Our Unforgiving Society

Growing Home provides job training for hard to employ people, most of whom have criminal backgrounds. Most of the people we work with have committed drug-related offenses, and have served their sentences that the courts handed down, only to be snubbed and thwarted at every turn.

When they come to us they are ready to work; they are ready to change their lives. They work and train with Growing Home for six months, learning all about organic agriculture and many other marketable skills.

After working and training with us, participants conduct job searches. The vast majority of employers are not willing to consider these people for work because they have “backgrounds.” It does not seem to matter if the potential employer is from a retail institution, a manufacturing business, or other service industry. Most ask if the candidate has a “background”, and this automatically precludes them from being considered for work.

This is only the first slap in the face that formerly incarcerated people get when they try to change their lives. In addition, they are automatic suspects wherever they go, especially if they are African Americans.

After graduating from our program we hired one young man to work with us full-time. He had served time for dealing in drugs, and was still on probation. He worked with us for a year and a half. During that time he was detained by the police three times because he was young, black and “looked suspicious.” Each time he was arrested it was while he was walking down the street, or when he was at home. He was detained each time for 4-12 hours. He was questioned, finger-printed and held in jail without any access to legal aid. He was never accused of anything. Each time the police released him without any charges. How can we expect someone to turn their life around when they are suspect every time they turn a corner, figuratively and literally?

It is no wonder that 50% of prisoners ( in Illinois) who are released from prison commit yet another crime and return to prison within three years of being released. They can’t figure out another way to live or make a living.

In “Les Miserables” Victor Hugo wrote about Jan Valjean’s struggles in the France of 200 years ago. The fictional Valjean spent 18 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread. He was released with a yellow card that he needed to show everywhere he went. He wanted to work, but nobody would hire him. He finally broke probation and ran away, and was hunted for the rest of his life. In many ways our criminal justice system has made little progress since the days of Victor Hugo and Jan Valjean.

A final and most upsetting example of our harsh societal attitudes was recently brought home to me in a very personal way. An employee of Growing Home and friend of mine was arrested this week. He has a criminal record, but has been committed to a healthy and upright life for many many years now. He has been working with us for two years already, and I feel I know him well. While at a restaurant on the West side of Chicago, this week he went outside for a cigarette. There were others outside too, when the police came and conducted a drug bust. They arrested everyone around, those inside and out.

My friend was arrested and charged with dealing in heroin. There are no grounds for this charge, other than the fact that he committed a crime 20 years ago, is African American, and was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Two weeks later he was again arrested. Again, he was on the west side of Chicago, in the wrong place at the wrong time. This time he needed to post $6,000 to be released on bond. They took away his glasses and all his money so that he could not even buy basic toiletries. After a week we managed to raise the bond for my friend, and he is now out of jail awaiting trial. I am positive that he is innocent, and most likely these cases will be dropped. In the meantime he has suffered much anguish and has been forced to pay a lot of money that he does not have. Even if the cases are dropped the state will never fully reimburse him.

This system is so unjust and unfair that it makes me want to cry out to everyone who will listen and tell them to wake up. We need to stop treating people as second class citizens just because they made a mistake. If we ever want to see a change in challenged communities in Chicago and other big cities we need to stop persecuting people, and start training them and creating opportunities for them to make a living.