Living Free and Avoiding Recidivism after a Felony

To live free forever – I mean, how great would that be. But no, this article is not about mooching off your parents for the rest of your life. I said live free forever, not to live FOR free forever.

It is, however, insight into how to defy the overwhelming odds placed on you against relapsing and getting thrown back into a cage.

In a recent post, I explained how recidivism should scare the living crap out of you, but we also touched on some statistics that will make you feel not so good about living life as a convicted felon.

As well as the fact that recidivism is not a term so easily defined. Many things need to be taken into consideration as to the reasonings and rationale behind reverting into old ways and relapsing. Heavy influencers are the big three E’s:

1. Environment

2. Employment

3. Education

By focusing on these three key factors, you put yourself in a much stronger position to succeed, thus greatly increasing the odds in your favor of not becoming another sad statistic.

So why does – let’s not say the majority – but an overwhelming amount of us, relapse back into criminal behavior and tendencies, ultimately leading to a tragic conclusion?

A Productive Member of Society

Over half a million prisoners are released into society each year. Like a war vet who returns home, the mind of someone who is exposed to certain horrors (incarceration) for any length of time, lends itself to be a little messed up. This is only natural.

The emotions they go through run from one extreme to the other. The initial excitement and happiness of freedom, slowly morph into anger and massive frustration from the rejection they experience and endure from the world at large. The sobering reality starts to set in, as the individual is ill prepared to handle the normal day to day activities of a regular life. They try so desperately to blend in with society yet fail miserably.

Now imagine if you would for a moment, being released out of a cage into a crime ridden neighborhood. You have little skills or training, and couple that with anti-social behavior. All you qualify for, is low skill, low wage employment (if that). You are denied health insurance. Your credit is trash. And good luck trying to rent an apartment!

The future seems very bleak for this individual, but the street-smart skills they have developed, paired with technical knowledge they may know and are familiar with, is there speaking to them all the time. Almost seducing you back. Their brain can’t be shut off as it speaks to them saying why the hell am I wasting my time? I’m a criminal. Nobody wants to hire me!

As hopelessness and despair overcome them, they get increasingly anxious. The old lifestyle seems like the viable path. The right path. The one that will lead them to something promising. The thought of fast money is alluring.

Why would you want to go through the slow, tedious process of mere survival, just getting by, all while looking and feeling like a failure? Add drugs and alcohol into the equation (in order to reduce the anxiety and pains) which further leads to erratic behavior and rash decisions.

I could go further, but why. You know what probably happens next. They never stood a chance. This was an example (and still happens every damn day) of the perfect storm and recipe for recidivism.

PUNISHMENT, BUT REHABILITATION TO (RE) ENTER THE REAL WORLD

It does seem like one big vicious cycle at times, right? Funding for reentry programs has been cut over the years. The way they see it, you are going to mess up and land yourself back incarcerated soon enough. Why keep paying and throwing good money after bad. However, there still are state, local, and non-profit organizations and programs available, that assist those needing help to reintegrate (reenter) back into the public.

Here, you’ll be offered and provided help in obtaining employment, taught life skills, given counsel and support, and the possibility of financial aid through government grants. All of this is in place to help keep you on the straight and narrow, and not relapse, thus becoming another sad statistic.

What then you ask? Well, you live life and build a good quality one at that. One that you can hold your head high on, avoiding having to look over your shoulder constantly. You rise above the all the bullshit and unfairness of the world, living for your own little pleasures, and look for what makes you happy, cause it’s on you to break the vicious cycle.

Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.

Stephen R Covey

Is it easy to live a normal life and walk the straight and narrow as a convicted felon?

Don’t make me laugh. It is ridiculously hard, due in part to all the restrictions and challenges imposed.

Being a convicted felon is a gut wrenching, painstaking, pride swallowing, bullseye you carry on your back at all times, rearing its ugly head at the most inopportune of times throughout your lifetime.

Question: But felon, I don’t want to work some crappy minimum wage job to scrape by. Can’t it be easier?

Answer: Grow up. You do what you have do to do in life at times, especially when starting over. Simplify your life of garbage you do not need and put your big boy pants on. That means work your crappy minimum wage job as a means to an end and incorporating it into your master plan. Apply your mind and focus on the big picture.

My best advice to individuals contemplating something that inevitably is going to mess their life up (even more), is to stop and think for a second. This is your life. You have this chance to turn it all around, as long as you breathe on this earth.

First, you have to want it. Really, really want it. Next, you have to know and understand that things won’t come easy to you. If it was, the rates would not be as tragic as they are.

Finally, you have to follow the long, tough road. Your life is this for now. But it can be a beautiful one (and one not involving a cage). Things can be attained legitimately. And in order for that to happen though, you must move past the anger and frustration.

No matter how difficult the situation is, try to laugh and find humor in things every day. It helped me and it allowed me to endure and move past tough times. As the saying goes, tough times don’t last, tough people do.

You have to be a planner. A master planner. But be patient with your plan. Don’t get so down on yourself. Allow yourself some room to grow. That crappy job you’re working now can and will lead to something prosperous. It’s all a means to an end.

And that is all. You have to turn your back on that old lifestyle because it is not a friend to you. Abandon it and create a new lifestyle. One you always wanted. Once again, and preferably one that does not involve you being in a cage (or worse).

Take all your skills. All your will. Plan out and visualize. Put yourself around the right people. Put yourself in the right environment. And succeed.

I had been in survival mode for such a long period that I forgot what it is like to live.

Anonymous Felon

If you’re adept and ingenious enough to build an escape plan out of jail, and have the guts to act on it, then you can plan a quality of life worth the wait, allowing you to live free forever.

–The Educated Felon