Efforts aim to keep people out of jail

A home and job training await released convicts

A plain brick seven-story building on Fulton Avenue, last used as an overcrowded jail, will be reborn this year as a center for inmates coming home from behind bars.

The Fulton Correctional Facility near Crotona Park will be the first prison in the country to be converted into a facility to help ex-convicts re-enter the community as productive members of society.

Its transformation represents the changing attitude of politicians and prison reformers on both the left and right.

The conversation about prison reform has gained momentum recently. “I think that it’s moved into the mainstream,” said Elizabeth Gaynes, executive director of the Osborne Association, an 80-year-old non-profit organization that serves more than 8,000 New Yorkers who have served time.

In recent years, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has closed seven prisons in New York State. Fulton closed its doors in 2011, over the objections of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association. James Miller, the union’s representative, said prison closures are causing overcrowding and aren’t good for the community.

“It creates hardships on the workers that need to be transferred to new facilities. There’s an economic impact on the community. It’s like closing a medium-sized factory,” said Miller.

But prison reformers argue jailing people is a drag on the economy. “It’s very expensive, there’s no return on investment, and we should be focusing on re-entry. There seems to be a growing consensus that prisons don’t make sense,” said Gaynes.

Texas saved $2.5 billion when it closed three prisons, said Sarah Rumpf, a spokeswoman for Right On Crime, a project of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Crime and recidivism both declined, she said.

“The old model–lock ‘em up, throw away the key–isn’t conservative when you get down to it,” said Rumpf.

In the last year, several local organizations and programs have begun to emphasize re-entry programs for released prisoners.

In September, the South Bronx hosted its first job fair for ex-convicts, organized by the Bronx Clergy Criminal Justice Roundtable and called the Prison to Prosperity Fair.

Rev. Que English, the co-founder of the Justice Roundtable, said joblessness is one of the biggest problems for people coming home from prison.

“You know what drug dealers are?” asked English. “They are entrepreneurs on the wrong side of the street. It has nothing to do with their minds or capabilities. We need to tap into the resources that are in them to create economic sustainability.”

In New York City, 77 percent of inmates are repeat offenders, according to the 2013 year-end report of the Department of Corrections.

That’s a process the roundtable hopes to interrupt. The faith-based organization educates and employs people cycling in and out of incarceration. In September it also launched a new program called the Young Adult Council, which aims to bring the community youth together to brainstorm how to reduce crime.

“We intentionally have youth at the table with criminal records,” said English. “Having that extra voice makes it quite rich. They’ve developed a mentoring program, independent of us old folks, for youth. It’s a six-month program that would assure, in their minds, a substantial reduction in recidivism.”

Save Our Streets South Bronx is another program that started a year ago to employ parolees and ex-convicts as neighborhood leaders to stop gun violence before it starts.

“I spent 23 years in prison, and seven months after getting out I got a job at S.O.S.,” said Nelson Mendoza, 45, a program supervisor, who patrols the streets with his colleagues looking for at risk youth and gang violence. They’re called “violence interrupters,” and spend their days alternately mediating fights and playing basketball with kids in the neighborhood.

“I have a skill and I’m using it out here,” said Mendoza, who was locked up for second degree murder and selling drugs. Not only am I getting paid for it, but it’s something I love,” he said. “I was able to take vacation, I’ve never been able to do that before.”

Employment is the main issue inmates face when they return from prison, but the first problem is where they’re going to sleep. Gaynes, from the Osborne Association, said the Bronx has the highest number of public housing units in the city, but people with criminal histories are banned from those apartments.

“What happens when people want to return and live with their families?” Gaynes asked. If their families live in buildings run by the New York City Housing Authority, the newly released inmates won’t be allowed to stay with them.

That’s where the former Fulton Correctional Facility comes in. The building is going to be turned into housing for some 90 men and women. It will also include educational and employment services to help them reenter the community successfully.

“Our vision is not just housing, but economic development,” said Gaynes. “It will be an incubator to support giving jobs to formerly incarcerated people.”

The Osborne Association gets the keys to the building in January and will undertake a $6 million renovation. The first step will be removing the bars from the windows and doors. Gaynes said the new building will offer a better way to combat crime than prison.

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Sarah Hayley Barrett

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