Forum explores ex-cons ’ dilemma
Posted on Sunday, August 24, 2008
Years ago, the Rev. Hezekiah Stewart received a call at 2: 30 a.m. from a man he didn’t know.
The caller had been dropped off by the Arkansas Board of Correction in downtown Little Rock. He had Stewart’s phone number but nothing else.
“‘ Reverend, I’m tired. I’m hungry, and I’m needing a place to stay, and I went out to look for [shelter ] but couldn’t get help, ’” the man said.
He told Stewart that he was considering committing a crime so he could have food and a warm bed.
He wanted to be 10 miles south on Arkansas 365, at the Wrightsville Unit, to return to the prison from which he’d just been released.
Although Stewart, who was vice chairman of the state Board of Correction and Community Punishment in the early 1990 s, helped the man, he said the situation represented a larger problem — former inmates are often unprepared to re-enter society.
Stewart relayed the story to about 30 people gathered in southwest Little Rock on Saturday to discuss why released prisoners relapse into criminal behavior and what can be done about it.
The group included ministers as well as city and state officials and others.
The Rev. Roosevelt Rogers, 79, and his wife, Aundrea, 64, co-founders of Mentors “N” Family Restoration Ministries Inc., organized the meeting to coordinate efforts to help prisoners re-enter society.
Ian Kumpe, 28, a minister at Ouachita Technical College in Malvern, served three separate sentences for manufacturing methamphetamine.
He believes it’s crucial for recently released prisoners to find a support network, “or you’re forced to go back to what you’ve been doing your whole life — selling and making drugs.” According to a 2003-06 study by the Arkansas Department of Community Correction, 21. 7 percent of 21, ® probationers relapsed into criminal behavior in a three-year span.
To avoid such relapse, former prisoners needed to do more than overcome addiction, find jobs and make friends who would support them in their new lives, said Krumpe, a speaker at the forum.
They also needed to make an “inner change,” which he said he experienced through Christianity.
Rogers agreed: “You cannot make it by yourself. You need Jesus Christ in your heart.” Those without such an “inner change,” Kumpe said, may still appear successful.
For former prisoners, finding success can be difficult, particularly since finding work can be so tough, many at the forum said.
When the Rev. Lonnie Keys left prison in 1991, it took him nearly a year to find a job, he said.
“My mind was prepared to hear a lot of no’s. I was looking for that one yes,” he said. After multiple applications, some of which he filed while homeless, Keys finally found a job in the hotel industry and now works for the Arkansas Department of Education.
Education, employment and decent, affordable housing all contribute to the prevention of crime, said Ward 2 City Director Ken Richardson, who represents parts of midtown and southern Little Rock.
Richardson said society should recognize that building strong communities prevents, and ultimately cures, crime. “Curing crime by building more prisons — I equate that with building more cemeteries.” James Lamb, 63, a certified drug and alcohol counselor who works for the Arkansas Department of Correction, said one way that society could help exprisoners find jobs is to “allow them to form their own network to help with transition.” Lamb said that unlike in California, where he previously worked, Arkansas law forbids ex-prisoners from congregating.
This is one reason why Kumpe, sitting next to his mentor, Rogers, eagerly anticipates the end of his parole, nine months from now, and has sought a pardon to end it sooner.
Because if his convictions are taken off his record, he can return to Cummins Unit in Lincoln County to serve as a minister.
Prisoners there will need food and a warm bed when they get out, and Kumpe knows where to send them.
Information for resources available to ex-prisoners is available at www. dcc. arkansas. gov /; at www. lrwib. org; and at nebowatershed. com / FEIPA. html.
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