Note to the Inside: The Outside Looks Better Than You Think

Moving from jail or prison back into civilian life is a notoriously difficult proposition. But there are signs -- in criminal justice statistics and in indicators of the popular mood -- that it might be a little easier these days than prisoners tend to think. PNS associate editor Joe Loya is working on a memoir about his years in federal prison.

The other day I gave a talk to a group of worried men in the Fairfield County, CA jail. They are worried that they may not survive the transition into free society.

As I confessed to them, I recently celebrated my fourth crime-free anniversary out of prison -- and I told them they could do the same.

My decision to go straight is part of a statewide and national trend. Recidivism is down in California. A decade ago, 70 in 100 offenders returned to lockup while today only 55 in 100 do. I offered more encouraging good news. California's prison population shrank last year for the first time since 1977.

Connected to the decline in recidivism and shrinking prison population is the fact that last year the nation experienced the largest single-year drop in violent crime since the Justice Department started keeping track 26 years ago. Apparently a lot of ex-offenders are coming out of prison and picking up a lunch pail instead of a gun.

Some prisoners think society hates them, doesn't want them free. Once out, they tend to believe they can only live on the margins -- at the bar, in a crack house, homeless, without roots. But I believe the ex-offender today comes out of prison into a less hostile social climate.

The old "reality" TV shows "COPS" and "America's Most Wanted" no longer have a grip on the nation's imagination. Americans aren't watching programs about catching criminals and sending them to prison forever, they are watching new "reality" TV shows like "Survivor" and "Big Brother," where regular folk volunteer to incarcerate themselves, then try desperately to avoid being released.

"Survivor" and "Big Brother" may be the most recent retelling of the American love affair with the outlaw. The three "Survivor" finalists were Rudy, a homophobic ex-Marine who most people want to win, despite his tactless use of the word "queer," Kelly, the river guide, wanted by the police for allegedly using a stolen credit card, and grand-prize winner Richard who came home and was almost immediately arrested for child abuse.

These new reality programs are also defining our nation's piety weekly by giving us regular Americans who deceptively, manipulatively, in their own self-interest. The lesson is that all of us are only a few stress situations away from acting against our own consciences and our fellow citizens' interests.

Reality TV makes it easier for John Q. Citizen to recognize the antisocial animal lurking inside us all. No wonder the (ex)prisoner is today getting some breaks. Recently, 502 survivors of the bloody and murderous 1971 Attica prison uprising -- where 11 guards and 34 inmates were killed when the state police shot into a crowd of hostages, then tortured inmates when the incident was squelched -- reached a settlement.

And abolition of the death penalty is a hot topic on front pages. Some states have placed moratoriums on executions. Last year, the films "The Hurricane" and "The Long Green Mile" clearly portrayed prisoners in a sentimental light, helping the public get a better sense of police and prison guard excesses.

Names like Abner Louima and Amadou Diallo put faces to victims of police brutality. Recently, in response to an ongoing police corruption scandal, a judge ruled that a group of LAPD officers can be tried under the federal RICO statute -- the law used to dismantle "ongoing criminal enterprises" like the Mafia.

Even more startling vocal support for the incarcerated comes from Republican politicians talking publicly about the failure of the Drug War and the need to use our resources better, to treat drug addiction as a public health issue, not a criminal justice one.

The nation is preparing to receive President Clinton as a flawed hero, a regular citizen, a survivor. Like the President -- who the people thought was guilty but gave high ratings -- the TV program "Survivor" reveals the frailty of our pieties by giving us incarcerated, morally elastic heroes to cheer for.

Ex-offenders sense that the moral panic of the mid-80s to mid-90s is waning. Society has become a morally complicated village where ex-offenders feel they can tough it out. Because think about it -- what better survivor is there than the criminal who just got out of prison?

back to writing