The Corps Network News, October 2007

Beyond Lengthy Incarceration: Effective Punishment and Reentry into the Community

Sally T. Prouty, President and CEO
The Corps Network

Susan Tucker, Director
The After Prison Initiative/Open Society Institute
October 2007

The Civic Justice Corps (CJC) is the first ever national service initiative that affirmatively recruits people with criminal convictions to public service. A focus on green energy service projects and preparation for employment in green businesses makes it especially unique. Today there are fifteen local Civic Justice Corps pilot projects across the country, largely funded by the U.S. Department of Labor and the Corporation for National and Community Service (AmeriCorps). This federal government investment of $1.3 million and $623,804, respectively, is a major achievement in itself. And this is just the beginning.

The CJC provides experiential learning—designed and taught in partnership with multiple local partners including colleges, green businesses and other employers —that links academics to concrete conservation based revitalization work projects in high-incarceration/high-return neighborhoods that are visible and valuable to the community. CJC members study and work with men and women who are passionate about their area of expertise, and are introduced to effective networks that prepare them for jobs and careers in important growth sectors including sustainable construction, urban ecology, green energy, retro-fitting, etc. By negotiating MOUs with law enforcement, prisons, and other relevant social service agencies as well as private industry, the CJC engages multiple sectors in sharing responsibility for addressing the challenge of reentry and, in this way, engages them in more accountable and responsible business practices.

The goal is to institutionalize at scale the CJC as a major federally-funded program and to establish in every high-incarceration neighborhood a local CJC designed to strengthen its infrastructure and civil institutions, transform state and local justice systems, and provide people with criminal convictions a path to living wage green jobs and careers. We would like to see this model, which combines performative restorative justice with restorative economics (green jobs for sustainable urban environments), become a major feature of U.S. justice, reentry, public safety and labor policy.

The Problem

The U.S. is the world’s largest incarcerator. It is also the world’s largest polluter. In both cases, poor communities—largely black, brown and urban—experience a disproportionate and negative impact.

Through the “War on Drugs” and “tough on crime” sentencing and parole policies, the U.S. keeps 2.2 million people behind bars at a cost of $61 billion annually, sends 650,000 home from prison each year, and maintains a standing population of 4.7 million under parole or probation surveillance. The concomitant divestment in the health, education, and economic institutions and environmental infrastructure in our cities’ poorest neighborhoods has itself become a threat to public safety, health, and well-being.(1)

As criminal justice reformers have long recognized, mass incarceration and its effects, especially the economic, social, and political disenfranchisement of poor communities of color, have become an acute crisis for U.S. democracy. Now we see that these same high-incarceration/high-return communities are also the true “miners’ canary”(2) of global warming and of the country’s looming environmental, political, economic and social crises.

The Civic Justice Corps Concept: Learning, Working and Service

The CJC was started with foundation support to help address these problems and reverse the trend of mass incarceration. Today, it is being coordinated and administered by The Corps Network, a DC-based non-profit that oversees a national association of youth Corps with over 100 members.

The CJC’s concept of service is not new. The U.S has a venerable tradition of making opportunities for civic participation available, especially in times of crisis. In 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) brought together the country’s natural resources and, at its peak, 500,000 unemployed men (what President Roosevelt referred to as “two wasted resources”) to build bridges, clear trails in national parks, and work on soil conservation projects, transforming the landscape of America. In 1961, President Kennedy sent 15,000 Peace Corps volunteers to serve in poor communities abroad. During the Vietnam War, then-Governor Ronald W. Reagan created the California Ecology Corps to create service opportunities for the large number of conscientious objectors. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter established the Young Adult Conservation Corps to deal with the enduring problem of youth unemployment. Although the goals of President George W. Bush’s proposed USA Freedom Corps were never realized, in his 2002 State of the Union Address, he called on “every American to commit at least two years—or 4,000 hours over the rest of your lifetime—to the service of your neighborhoods and nation.” (3)

Modern day Service and Conservation Corps—direct descendants of the Depression-era CCC—are state and local programs engaging youth and young adults in service. The Corps Network was founded in 1985 by then 24 Corps directors for the purpose of providing a national voice for Corps and assuring that Corps programs operate at high quality. Since 1985, over 600,000 youth and young adults have enrolled in Corps nationally. The majority of corpsmembers, many of whom have been involved with the criminal justice system, come into Corps looking for a second chance to succeed in life. In return for their efforts, Corpsmembers receive guidance by leaders who serve as mentors and role models, a modest stipend, and a wide range of development activities including education, career preparation and training, life skill development and the opportunity to invest significantly in their communities. Today, the number of Youth Corps associated with The Corps Network now exceeds 100 with projects underway in 42 states and DC.

“Youth Corps: Promising Strategies for Young People and Their Communities,” a rigorous multi-site control group evaluation conducted by Abt Associates/Brandies University, underscored the value of Corps for communities and participants. The report documents that:

• Significant employment and earnings gains accrue to young people who join a Corps;
• Positive findings are particularly striking for young African American men;
• Arrest rates drop by one third among all corpsmembers; and
• Out-of-wedlock pregnancy rates drop among female corpsmembers.

While experiential learning linking academics and service is a comparatively new concept, its popularity and success has grown rapidly over the past 15 years, particularly in colleges and universities and with sustainable environments and economies the focus of attention worldwide. Experiential learning or “service learning” strengthens career development, enhances social responsibility and citizenship skills, and promotes lifelong service to community and civic participation.(4) A three-year study from UCLA funded by Atlantic Philanthropies confirmed the added cognitive and affective benefits to students of combining academic study with service to community.(5) Nearly 1,100 U.S. College and university presidents— representing some 5 million students—are members of Campus Compact, a national coalition that promotes higher education linked to community service to encourage lifelong civic engagement.(6)

Unfortunately service and experiential learning opportunities and green jobs and careers have not been made available as alternatives to incarceration or upon reentry after prison, even though people leaving prison often insist they want give back to the community, to make sure that the younger generation does not follow their path to prison. The Civic Justice Corps has the potential to fill this gap by:

• Revitalizing and re-enfranchising high incarceration communities and their residents;
• Transforming and reorienting the missions and policies of prison, probation, and parole systems to support successful reentry and safe communities;
• Creating networks and pathways to viable jobs and careers in high growth, sustainable jobs including the “green” economic sectors; and
• Strengthening civic participation and responsible citizenship.

These words from Corpsmember Jessica Martinez are illustrative of the kinds of transformations service learning can bring about, particularly for people with criminal justice involvement:

“A month before I applied to the Los Angeles Conservation Corps (LACC) I was paroled out of the California Youth Authority (CYA) system after serving three years and eight months. I had no work experience and an unprofessional attitude towards work and the world. At that time I didn’t realize that I had the potential to be a leader. In my time here at LACC, I have accomplished a lot - more than I expected. I’ve had a long bumpy road in my life but thanks to the strength of LACC, I am more prepared for life.”
     -Jessica Martinez, National Corpsmember of the Year

Status of the Civic Justice Corps

Today, after several years of planning and development with foundation support, the CJC concept has taken off. Private investment of $1,450,600(7) leveraged another $2,505,804 in public funding, which helped launch fifteen (15) CJCs across the U.S. In early 2007, four (4) CJCs were launched—in North Charleston, SC, Washington DC, Bend, OR and New Orleans, LA.(8) Another eleven (11) CJCs(9) were added to existing Youth Corps in September 2006 to recruit young people ages 16 to 24 who have served or been sentenced to prison time. Although formal evaluation is premature, the DOL-funded Youth CJCs have enrolled 341 members (of whom 281 had been previously incarcerated; the others were “court involved”). The four AmeriCorps-funded CJCs have enrolled 100 members as of July.

The first 341 CJC members are involved in a variety of projects. Some—particularly those located in or near rural areas like the Heart of Oregon CJC and the Mile High Youth Corps in Denver, Colorado—are working on traditional Conservation Corps projects (e.g., habitat restoration, trail and campground maintenance and construction, and historic preservation). Other CJCs located in urban areas where deindustrialization has left abandoned, fallow, and often contaminated industrial sites have begun brown fields clean up and restoration projects to reclaim these sites for community and commercial use. With match funding from the Casey Trees Endowment Fund, the Earth Conservation Corps CJC in Washington, DC, is working to restore the canopy of lost trees in the City as part of an urban forestry-training program, which prepares CJC members to graduate into private sector jobs. The East Bay Conservation CJC reclaimed and restored a derelict neighborhood park and playground.

The SC and New Orleans CJCs recruited older members. Even before the Lowcountry CJC in North Charleston, SC, enrolled its first members (all of whom are currently incarcerated at the local work release facility), it had developed key working relationships with the Mayor, local housing and redevelopment authorities, the Metanoia Community Development Corporation, and local contractors. Lowcountry CJC members will receive on-the-job training in green building, a high-growth industry for the region. Plans are underway to create new transitional housing for people coming back from prison to North Charleston. All of the current CJCs have, or are currently negotiating, MOUs with government and private partners, which will help achieve systems change, community investment, and career opportunities for their members.

Opportunity: Next Steps

This is a moment of tremendous potential for the CJC model. Numerous public leaders are calling for national public service or proposing creation of environmental corps to help make the transition to clean energy. Former Governor of Virginia, Mark Warner, issued a call for universal service at the recent Council on Foundations conference in Seattle.

The significant non-partisan coalition supporting the Second Chance Act can also be marshaled to build on the historical bi-partisan interest in national service initiatives. State governments, too, understanding how burgeoning prison systems are draining their resources, are more receptive to smart, innovative solutions and “justice reinvestment” strategies. Industry and union leaders need better educated, committed workers to compete effectively in the global economy. Educators have become the boldest experimenters leading to a renewed interest in higher education for people in prison.

It is essential that that poor people of color and those with criminal records not be excluded from national service but share the opportunity to participate. Although the CJC demonstration project is new, the Corps experience is not. It is well established and results are documented in positive findings based on rigorous evaluation. The work of Corps is informed by the collective wisdom of 25+ years of experience.

The Civic Justice Corps could be grown from a concept that is taking root in a number of disparate places into an important component of a national public safety, reentry, green energy and labor strategy.

(1) See Clear, Todd, Imprisoning Communities: How Mass Incarceration Makes Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Worse (Oxford University Press, June 2007)
(2) Guinier, Lani and Gerald Torres, The Miners’ Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy (The Nathan I. Huggins Lectures, 2003)
(3) Bender, Bryan. "No Specifics in Bush's Call for Civilian Service." The Boston Globe 26 January 2007, Third Edition: A1.
(4) Eyler, Janet S., Dwight E. Giles, Jr., Christine M. Stenson, and Charlene J. Gray, “At a Glance: What we know About the Effects of Service-Learning on College Students, Faculty, Institutions and Communities, 1993-2000 (Third Edition).” Corporation for National and Community Service Learn and Serve America National Service Learning Clearinghouse: 2001.
(5) Astin, Alexander W., Lori J. Vogelgsang, Elaine K. Ikeda, and Jennifer A. Lee, “How Service-Learning Affects Students.” Higher Education Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles: 2000.
(6) See Campus Compact’s website at http://www.compact.org/.
(7) Private funding has included $868,600 from the Open Society Institute, $382,000 from the JEHT Foundation, and $200,000 from the Noisette Foundation in South Carolina.
(8) The New Orleans CJC, spearheaded by Catholic Charities, is funded by the State of Louisiana’s AmeriCorps.
(9) The eleven DOL-funded CJC demonstration sites include: the American Youth Works in Austin, Texas; the East Bay Conservation Corps in Oakland, California; the Fresno Local Conservation Corps in Fresno, California; the Greater Miami Service Corps in Miami, Florida; the Mile High Youth Corps in Denver, Colorado; the Montgomery County Conservation Corps in Wheaton, Maryland; Operation Fresh Start in Madison, Wisconsin; the Quilter Conservation Corps in Fremont, Ohio; the Sacramento Local Conservation Corps in Sacramento, California; The Work Group in Camden, New Jersey; and the Urban Corps of San Diego in San Diego, California.