LIFE’S SECOND CHANCES

-Dennis Levy

  Dennis Levy , Rev. Al Sharpton, Victor Pate

According to experts, every day 32,000 New Yorkers are release from prison. The majority of them will be released from prison into our community unskilled and undereducated.  Two-thirds of them are expected to be rearrested for a violent crime or serious felony within three years of their release. With so many young men and women caught in the revolving door of the criminal justice system, it is clear that the punitive, incarceration-based approach to crime prevention is not working.  To break the cycle of incarceration, Rev. Al Sharpton said let’s give them a Second Chance.  In response, we created the Second Chance Program.

We started our Program at the ‘House of Justice’ in Harlem. Our mission is to give ‘Life Skill Workshops’ to formerly incarcerated men and women to help them make a positive re-entry back into our community.  Ms. Vanda Seward, Director of New York State Reentry Services and Ms. Detrel Howell, assistant Manager Reentry, began referring formerly incarcerated men and women to our Program in January 2012. Our Vision is to change the negative influence of ‘violent gangs’ and ‘prison life’ on the minds of formerly incarcerated men and women. This is accomplished by giving Life Skill Workshops at the ‘National Action Network’ headquarters in Harlem. Participants learn the history of the Civil Rights Struggle from Rev. Sharpton.

 In rapid fire, we begin a cycle of High Impact Life Skill Workshops starting with employment. Jobs are the number (1) concern of formerly incarcerated men and women. We guide our ‘participants’ to choose careers as opposed to dead end jobs.  The curriculum includes ‘How to prepare a resume’, ‘How to give a winning job interview,’, ‘Dressing for Success’, and landing a job.  In most cases, more education is needed. “The more education received, the less likely an individual is to be re-arrested or re-imprisoned” says Ms. Cherly Walker, a case manager from the Department of Education ‘Office of Adult & Continuing Education’. She spoke at our Education Life Skill Workshop. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, inmates with at least two years of college education have a 10% re-arrest rate, compared to a national re-arrest rate of

approximately 60%. Ms. Walker spoke about future careers. “Green Jobs Not Prison is the way to go,’’ she told the workshop participants.

The next biggest concern is Housing. Of all the issues facing participants reentering communities, studies suggest that none is more immediate than the need to find a place to live. Re-entry supportive housing is essentially a public safety initiative, serving to stabilize people in the community and reduce recidivism. We had Housing experts from the ‘Civic Association Serving Harlem’ (C.A.S.H.) share housing resources. Make no mistake; keeping an individual incarcerated is far more expensive than housing them in our community.

 Dynamic speakers like Dr. Divine Pryor (Center for Nuleadership on Urban Solutions) made an informative presentation to our participants on the Criminal Justice System.  It was essentially about staying out of prison. To help, we maintain and update a resource data bank with job and housing contacts for formerly incarcerated men and women. Last but not least, we had anti-violence activist Brian Benjamin (Genesis Companies) and Ms. Theresa Freeman (New York N.A.N. Chapter President) speak to formerly incarcerated men and women about working out conflicts without using violence e.g. tips on anger management.

The first ‘Life Skill Workshop’ cycle was a success. Now, we are ready to begin the Second Cycle of Life Skill Workshops. We need your help pulling young men and women out of the revolving door of the criminal justice system and giving them a Second Chance.  

Dennis Levy is co-founder of the Second Chance Program. He has written for the New York Amsterdam Newspaper and the Beacon Newspaper. Mr.  Levy lives in Manhattan with his son. For more information: E-Mail: Secondchancecommittee@gmail.com