Barely Scraping By

I guess the most difficult thing of being home right now are my finances. My friends generously provided for me while I was away and I even came home to some funds in my account. However, once released from prison the real expenses once again start - rent, utilities, gasoline, food, clothing, etc. Without a job or income, money can run through your account fast.

I am lucky, though, Sporty is helping me while I get my feet back on the ground. I am helping pay rent and utilities, but not to the halfway point that I will be responsible for starting next month. I will either be back in school and earning income at my graduate assistantship or I will be out there, somewhere, working. One way or another, I will be responsible for my personal expenses.

Prison does very little to help you figure out how to afford the costs of living right when you are released. For those that spend months at a halfway house, they do that with you. For those of us who are not halfway house eligible, or who go straight home, there are no services/programs to help us figure out what we do while we are out searching for a job. Yes, we must live off the kindness of others, but some people don't have that available, or don't have people able to give anything (so many people struggle just to get from paycheck to paycheck).

There are some bad rumors that go around the prison yard. Some people actually believe they are given funds to help them get back on their feet. Some are given a couple hundred dollars as gratuity, but most are eligible for nothing or very little. Unless you are old enough to get social security, there is no welfare system out there for you unless you have children and are raising them. Food stamps can help, but they don't cover your rent, your bus tokens, or your over-the-counter medication needs. Medicaid certainly helps, but you can't live in a health care center - you need to be able to provide for yourself.

I'm not at all saying that people SHOULD be given money when they are released from prison. However, I know several people who re-committed a crime because only in prison did they have a bed to sleep on and food available to them. In the outside world, they found themselves homeless due to not being able to find a job right away. I wonder if it would be possible to have a "prison to work" program... It would be a program that helps people start at a minimum wage to do jobs that different communities need. It wouldn't be perfect, but it would certainly help. In today's economy, though, I know that it's nearly impossible for anyone to find work, much less a felon. We need jobs programs for everyone, not just ex-convicts.

I'm very fortunate to know that I have a large safety net. No matter how difficult finances can get for me, I will always have a roof over my head, food in my tummy, and a good possibility of finding a job. I'm not afraid of what prospects I have because I am capable of working in many environments. For others, I fear, there are not a  lot of great prospects out there, especially in a struggling economy. So, how are we to help them stay out of prison? It's a question I sit and ponder.