison system before you can blink an eye.
I run a bakery, Cake Walk Pastries, where the sole mission is to help former offenders make it through their journey of reentry by offering an apprenticeship, on-the-job support services, and employment. We just teamed up with Crème de la Crème, and in our few short months together, we've managed to hire three former offenders. Our goal is to create enough business to get that number to 10 by the end of 2009. We are a model of social enterprise, building a coalition with apprentices, employees, stakeholders, and the community.
People can help by referring former offenders to us and by purchasing our dazzlingly delicious desserts. We are located at 250 Cumberland Street (in the old post office). Give us a call at 328-6590. As Earl, our newly anointed spokesperson likes to say, "Eat good! Do good! We got the goods."
DARRYLL D. RUDY, ROCHESTER
Comments for "JUSTICE: Giving prisoners a way back" (1)
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Pam said on Nov. 25, 2008 at 1:03pm
As the author of "From Prison to Paycheck" and a trainer specializing in prisoner rehabilitation, it's heartening to see coverage of this kind. The public needs to hear the stories of real people who have paid the price for their mistake, people who want nothing more than to go from being a tax burden to a tax payer. As a country we need to start removing the barriers that foster failure. With 650,000 inmates being released from prison each year and 2/3 of them being rearrested in the first three years, there's no doubt that something isn't working. We need to get this right.
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