Author: Reginald Hale

You’ve been convicted of a felony, you are either serving your time or already have. What should you do next? Studies have shown stable employment and having higher education degrees reduces the rate of re-offending and re-incarnation of ex-cons. Finding a job that gives stable employment is paramount for maintaining oneself and possibly your family. 

Sadly after being convicted as a felon it becomes much more difficult to find good, stable employment. Data has shown the unemployment rates among felons is five times higher than that of the general population. Even a skilled worker may no longer be eligible for their previous employment. You may no longer be able to work in your field due to your conviction. The best option may be to go to college and obtain a degree in order to have a meaningful employment opportunity again.

Checking your state’s licensing and certification boards regulations should be done before furthering your education. There are many fields where you won’t be able to gain necessary credentials since you wouldn’t be eligible due to your conviction. There is no point in wasting time and money if you won’t be able to receive the appropriate licensing or certifications in the field you study due to a marked background. Any position restricting employment of ex-cons would not be a path to pursue with a felony on your record. 

Common employment positions typically excluding felons are criminal justice positions, medicine, education, psychology fields, insurance and financing. Additionally, you may not be able to be considered for other employment opportunities based on what you were convicted for. As an example, a position in the education field would be unlikely for anyone who has been found guilty of a crime against a minor/minors or any job that requires intensive customer interaction or allows you to be in control of others lives such as nurses and home health care assistants.

This doesn’t mean there is nothing out there for someone convicted of a felony. There are still plenty of opportunities for an ex-con if you are willing to put in the time and effort necessary. If you try to find something you can enjoy where you’ll be able to obtain the skills to succeed you can find a truly fulfilling employment role in society. There are even places that actively hire felons and are willing to educate them in the trade they provide. While there are many options out there that you may find while on your journey here are just a few degrees to consider getting started on the journey. 

  1. Computer Science
  2. Business Management 
  3. Liberal Arts
  4. Mechanics
  5. Vocational studies
  6. Sustainability
  7. Marketing
  8. Agriculture
  9. Substance Abuse Counseling
  10. Robotics

Before you jump in, remember all it takes is dedication and persistence to get what you need to turn your life around. Even if you can’t attend higher education in person, full time school is available online and there are some free online courses for certain certificates. Your local library will have computers and safe areas to study and take the courses if home is not available for any reason and some offer courses that are easily accessible. As I’ve said above you won’t find everything that is available to you on this list. There are many options out there for an ex-con.

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Writer’s block is a common affliction that every writer will experience at one time or another. It is not a sign that you shouldn’t be writing, it’s just a reminder that writing is a process, and you can’t just rush through it. Even though it’s not inherently bad it’s still frustrating, especially when you have a deadline. Thankfully, there are many ways to deal with it.  

1. Reading

One of the best techniques is to read. By reading someone’s writing it helps your brain get into that writing mindset and it helps you subconsciously absorb proficient writing techniques. It might even help you with structuring your writing or remind you of a literary device that could be helpful for your piece. You can read anything from Long Term Care Insurance policies to children’s poetry. There is always something to be gained from reading even if the subject isn’t what you are personally writing about.

2. Free Writing

Others find it helpful to still write but not write about the prompt. Literally just try to write whatever they can in a judgment free frenzy. There are even apps that if you don’t write continuously for a specific amount of time it deletes what you previously wrote to motivate you not to stop. The thought behind this activity is that you are still writing and there might be some good thoughts or sentences that can be used for your actual piece. But this activity isn’t the same amount of pressure as working on a draft. 

3. Doing Other Productive Tasks

Some people find it helpful to distract themselves and do other tasks. Usually, a task they had been postponing like cleaning the kitchen or getting a Hybrid LTC plan. It’s understandable people want to put off tasks like these, especially Hybrid Long Term Care Insurance plans. Hybrid LTC insurance isn’t a fun thing to think about. But a Hybrid LTC plan is important to consider as you get older. By getting a Hybrid Long Term Care policy you are ensuring that you and your family don’t have to worry about your care as you grow older. By doing something completely different yet still productive you can feel good about your use of time and still give your mind a chance to reset. Even the act of doing self care like being on top of your Hybrid Long Term Care Insurance needs can be a way to spur you on to accomplish something else like your writing.

4. Doing Writing Exercises

Maybe you have the bandwidth to work on your writing, but you aren’t feeling up to actually writing. There are many “writing” exercises that don’t involve writing. Some of these include outlining or idea generation. Granted both of those involve some writing but it’s much less effort than trying to write even a first draft. If writing at all feels impossible there are other options like improv where you verbalize dialog with yourself or friends to test what characters would say and how they might interact. If you are an extrovert, improv might be a great option to get other people involved in your writing. For many improv can feel embarrassing so an alternative could be just talking to a close friend about your piece and what you want to do with it. This can be immensely helpful because if they need clarification or if something stands out to them it can really show you the gaps in your communication or show what is working. If you don’t feel like your friends are interested in your writing, there are many ways to connect with writer’s groups online! For some people it can be difficult to talk about their work with friends and family, so the online community of writers can be a nice safety net. 

5. Sleep On It

Finally, just putting the writing away and going to sleep. Coming back to your writing the next day. Sometimes this can feel like you are procrastinating, and if you do it for several days in a row you might be. But overall, it’s a fantastic way to come back to writing refreshed and maybe with a different mindset. Writing is demanding work. To articulate what you are thinking in a way that’s understandable and enjoyable to others is a daunting task. It’s healthy to give yourself a break and take a step back from your work!

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The Writers in Prison Network is proud to announce as of June 6, 2015, we are adding several prisons in Central Florida as partners. As the premiere organization for bringing talented inmates to the Internet, the WIP network has been in service for over 10 years.

Answers To Questions About this Partnership

How can I find the stories by Florida Inmates?

We will be adding both fiction and non-fiction as part of this long-term Florida partnership we are announcing today.  We take great care in vetting both the writers and the content before posting, so give us a few weeks to gather submissions. Participants are asked to submit entries anonymously and we request a UPS shipment with tracking and insurance for submissions to be sent to our office in Florida.

Tell me about the prisons – where are they?

We are unable to announce the exact facilities at this time, due to security reasons, but will provide additional details as time go on.

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Up until quite late in the 19th century, English prisons were places for punishment, not rehabilitation. They were seen as places of exquisite torture where prisoners – men, women, and children – would, for example, have to turn a crank handle a required number of times a day. This handle performed no useful purpose other than to pick up cupfuls of sand and empty them in an enclosed box outside their cell. If the warder felt particularly vindictive they could tighten the screw to make the process more arduous. Hence the universal prison slang term ‘screw’.

We might well be heading back into less enlightened times like these if The Sun newspaper has any say in the matter. We could see a big comeback for sewing mail bags and picking oakum and the treadmill, not to mention thumbscrews, the rack, and other choice instruments of torture. Bring back the Inquisition, hanging’s too good for them!

With more than 80,000 people locked up in prison we have to ask ourselves the question: with all but a handful coming back out on a street near you soon how do we want them to be when they’re released, better or worse? Education and the arts in prison offer a major contribution to their rehabilitation. If we start to limit their scope then the balance between incarceration and rehabilitation shifts dangerously in one direction.

We already have one of the lowest rates of escape in the world. Our prisons are secure. They do what they say on the tin and keep people convicted by the courts in custody. But the other half of the Prison Service mission statement states that we also treat them with humanity and attempt to try and help them lead law-abiding lives when they’re released.

WHERE THE SUN DON’T SHINE

The Sun newspaper has set itself the task of leading a campaign to ensure that everyone serving time should suffer as much as possible. It completely misses the point that being sent to prison, losing your freedom, is the punishment, being in prison should be about rehabilitation.

The government recently instigated a new core day in prisons and closed down all activity on Friday afternoons in an attempt to save £17 million. However, this has also meant that prisoners now spend significantly more time in their cells. This neither contributes to their rehabilitation nor helps with a prison’s general culture.

For a prison to function well it needs good communication, something which is notoriously lacking at the best of times. There has to be a free flow of information and views between prisoners and staff to combat rumours and to allow open discussion about issues. Keep them bottled up and you create a pressure cooker in already overcrowded prisons.

INSIDE MEDIA

Two significant ways in which this can be tackled are through prison magazines and radio. Writers in Prison Network has been a major champion for setting up prison magazines. They offer a forum for the exchange of information and the discussion of issues. Governors and staff have the opportunity to explain regime changes or advertise the available activities whether it’s the chaplaincy, the gym, healthcare, or education. Prisoners can air their views, and debate contentious matters in the ‘public’ arena, and staff can put their viewpoints in return in open, balanced coverage which, in the words of the Howard League for Prison Reform, creates “a healthy prison”.

With the National Union of Journalists, the Network has pioneered the ‘Pathways to Journalism’ course which not only produces prison magazines to a professional standard but carries with it qualifications and transferable skills. It contributes both to the prison’s health and to prisoners’ education.

It’s a logical extension of this approach that leads us to prison radio. The very first radio station in prison was at HMYOI Feltham, dating back to 1994. Inspired by this, Mary Stephenson, the writer in residence at HMP Channings Wood helped to set up ConAir around 2000. Like the magazines, the radio stations not only greatly enhanced communication in the prisons but taught valuable skills to prisoners.

Radio in prison offers a superb additional tool both for education and communication. It has the additional advantage over a printed magazine due to the widespread problem with prisoners’ literacy – around 60% are below Level 1 literacy. And because it can be piped directly into the cell it’s immediate and easily accessed by everyone.

In 2006 the charity Prison Radio Association was launched with Phil Maguire as chief executive. Patrons include Jon Snow and Shami Chakabarti.

Gerry Ryan, the Network’s writer in residence at HMP Rye Hill took advantage of the training and support offered by the PRA and started a radio station. Among one of the jewels in its first year’s crown was the production of a prison soap which won first prize in the Koestler Awards.

The Prison Radio Association itself was named Best New Charity in 2008. Partly on the strength of this and encouraged by the results of burgeoning prison radio stations – over 60 are now working with the PRA – the Ministry of Justice has been considering for the last year a proposal to set up a national prison radio station beaming programs into the cells of more than 140 prisons.

The technical details of how the station will be broadcast have yet to be explained but with most cells now capable of receiving TV through loop systems on the wings the infrastructure to broadcast directly to prisoners is already in place.

Gerry Ryan and Alistair Fruish, writers in residence at HMP Littlehey, saw the great potential this facility offers and developed a project called Ipad (In-cell Purposeful Activity Development) which proposed using the medium to deliver the creative arts to engage prisoners in recordable purposeful activity while they are locked in their cells.

At HMP Garth the Network has worked with the prison and its education department to create a Media Centre using video, audio, and print to enhance what the regime offers.

These are numerous other initiatives by the Network and a whole range of arts in prison organizations – such as Geese Theatre, Clean Break, Escape Artists, Music in Prisons, and Rideout to name but a few – which demonstrate that the arts in the criminal justice movement are alive and thriving… and in demand by prisons.

THE ARTS ALLIANCE

Writing in The Guardian (5 November) Lord Ramsbotham, ex-Chief Inspector of Prisons praised the setting up of the Arts Alliance and Arts Forum which created an interface between arts in prisons organizations and government departments. “At last,” he said, “the government appears to have recognized the important role that the arts, collectively, have to play in the rehabilitation process by encouraging self-esteem. As triggers, the arts are means to the essential end of reducing reconviction rather than being ends in themselves, but their contribution is invaluable… All the evidence proves that such an approach works.”

Barely two weeks later Jack Straw, Minister of Justice, closed down the Comedy School’s course at HMP Whitemoor in a knee-jerk reaction to a headline in The Sun. The Comedy School is an outstanding organization with more than a decade of work in prisons with an impeachable reputation. Through comedy they teach literacy, working with others, and learning to be more human, and more compassionate. “I wasn’t aware that comedy was a crime,” said director Keith Palmer in a recent Radio 4 interview. “I’m trying to understand what other areas of criminal justice The Sun gets to decide?”

This was followed by a Prison Service Order, issued on 6 January warning governors that all activities had to “meet the public acceptability test.”

In The Independent on Sunday (25 January) Lord Ramsbotham called the PSO “lunacy”. The Ministry of Justice “produced this extraordinary order saying that only activities that would be approved of by the public would be allowed. Who’s going to be the judge? It was a gross overreaction. What the voluntary sector does in prisons is work to help people rehabilitate. If you say you really are trying to protect the public, you’ll damage that, if you don’t allow rehabilitation.”

Since the PSO the Ministry of Justice has announced that £2 million, drawn from existing budgets, is to be invested in a national prison radio station.

The Sun was ready with its response, complaining about “pampered lags”. Shadow Justice Minister Edward Garnier commented, “It’s ridiculous spending this sort of money to pamper prisoners more.” One wonders whether he’s actually spent any time in a prison recently.

As Juliet Lyon of the Prison Reform Trust says, “Draconian cuts and fear of tabloid headlines will reduce prisons to human warehouses and staff to mere turnkeys. Shocking self-harm and reconviction rates ought to be the public acceptability tests that keep the justice secretary awake at night.” (The Independent, 25 January)

The Arts Forum is actively working with the Ministry of Justice and David Hanson MP to try and help them find a more consistent approach to the arts in prison and how it links in with both education and rehabilitation. Tabloid newspapers should not be allowed to set policies, that way madness lies.

As columnist Libby Purves wrote in The Times (26 January), “The track record of UK prison arts and theatre groups is stellar.”

Perhaps the last words should go to ex-offender/journalist Erwin James. While serving time at HMP Long Lartin he saw a concert by singer-songwriter John Martyn. “[He] gave the performance of a lifetime. For two hours, in a place where hope was the rarest commodity, he lifted hearts and humanized souls like nothing I had ever experienced. [It] reminded us that we were members of the human race.” (The Guardian, July 2008)

The arts work.

www.writersinprisonnetwork.net

Further reading:
THE INDEPENDENT http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/straw-clamps-down-on-prison-comedy-classes-1515322.html
THE TIMES http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/libby_purves/article5586556.ece

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