Poverty dogs black ex-inmates, study finds

In one of the few studies of its kind, a Chicago Urban League report suggests incarceration rates for African-Americans will likely remain high because many black former inmates settle in neighborhoods with few jobs or resources to help them rehabilitate.

Neighborhoods located in Chicago's 15 poorest ZIP codes are the top destinations for African-American inmates recently paroled or placed on probation, according to a study authored by Paul Street, vice president for research and planning at the Chicago Urban League.

Street contends nearly half of all African-American former inmates face long odds for breaking out of a cycle of behavior that played a role in their arrest and incarceration.

"Former offenders already face a lot of obstacles" aid James Compton, president and chief executive officer of the Chicago Urban League, a civil rights organization based on the South Side 2E

"We are talking about people who have already paid their debt to society, they have served their sentences and now it's become apparent there's very little opportunities for them."

The study, scheduled to be the centerpiece of the Urban League's Monday conference on exploring the black ex-offender population, paints a gloomy portrait of life for many African-Americanconvicts. Still, the study's author suggests step s can be taken to help ex-convicts overcome their troubled pasts. Allowing ex-convicts to earn certificates if they go a period of time without being arrested again is one recommendation.

Certification would help former convicts show potential employers they are worth taking a chance on, Compton said.

The study, The Vicious Circle: Race, Prison, Jobs, Community and Mass Incarceration found that one in five black men in Illinois has a prison record, and one in four has either spent time in prison or is either on parole or probation.

Compton said he was most concerned about the recidivism rate for African-Americans, which is the highest of all ethnic groups. About 48 percent of blacks released from prison return within three years, a rate nearly 10 percent higher than for whites, the study found.

The study also found sixty-three percent of the state's 43,000 prisoners and 60 percent of its 32,000 parolees last year were African-American. For every 100,000 African-Americans in the state, 1,550 have done jail time. That ratio is lower for whites, with 127 having done prison time for every 100,000.

It costs $20,637 a year to house an inmate in state prison, the research found, the fastest growing state expenditure. For juveniles, the cost increases to $50,286 per year.

As of last year, 20,000 more black men were in the state's prison system than the number of black men enrolled in the state's public colleges and universities, the report found.

The Illinois Department of Corrections said it recognizes many of its African-American inmates return to the poorest neighborhoods in Chicago where resources and jobs are scarce. Earlier this year, the agency earmarked $2 million to expand counseling and training programs for ex-convicts on the city's South and West Sides.

Ald. Ed Smith (28th) said he fears Chicago's sagging economy will only exacerbate a bad situation as African-American ex-convicts look for jobs.

Companies already are skittish about hiring, especially job candidates with recent criminal records.

"Despite some long odds against them, I do believe people leaving our prisons can turn their lives around," said Smith, whose ward is among those ab orbing a large number of former prison inmates.

"But they need help from all of us, and that means giving them an opportunity to succeed. Let's not shackle them by saying they have no value because they were incarcerated."

Smith said he could get behind an effort to have form er inmates earn certificates they could show employers to verify they have stayed out of trouble for five and 10 years. The approach would be expected to ease concerns of employers as long as the effort was carried out by a government agency in a position to make such verifications.

Street, the study's author, said research on the project was done over the last two years and involved hundreds of interviews with former convicts 2E

The Urban League was surprised to learn how African-American incarceration ratesperpetuate an "underclass" across the city.

"I t's a real struggle we see all the time," Street said. "People are being cycled in and out of prison, and in between they are trying to get out of some pretty depressing conditions."