December 11-17, 2003

city beat

Gale Warning

by Daryl Gale

Doing Some Good for a Change

Funny thing about this business of print journalism: We get credit for things that aren’t our doing almost as much as we get blamed for things that aren’t our fault.

Case in point: I've been asked to join Mayor Street's newly formed Philadelphia Ex-Offender Reintegration and Re-Entry Task Force, a long-winded moniker for a group whose purpose is to help both the ex-con leaving prison and the community to which the just-freed jailbird will be returning. It's a grand undertaking, this task force, and a challenge that will be met by some of Philly's smartest and most dedicated public and community servants. Serving on the task force, I'll be joining the likes of Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson, President Judge Frederica Massiah-Jackson, African-American Chamber of Commerce Chairman A. Bruce Crawley and Curtis Jones Jr., CEO of the Philadelphia Commercial Development Corporation.

So how did a bum like me get on the list? That's where the undue credit part comes in.

I've written several articles during the past few years about ex-cons trying to reintegrate into society and a few of the agencies and hard-working individuals out there trying to help. I didn't really do anything positive myself, mind you, I just wrote about people who did. And for that, I am privileged to be invited to join a task force created to actually do some good in the community.

I talked about it with my friend Malik Aziz, noted community activist, program director of the mayor's Safe Schools, Safer Communities program, and an ex-offender himself. Malik is also the mayor's point man for recruiting members of the task force.

"We're going to need people with expertise in many areas," Malik explained patiently, "and you're going to be our media guy. You write about the things that impact the community. We've got Nick Taliaferro on faith-based initiatives, and Mannwell Glenn representing the governor's office, among others. We're seeking a broad spectrum of opinions from a variety of experts."

Malik told me we're going to be looking at every aspect of the efforts of ex-offenders trying to turn their lives around after release and the obstacles, sometimes deliberately set, that often stand in their way. Malik also faxed me an information packet with some hair-raising statistics. For instance, according to the state Department of Corrections, more than 90 percent of the inmates presently incarcerated in Pennsylvania prisons will eventually be released into the community, after serving an average of 4.3 years. Of those, 42 percent will return to prison.

No wonder.

For out of that returning prison population, 70 percent have diagnosed drug or alcohol addictions, 77 percent have no work skills or vocational training and better than 40 percent read below the eighth-grade level. All of which adds up to slim chances of getting a decent job and becoming a productive member of society, but pretty damn good chances of going back to a life of crime.

"The deck is really stacked against the ex-offender," said Malik. "There's so little job training or even actual rehabilitation built into the system, I'm surprised the recidivism rate is 42 percent."

Malik then told me about a bill floating around Congress authored by Democratic U.S. Rep. Danny Davis of Illinois. House Bill 2166, the Public Safety Ex-Offender Self-Sufficiency Act, calls on Congress to provide structured living arrangements and vocational training to ex-offenders. I looked it up on Davis' website. "We must take a serious look at our correctional system and a serious look at what it takes to reform, rehabilitate, and to prepare people for reentry into normal society once they are released," the site quotes Davis as saying. I spoke on the phone with Ira Cohen, Davis' director of issues and communications, in Chicago.

"The bill is gaining in support," Cohen said. "The fact that 36 co-sponsors have signed on indicates a growing awareness on Capitol Hill. When Congress ramps up again, we're going to try to get the bill passed this year."

Cohen also pledged Davis' unqualified support of the efforts to form the Philadelphia task force, and told me that the congressman would love to come here when we get it up and running.

The first meeting of the Philadelphia Ex-Offender Reintegration and Re-Entry Task Force is next Wednesday, with the mayor scheduled to come out and lead the troops. I'm looking forward to debating and commiserating with my fellow task force members, and am energized by the chance to make a positive change. My prediction though, is it'll be about 15 minutes before somebody looks around and says, "Hey! Who the hell let that Gale guy in here?"

With my luck, probably the mayor.

Daryl Gale’s weekly radio show, Dialogues, with co-hosts Rotan Lee and Bill Miller, is burning up the airwaves Fridays 7-10 a.m. on WURD (900 AM) in Philadelphia.