The Punitive Turn: New Approaches to Race and Incarceration

Jim Shea

Jared Brown: Could you begin by introducing yourself? Jim Shea: My name is Jim Shea. I’m a retired university employee. I am also an alumnus of the university. I’m an ex-offender. I’m active in various political circles in Charlottesville. I’m an old guy with thirteen grandchildren. JB: Could you elaborate on some of the political involvement that you spoke about? JS: These days my partner of forty years, Brenda Lambert, and I, have been very active in the Dialogue on Race and in particular we are members of an action team within the Dialogue that is addressing reentry problems of ex-offenders trying to pull together. There’re many elements in the city that address some aspect of these problems, and we’re trying to pull it all together so that everyone is strengthened by what someone else is doing and so that we can generate some sense of movement on these issues. JB: From your experiences with this movement that you are attempting to create, what have been some of the stumbling blocks or some of the obstacles that have deterred progress? JS: Well, you’re talking about progress for the movement or the progress of individuals trying to reenter? Those are two different things, actually. JB: Perhaps you could elaborate on both. JS: Okay. For individuals coming out of incarceration, there are many, many obstacles , and this is why the recidivism rate is so high. Because there’re so many barriers placed in front of someone trying to put a life back together after Jim Shea Interviewed by Jared Brown 266 Jim Shea they’ve been incarcerated—trying to put themselves on a solid economic basis , pull their family back together, and just establish themselves in a normal course of life because, in the very first place, it’s very, very hard for people to get jobs. There’s a great prejudice against hiring ex-offenders in the job market. Now, there are employers who will hire people, but there are many who just won’t and so we get what amounts to a kind of a de facto kangaroo court that says to ex-offenders—you did your time, you paid your debt to society, as they say, but that’s not good enough. We think you need to be punished further and so we consign you to the margins of society to live in poverty and you can take your children there with you, too, because, of course, if you can’t get a job, your children suffer too, and this has a way of perpetuating, creating cycles, generational cycles. JB: Well, perhaps I could ask you this—based on what you said, I’ve been thinking about the Fourteenth Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause which guarantees equal protection for people based on various factors such as race, sexuality, etc. Do you feel that the lack of protection for ex-convicts is a failure of the system? JS: It is a failure of the system. I’m not a lawyer. I can’t say that it technically violates the Fourteenth Amendment, but it certainly violates the spirit of the Fourteenth Amendment and violates any spirit of fairness that you would like to see in your community. Now, back in December, our action team presented the city council with a proposed resolution, which they adopted unanimously, declaring Charlottesville to be a City of Second Chances for ex-offenders, and the city has made a commitment to try to promote this cause. I said jobs. That’s the biggest problem, but many ex-offenders can’t get food stamps. They can’t get access to public housing, although that may be about to change. If they owe fines or back child support, they can’t get a driver’s license, so they’re just boxed in. Now, if you can’t pay your rent, you can’t give money to the people raising your children, and you’re sleeping on somebody’s sofa, you might very well do something like you used to do to make a little money, and so a lot of people end up reoffending and back in prison. JB: So the process of reoffending is a direct result of the infrastructure that is in place to disallow criminals, ex-criminals, ex-convicts, from having opportunity ? JS: It certainly does promote recidivism, the obstacles placed in people’s paths, but I’ll tell you something else. When you come out...