Another fine piece written by former NY Times reporter Trymaine Lee. His Huffington Post reminds us the work we must to assist formerly incarcerated people in their redemption and re-entry into society, family and the workforce.
NEW YORK — As Rudy Holder walked down East Harlem’s main drag, everyone seemed to remember him. One man after another greeted him with a handshake or a quick, one-armed hug. Each exchange brought a nervous look to Holder’s face: Friend or foe? Some of the men he recognized. Some he didn’t. But they all knew him.
“Trouble,” they said, again and again. It was the nickname he’d earned as a teenager.
After serving 12 years in prison, Rudy Holder had come home to East Harlem on parole, joining the 725,000 others who are released from correctional facilities each year across the country. Holder’s crime was gunning down two rivals, neither fatally, in 1993. In returning to Harlem, he was hoping to avoid the cycle that engulfs so many ex-convicts and lands them back in jail time after time.
Of the 7 million Americans (1 in 33) who were incarcerated, on probation or parole in 2010, more than 4 in 10 can be expected to return to prison within three years, according to a 2011 study by the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Center on the States.
Read the entire article here: Recidivism Hard To Shake For Ex-Offenders Returning Home To Dim Prospects.
