Translator: Daniel Enger Reviewer: Tanya Cushman
The greatest obstacle to change
for addicts who are incarcerated
is hopelessness.
We must, as a community, do all that we can
to begin to instill hope in those that have been separated from us
and who have gone to do time inside of our nation's prisons.
Having a direct path to connectedness
is what I believe is absolutely necessary
in order for those who are incarcerated who have issues with addiction
to be restored to society, whole again.
It has been an absolute joy on my behalf
to be able to touch lives like Brother Clay,
who introduced me today,
because coming into the system
with the kind of issues that we began with
and looking at him today -
it just blesses my heart.
At seventeen years old,
I left home to attend North Carolina State A & T University
with a major in electrical engineering -
although it didn't take long for that major to become the triple major
of binge drinking,
(Laughter)
chasing girls, and partying, though probably not in that order.
I had to take the long, hard, roundabout way in my life
to get back to the moral foundations that were set for me by my parents.
My father is a United Methodist minister;
my mother, an educator and social worker.
Both of them did everything in their power
to keep me on the right track.
Nevertheless, I know we've all heard the statement,
"Experience is the best teacher."
Well, if you're becoming a welder, that would be true.
(Laughter)
If you're become an auto mechanic, that would be true.
But when it comes to the wisdom of life,
experience is not always the best teacher.
I had to take the long, roundabout way in my life
in order to get to this point of understanding
that the wisdom of the elders in our society is priceless.
I wanted to take a look at the problem that I want to describe
with incarceration of our nation's addicts.
The U.S. is ranked number one in the world
in terms of percentage of citizens incarcerated.
There are roughly 60,000 people incarcerated just in the State of Georgia.
70% of those incarcerated in Georgia,
or 42,000 people,
have substance abuse issues.
Only one in nine receive substance abuse treatment
while they're incarcerated in Department of Corrections.
And there are just 800 beds available
in the only Residential Substance Abuse Treatment program
available in the Department of Corrections.
Twenty thousand people are released from Georgia prisons each year.
We are referred to as "returning citizens."
Now doesn't that sound a lot better than "ex-offender," "ex-felon?"
And if 70% -
that's 14,000 people per year -
of all returning citizens in Georgia
are released from prison with a substance abuse issue,
why are we perplexed at the high rate of recidivism?
I want to talk to you about three strategies
that I believe are necessary
in order to give our nation's returning citizens
permission to dream again.
Number one -
I believe we need to reform the rehabilitation process
in our nation's prisons.
I want to talk to you just about a couple of terms.
"Rehabilitation" has two components:
"reentry,"
that which takes place on the inside of the prison before we're released,
and "reintegration,"
that which takes place when returning citizens are reintegrated into society.
Number one - we need to reform the reentry process.
Does it make sense to you
that a person that goes into the Department of Corrections
with a substance abuse issue
to do their entire time in prison
and be released
and yet have no programming to deal with the primary issue
that caused them to be housed in prison in the first place?
Does that make sense to you as taxpayers?
(Audience) No.
Secondly,
I believe we need to incentivize abuse treatment.
We've all heard that addicts do what they do
because that's the choice that they make.
And I want to ask you -
how many of you would choose to work a 75-hour-a-week job
only to receive your paycheck on a Friday
and not have enough money to buy a Coca Cola on Saturday mornings?
Who would make the choice -
willingly -
week-in and week-out to live in such a manner?
Substance abuse and addiction - it's just much more to it than that.
I believe that in order for our nation's incarcerated -
those who have substance-abuse issues -
to seek out the treatment that we know they so desperately need,
I believe that it needs to be incentivized,
and I'm going to explain to you what I mean by that.
A person who has an issue with substance abuse
that commits a crime to help pay for their drug habit,
and, let's say, they're sentenced to ten years in prison,
at $25,000 a year of your taxpayer money,
with no programs to foster successful reentry,
that only equals a high rate of recidivism,
prison overcrowding,
and higher taxes.
I believe that that individual should have the choice
or the option
of being sentenced to half the amount of time -
five years in prison -
and let us invest the same $250,000.
We're going to invest $125,000 for housing,
but $125,000 would be directed
towards substance abuse programming,
education,
and being able to leave the system with a trade
that they might be gainfully employed once released.
Thirdly,
I was introduced to a concept in 2003 that changed my whole entire life,
and that concept is known as "rewiring the brain."
I don't know if you've all ever heard of that?
(Audience) Uh-huh.
Because I hadn't to that point.
And I was taught, or I have learned,
that rewiring the brain requires three primary elements:
number one - a healthy environment;
number two - positive thought processes;
and number three - repetition.
What better place
can a person's environment be controlled
than inside of the fence of our nation's prisons?
So if we have the environment down pat,
what we need is the programming, while we are incarcerated,
to help us to rewire our brains.
Rewiring the brain -
giving the opportunity not only to be free from negative thoughts,
but we have to reprogram the brain with positive thoughts:
thoughts of hope,
thoughts of healing,
thoughts of opportunity,
thoughts of purpose,
and thoughts of expectation.
I came into the system in 1998
with twenty years to serve,
and there are people who think I'm absolutely a little bonkers
for wanting to leave prison and continue to work with returning citizens.
Well, let me tell you this:
with 15 years of experience as a chaplain's assistant,
I've met numerous returning citizens
who do not have the support network
necessary to successfully reintegrate in society.
I personally am tremendously blessed.
Today, I have my beautiful wife here with me to support me still
after thirty years of marriage,
my brother, my parents,
my immediate family, extended family,
mentors, you name it -
there's a team keeping me in check,
and I thank God for that.
But for a majority of returning citizens,
they do not have such a network of support upon reentry.
And my hope, my desire, is simply to play a small role
in assisting them in their successful reintegration into society.
Positive connections is the key to unlocking the doors of bondage
for those who are addicted,
connections like restorative justice.
Rather than sitting in prison
and "doing time" - that's what we called it -
restorative justice
calls for the offender to make amends with the person that they have wronged.
If they stole something,
you have to pay it back.
There's even a program that allows for - it's called "Victim Impact" -
that allows for the victim of the crime and the offender of the crime
to come together and make reconciliation when both parties agree.
We need to have addiction treatment
for the entirety of the time that a person is incarcerated.
If we spend five years in prison
in an intensive drug rehabilitation program,
I'm certain that would increase the success rate
of those who are exiting our nation's prisons.
Faith and character-based dormitories
and reentry dorm programs
form the environments to allow us to make the connections
necessary to begin living a life of sobriety
with a group of our peers to support us,
that we might support one another to be successful once we are released.
We're also in need of greater attention to being prepared for employment
when it comes time for release.
In our country,
there is a great shortage of welders today.
Every time you see a job ad,
there is someone needing truck drivers to drive the big 18-wheelers, right?
Could you imagine a prison system
that would allow for men to leave with certified driver's licences
to fill those jobs,
that would leave certified as auto mechanics
to fill the voids in that area of our 21st-century economy?
And education -
as a former student of Jacksonville Theological Seminary
and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary,
I am confident
that education goes a long way in the process of rewiring the brain.
Each one of us here this morning,
our lives have been touched by someone who either was an addict,
has been incarcerated,
and sometimes both.
Today is July 28.
(Laughter)
I will be released from prison in 39 days,
and I plan to activate my vision
to assist returning citizens as they reenter society.
It will be an honor to have you,
your families,
and as many people as you can contact on your Facebook page, Twitter,
and all of the social media that now exists
that did not even exist when I came to prison in 1998.
I'm going to ask you,
that as we go about doing all that we can
to help our men and women coming out of the prisons
to be successfully reintegrated in society,
I want to ask that you will join me in this mission.
Thank you.
(Applause)