‘It’s nice to have someone on your side’

Every year, millions of men and women leave America’s state and federal prisons and local jails with the hopes of becoming productive members of society. With limited education, low job skill levels, and the prevalence of physical and mental health problems employment opportunities for those reentering society seems near impossible. But some organization help those with criminal record help them navigate through reentry needs, including housing, legal services, employment, and family reunification.

NeighborCorps Re-En-try Services is dedicated to providing free support services and advocacy programs in New Jersey to convicted felons who are in the process of transitioning from Middlesex County Jail back to society.

Austin Morreale, Service Director of the organization, has been helping people get there lives on track for over seven months now. Although he has no firsthand experience with incarceration and the re-entry process, he wanted to help people in any way that he could.

“[It’s] a group of people I never imagined of working with before, but I thought ‘That could easily be me incarcerated,’” said Morreale.

“It opened my eyes to a lot of different issues that I’ve always known existed, but didn’t know enough about to get involved to help make a change, homelessness, access to physical and mental health care, employment, racism this organization has opened my eyes,” he continued.

Morreale said he has “surprised myself a lot with the things I’m willing to do”, and often goes above and beyond helping participants. He uses his personal resources to give participants rides, money for clothes, and has even lended his car so that a participant could take his road test.

“I meet with participant a few times before I take them anywhere, but by being in the car, sitting in traffic, I’ve gotten to know the participants better than I would have had we not shared that time together,” he said.

One of the unique aspects of NeighborCorps is that they try to establish a relationship with participants while they are still incarcerated. NeighborCorps receives information from the jails about release dates and they reach out to those who will be released who fall within a given timeframe to set up initial contact within the prison. Morreale said this helps the organization get an idea who they will be working with, what kind of issues they going to encounter upon release, what goals they want to reach, and if they have friends or family members they want NeighborCorps to reach out to on their behalf. Ideally, NeighborCorps starts working with participants a few months before they are released.

“It’s always nice to have someone on your side supporting and rooting for you and that’s what we can give them,” said Morreale.

Morreale and his team are only comprised of three staff members, despite NeighborCorps working with about 45 participants on a monthly basis. He’s the only full-time staffer, and they have about 12 volunteers. None of the NeighborCorps staff have been participants of the organization, but many of the navigators, who work with those returning, have been incarcerated and understand what the participants are going through.

But they all help link participants to the community resources depending on how much involvement each case needs.

“For those who are out some are doing very well and we don’t need to them as much, maybe touching base every couple of weeks to see how they’re doing. If they need anything and some need more support, we’ll meet with them three to four times a week. With those still incarcerated, we’ll see them every few weeks on a rotating schedule or we’ll keep in touch with them through letters,” said Morreale.

Sometimes they don’t hear back from participants and after three months they consider that case closed. Some don’t go back to NeighborCorps because they have been re-incarcerated, some feel they don’t need NeighborCorps anymore, and some just disappear.

It’s easy for returning citizens to go back to the things they were doing before. Morreale gave some examples of what this looks like, and the challenges those who are re-entering face.

One man had been on the waiting list for shelters for months so he had been living in abandoned buildings, Morreale said. A few months getting into the shelter he was able to get his own apartment and the apartment managing company asked him to be the superintendent of the building, giving him a place to live and a job.

But many don’t have the same luck finding employment. Depending on the charges, employers worry about getting robbed or trusting the employee. This prevents many formerly incarcerated individuals from getting a fair chance of employment.

NeighborCorps tries to steer people towards jobs where, hopefully, their chances of getting the job won’t be affected by their records.

“If we aren’t sure if the company is felon-friendly we tell participants to apply for the position anyway,” said Morreale.

A lot of participants will work with temp agencies, who don’t care about their criminal histories, and send participants to apply to several warehouses.

But not all of them are ready to enter the workforce. NeighborCorps reaches out churches and community organization if they need any odd jobs done such as carpentry, plumbing, and yard maintenance so that participants have some sort of income to start paying off any debts they may have acquired during their arrest.

Fees could be anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. If they’re lucky, their arrest or incarceration fees can be reduced or a payment plan is sometimes set up. As Morreale pointed out, a few hundred dollars can take a long time to pay off if you’re not working or only working a minimum wage job. It’s especially difficult for them if they were once the breadwinner of the family or if their families have cut them off completely.

A few participants have supportive families but often they are left alone upon incarceration. If that’s the case, they have nothing to go back to once they’re released, and if they’re lucky they can end up in a shelter or halfway houses.

“When participants are struggling to find housing or employment I hear a lot of them say, ‘I should go get myself arrested because at least I’ll have a bed and three meals a day,’” said Morreale.