Moving Forward
Formerly incarcerated adults recognized for their new lives
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Raucous cheers greeted the 26 individuals as they strode one by one across the stage to receive their award. Looking at the face of each recipient, they were elated to be named a winner. The glass statue in their possession was secondary to the biggest prize they had already received: their freedom.
The Jane Addams Center for Social Policy and Research held a ceremony at Northeastern Illinois University to present the Perseverance Awards, a recognition received by older adults (ages 50 and older) who were formerly incarcerated. Individuals released from prison face many challenges and complexities when returning to the community. The Policy Center’s goal is to build community, stakeholder, and human service provider support to improve the resources, programs, and services for this vulnerable population. The award is given to those who have returned successfully into the community and have provided services and advocacy to reduce recidivism.
“People can’t take an assessment of who they are just a few years after high school,” said John Holton, PhD, visiting research professor at the Jane Addams College of Social Work, as he addressed the audience. “You must do that 30, 40, 50 years later. Longevity is the key.”
Keynote speaker Marlon Chamberlain has something in common with each of the award winners. He was one of 3.3 million people in Illinois (about the population of Arkansas) arrested or convicted of a crime since 1979. In 2002, Chamberlain was sentenced to spend 20 years living in a small cell in federal prison. During his time behind bars, he missed many momentous occasions in his life that many people take for granted: birthdays, anniversaries, holiday celebrations. One event will never leave his mind, or his heart.
“My aunt came to visit me in prison and told me my mom suffered a heart attack and died,” he said. “On March 31, 2006, I made a commitment that I was going to change my life.”
In 2010, Chamberlain’s sentence was reduced to 14 years. He was thankful he was able to leave his past incarceration behind, but he was nervous about his future. “I was led to believe that you’re gonna thrive and grow when released. But that’s not the case. Forty-four thousand barriers exist after prison that are just waiting for us,” he said.
Due to his criminal record, Chamberlain was denied the opportunity to chaperone his son’s school field trip, and more stunning to him, he was unable to fulfill his dying father’s last wishes to act as executor of his estate. The hurdles often seemed too high for Chamberlain to clear, but he refused to quit advocating for himself, and others like him.
Changing lives
Meaningful change, Chamberlain believed, was only going to occur if ex-offenders were involved in creating policy. He founded the Restoring Rights & Opportunities Coalition IL (RROCI), a group promoting statewide legislative initiatives that increase employment and housing opportunities for people with criminal records. He also chairs the Live Free Decarceration advisory committee, and is an alum of JustLeadership USA, a national organization whose mission is to reduce the U.S. prison population in half by 2030.
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I was fortunate in prison that men mentored me. I want to help others. When one person wins we all win.
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Chamberlain previously served as the Englewood project manager with the anti-violence READI (Rapid Employment and Development Initiative) Chicago Program at Heartland Alliance and was a community organizer with the FORCE (Fighting to Overcome Records and Create Equality) initiative. The group has become one of the strongest organizations led by people with criminal records to advance issues, policies, and legislation at the state level. Chamberlain has helped pass more than 15 pieces of legislation.
Today, Chamberlain serves as manager of Fully Free, an organization that works to dismantle the laws and regulations that govern permanent punishments – barriers that deny or restrict rights and opportunities for people with a record – long after their involvement with the criminal legal system is over.
“I was fortunate in prison that men mentored me,” Chamberlain said. “I want to help others. When one person wins, we all win.”
The ceremony was the culmination of the JACSW Policy Center’s community forum on aging, reentry and reintegration that focused on older and aging incarcerated individuals that was led by John Hardy, senior research specialist. The needs of this population are different than those of younger individuals, especially with healthcare, said Xochitl Guerrero, an adjunct lecturer at the Jane Addams College of Social Work and JACSW doctoral candidate who has worked as a mental health specialist and medical social worker at the Cook County Department of Corrections.
“The aging population in our nation’s prisons and jails is projected to account for one third of incarcerated people in the U.S. in the next couple of decades, if not sooner,” said Guerrero. “The cost associated with incarcerating older and aging individuals is significantly more expensive than incarcerating younger individuals. Reducing older prison populations would lead to cost savings and investment of those savings in much needed programs for this population who have returned to the community. Crime rates decline substantially as people age, so older and aging individuals represent less of a public safety risk than younger offenders.
“The nation is beginning to ‘gray’ and that includes our brothers and sisters who are incarcerated or will make their way home soon. There is still much work for all of us to do.”