STUDY TAKES A CLOSE LOOK AT FORMER OFFENDERS’ PERSONAL HISTORIES AS THEY REENTER COMMUNITIES
A team consisting of Harvard sociologist Bruce Western, Rutgers criminologist Anthony Braga, and Rhiana Kohl of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections followed 122 male and female state prisoners as they reentered their Boston neighborhoods between 2012 and 2013.
The Boston Reentry Report researchers aimed to analyze the connection between poverty and violence by recording the life stories of the participants through many interviews. The researchers identified a number of meaningful commonalities between the former offenders. They experienced a high degree of childhood trauma (including violence at home), received little help at school, and were often previously victims of the same violent crimes for which they were later incarcerated. The recidivism rate was also higher among those who were supervised upon release, mostly for violating their probation or parole.
The team will continue to track these men and women through the coming months and years.
The Marshall Project has a good run-down of the main findings of the report. Here’s a clip:
Getting a job can be transformative — but very difficult.
Previous research shows employment is one of the few proven safeguards against recidivism, but the study participants were not an eminently employable group. Only 59 percent were employed before they were incarcerated. Six months after reentry, 57 percent of the men were working, and just 27 percent of the women — even though more than half of those women had held jobs before they were incarcerated. The gender disparity could have several causes. Women in the study were more likely to be mentally ill or drug addicted, and were also much more likely to have financial or housing support from family members, perhaps making employment less of a pressing necessity.
Of those men who did find work, most were in low-wage, temporary jobs. (An exception was a handful of white men, including Patrick, who used family connections to win union employment at up to $40 per hour.) Western said there is little evidence that former prisoners are being aided by a 2010 Massachusetts law that “banned the box” on job applications, making it illegal for companies to ask applicants if they have a criminal record. Employers are still able to look up criminal histories later in the interview process. “The theory was that if you delay the criminal background check, the employer has the opportunity to collect other info and it will offset the negative effect,” Western said. “But we’re not seeing much evidence of that.”
A paradox: the more closely supervised are more likely to end up back in prison.
The researchers have yet to release their findings on which former prisoners in the study were most likely to return to prison or jail, and why. Yet Western said there is a paradox emerging in the data: Those on parole and probation, and thus under the closest supervision, were more likely to be re-incarcerated. They were arrested most often not for committing new crimes, but for violating the rules of probation or parole.
Automatic re-incarceration for those violations “needs careful review,” Western said. “At times it feels like the system is simply cavalier in its treatment of the deprivation of liberty.” The study’s overall findings, he believes, should increase our empathy for people who go to prison, most of whom come from “brutal poverty.
From the point of view of justice, we have to ask ourselves if we were in these situations and we were to encounter these complex combinations of circumstances, could we be confident that we would exercise our moral agency to do something different? For me, that’s a really challenging question.”
And here’s an interview clip from the reentry report:
Interviewer: When you were growing up was anyone in your household ever a victim of a crime?
Yes.
Interviewer: Who was that?
My mother.
Interviewer: Was that just one time or more than one time?
She used to get beat up by her boyfriends.
Interviewer: How old were you when that was going on?
Between twelve and fourteen, I believe. Could have been earlier,
but I probably don’t remember earlier ages.Interviewer: So, what would happen after one of the boyfriends would
beat her up?Well, while it was going on, I would run in there with my Louisville slugger bat that I used to sleep with.
Interviewer: And did you ever get involved?
Oh, yeah. Definitely. Every single time.
Interviewer: And then what would happen?
Well, the very last time when I hit one of her boyfriends, they fell down the stairs, with the bat, and then… my mother basically hit me and said why did I do that. So I just left the house and went to live with my grandmother for a few years… I was about fourteen, yeah.
AFTER REPORTS OF EMBEZZLEMENT AND ABUSE, AND FORMAL CHARGES FROM THE DA’S OFFICE, LA COUNTY FINALLY CUTS TIES WITH FOSTER CARE PROVIDER
LA County paid Little People’s World, a non-profit running several foster care group homes, around $2.5 million annually despite multiple child abuse and embezzlement allegations.
Two investigations (in 2011 and 2013) by the county auditor-controller found that owners CSJ and Kitaji Kidogo had possibly embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars, in part, by buying property with the money, and giving themselves and their daughters large raises.
During that same time period, the California Department of Social Services investigated two reports that staffer Rashard McMorris had been abusive to children in his care. One video reportedly showed McMorris throwing a kid against the wall so hard that the boy’s head broke through the drywall. The other surveillance tape allegedly showed McMorris dragging a 6-year-old on the ground through the facility. Both times he received a slap on the wrist and more training. The third report of abuse in 2014 finally got McMorris fired.
Amazingly, the LA County Department of Children and Family Services did not break ties with Little People’s World until late 2014, when LA County District Attorney Jackie Lacey filed embezzlement charges against the Kidogos.
The LA Times’ Garrett Therolf has more on the issue and its implications. Here’s a clip:
The criminal allegations against the Kidogos raise questions about the effectiveness of reforms implemented in recent years by the county’s Department of Children and Family Services to better monitor the foster care providers it hires. Two years ago, the agency hired additional staff to guard against financial misconduct following a series of stories by The Times that revealed that money intended for the care of children was often misspent by contract providers.
In some cases, money was spent on personal vacations, luxury cars, fine china and salaries for employees who didn’t exist, The Times found. More than $11 million of county funds allegedly had been misappropriated by nonprofits between 2000 and 2010, county audits show.
[SNIP]
In 2011, state regulators reviewed surveillance video of Little People’s World staffer Rashard McMorris dragging a 6-year-old across the floor and into another room. He was given a two-day suspension and training on how to respect foster youths’ rights, according to county investigation reports.
Two years later, the records show, investigators from the California Department of Social Services reviewed another video of McMorris pushing an 11-year-old into a wall. The force of the child’s head hitting the wall left a hole in the drywall, the records state. McMorris received training on emergency intervention techniques and was placed on conditional employment status under a plan approved by the state, according to the county reports.
Neither incident was reported to law enforcement, a spokesman for the California Department of Social Services said.
[SNIP]
Dove, one of the Kidogos’ attorneys, said the embezzlement charges were at odds with years of communication his clients had with the DCFS. He said Little People’s World had been a licensed contractor for 30 years, often passing county audits, and “received numerous accolades” from the department.
“DCFS regularly drops the ball on training and oversight of its contractors. Then it abdicates its shortcomings to the district attorney’s office for prosecution,” Dove said. “DCFS should focus on getting its own house in order. Ultimately, the victims of this process may be the children in the foster care system.”
CALIFORNIA GROUP HOME SHUT DOWN BY POLICE MAY LEAD TO CHILD WELFARE REFORM
ProPublica’s Joaquin Sapien has an excellent longread about the takedown of a toxic group home for troubled kids in California, and how it sparked real reform action in the state Department of Social Services. Sapien’s story follows Alex Barschat-Li, who arrived at the level 14 (the highest, most restrictive level) group home called FamiliesFirst when he was just 12-years-old. The downward spiral began soon after Alex’s arrival, when the cash-strapped facility had to drastically downsize its staff and services. And when FamiliesFirst decided to house girls of all ages in the same space, the environment became even more volatile.
Kids (including Alex) ran away frequently, slept on the streets, and sometimes hitchhiked. There were reports of rape and drug use. One week the police responded to a grand total of 74 calls.
Davis Police finally raided and shut down FamiliesFirst mid-2013.
The FamiliesFirst debacle has contributed to the conversation about how to best protect kids in the child welfare system. The California Department of Social Services delivered a report to state lawmakers detailing how to keep the FamiliesFirst horrors from happening again. Among other recommendations, the report called for an end to group homes except as a short-term placement for kids.
The report’s much-needed recommendations have been drafted into bill-form and could be signed into law by July 1.
Here are some clips from Sapien’s story (which was co-published with the California Sunday Magazine):
Alternately affectionate and sullen, Alex was prone to radical mood swings, speaking in a rapid staccato one minute, turning almost monosyllabic the next. According to an evaluation report sent to Wendy six months into his stay, he suffered from “an inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers.” A minor annoyance or a denial of a privilege could set him off, and he would hurl himself at whoever irked him.
In time, though, he began to show signs of progress. In the fall of 2012, he moved into a dorm called Adventurer, which was led by a group of experienced staffers who connected with him. He was still easily distracted and easily angered, but the extremes had leveled off. Where once he threw tantrums during chores, he would now take a break in his room, gather his composure, and get back to the task at hand. He was less confrontational, less violent — happier.
Toward the end of 2012, Alex noticed that there were fewer counselors on campus — he had heard there had been layoffs — and that they seemed to be under more stress than usual. They also had become more lenient. He could now walk off the campus without anyone stopping him, and whenever someone had a manic episode, the staff was less likely to employ restraints, the term for the physical holds staff are allowed to use to prevent children from harming themselves or others.
At first, Alex left campus by himself, often hanging out at a bicycle shop where the employees liked him. He went to a Dairy Queen and moped until an employee gave him an order of fries on the house. Soon he was tagging along with a group of eight to twelve children from the home who stole food and clothing from stores around Davis. They started staying out all night, drinking alcohol, smoking pot, and having sex in parks. Before long he and others were hitchhiking out of town. Alex got as far as Sacramento.
“We had different jobs for different kids,” says Alex, whose task was to shoplift. “Kids who begged, kids who found bikes for us, kids who went back to campus to get blankets and stuff. We’d be gone for days.”
Early in the spring of 2013, Alex and his friends took over a homeless encampment on the outskirts of a park, a tangle of blankets and mattresses, abandoned furniture and trash, all jammed into a thicket dense enough to obstruct the view of passersby. It was one of several places where the children began to sleep at night. Another favorite, which Alex calls Plan B, was behind a Comcast building alongside Interstate 80.
[SNIP]
The report called for increased minimum qualifications and training for group-care workers; more-varied therapeutic services; and better screening of children to more appropriately determine their needs and where they should be placed.
Most dramatically, the report called for group homes to be eliminated, or at least limited to offering short-term stays. “It is well-documented,” the report states, “that residing long-term in group homes with shift-based care is not in the best interest of children and youth. Not only is it developmentally inappropriate, it frequently creates lifelong institutionalized behaviors and contributes to higher levels of involvement with the juvenile justice system and to poor educational outcomes.”
As long as group homes exist, they will still present challenges of oversight. The Department of Social Services report says little about improving its own performance in inspecting and investigating the homes. To many, the department has long been poorly positioned or equipped to monitor Level 14 group homes. Inspections are required only once every five years, and records show they are perfunctory, mostly involving a review of physical conditions, food supplies, and water temperatures. The inspections typically do not include interviews with residents and staff or extensive examinations of records. The department employees charged with performing the inspections are not required to have backgrounds in social work, even though they are often called to look into what for an experienced police officer are the most sensitive kinds of cases — sex crimes and battery involving minors.
REPORT FINDS ROLLING STONE IGNORED “BASIC, EVEN ROUTINE JOURNALISTIC PRACTICE” WITH UVA RAPE STORY
Last November when Rolling Stone Magazine published a story about a violent gang rape in a University of Virginia frat house, doubts about the rape allegations and the reporter’s due diligence quickly emerged.
A report from the Columbia School of Journalism (commissioned by Rolling Stone) found that author Sabrina Rubin Erdely relied solely on the account of he alleged rape victim “Jackie.” Erderly did not speak with Jackie’s three friends who were quoted in the story, nor did she speak with any of the alleged attackers. The report faults Rolling Stone’s fact-checking and says the sensitive subject matter should not have caused the magazine to stifle doubts about Jackie’s account.
Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner said the “fabulist” source, Jackie, was where the trouble started.
The New York Times’ Ravi Somaiya has more on the report. Here are some clips:
In an interview discussing Columbia’s findings, Jann S. Wenner, the publisher of Rolling Stone, acknowledged the piece’s flaws but said that it represented an isolated and unusual episode and that Ms. Erdely would continue to write for the magazine. The problems with the article started with its source, Mr. Wenner said. He described her as “a really expert fabulist storyteller” who managed to manipulate the magazine’s journalism process. When asked to clarify, he said that he was not trying to blame Jackie, “but obviously there is something here that is untruthful, and something sits at her doorstep.”
[SNIP]
The first misstep during the reporting process, the Columbia report said, was that Ms. Erdely did not seek to independently contact three of Jackie’s friends, who were quoted in the piece, using pseudonyms, expressing trepidation at the idea of Jackie telling the authorities that she had been assaulted. The quotes came from Jackie’s recollection of the conversation. Those friends later cast doubt on Jackie’s story in interviews with The Washington Post and denied saying the words Rolling Stone had attributed to them. The three told the report’s authors that they would have made the same denials to Rolling Stone if they had been contacted.
Rolling Stone, the report said, also did not provide the fraternity with enough information to adequately respond to questions from the magazine. Later, when the article had been published, the fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi, said it did not host a function on the weekend Jackie had specified.
And the magazine failed to identify Jackie’s attacker, the report said. It was content to give him a pseudonym, Drew, when Jackie resisted Ms. Erdely’s request to help find him. The fraternity, The Post and the police have been unable to find anyone who matches Jackie’s description of Drew.
The reporting errors by Ms. Erdely were compounded by insufficient scrutiny and skepticism from editors, the report said. And the fact-checking process relied heavily on four hours of conversations with Jackie.