Post by Susan Mwarabu

Martin Luther spoke about the American Dream and through much struggle he was able to influence change in our society, broadening the possibilities of the American Dream to include ALL people, regardless of the color of their skin.  For incarcerated populations however, the American Dream remains elusive at best and might only be realized after overcoming an array of boggling hindrances.

I have a dream

Symptoms of the poor health of the American Dream for ex-offenders are summarized in the findings of a recent PEW Center on the States study. The study revealed that:

1. The United States has the highest incarcerated population in the world.
2. Currently 2.3 million Americans are behind bars, which is 1 in every 100 adults.
3. Over $50 billion is spent on incarceration costs alone.
4. Possible earnings of incarcerated people are reduced by 11% due to employment practices.
5. 2.7 million children have a parent behind bars which translates to 1 in every 28 children.
6. Unemployment numbers do not include incarcerated populations. This means that labor surveys paint unrealistic portrayals of employment numbers.

The American Dream is ailing for those with criminal records and the only cure is one which can be administered by members of the broader community. With community efforts such as those by Amicus, the health of the American Dream could be restored.

What is the future of the American Dream? Is it possible for all of us to find a way to work together in creating a healthier dream?

A crime begins and ends in the community. It follows then that the solutions are within the very same community. The solution is in helping ex-offenders find employment, housing and reconnect with offenders’ family members who are often the collateral victims of crime incarceration. Finding ways to restore the American Dream could be in the form of supporting organizations like Amicus or one close to you. It could be in the form of teaching ex-offenders critical skills necessary to find gainful employment.

Just like we came together so many years ago to create a reality of the American Dream so then must we again come  together to create clear unobstructed paths to reintegration. If all people are created equal, we should work to make sure that ALL  have equal opportunity to the American Dream. Together we must keep the  American Dream from becoming an American Nightmare.

Deborah Stenerson knows the power of relationships. Her actions in an abusive relationship resulted in a prison sentence. A positive relationship through Amicus  played a role in  encouraging and inspiring her to make a change in her own life.

In November of 2002, Deborah was convicted of 2^nd degree, unintentional murder. She was being abused at the time and in striking back, she lost control.

Deborah recalls the scene and said, “I didn’t know what was going on, but I kept thinking, ‘what did I do?”

Deborah was charged with murder and booked into Hennepin County Jail. After seven months, she transferred to Shakopee Women’s Correctional Facility.

During her time in Shakopee, Deborah took advantage of classes in anger management, office support and she received her computer certificate. She also took some college courses and a three years associate’s degree in business communications and computer software.

“It was place that saved my life,” she said. “People think you go to prison that it’s horrible…it doesn’t have to be …but how I spent it was still up to me.”

Deborah accomplished much in her time at Shakopee and was able to help several other women along the way.

After five years at Shakopee, Deborah sent in a request for a One-to-One friend through Amicus.

Amicus Volunteer and Mentoring Program Manager Robyn McCullough traveled to Shakopee to interview Deborah, learning more about her in order to give her the best volunteer match possible. “I said that I would like someone my own age, and that psychology was my favorite subject,” Deborah said.

Deborah was thrilled to learn that she would be matched with Cindy Anderson, who happened to be a psychologist, just as Deborah aspires to be. Within the next year, Deborah is hoping to pursue a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

“She (Cindy) is an amazing woman in that she gives of her heart and her time. It is just awesome,” Deborah said. “It inspires me to do the same, the giving-back part is so important.”

When Deborah left Shakopee, on a work release program, Cindy continued to display her support.

“We just had some great conversations and had a lot of similar interests. And it was really nice,” Deborah said. “And she made sure she was there every two weeks. I really look forward to seeing her…we really have developed a friendship now that is very deep.”

Despite the obstacles, Deborah is now working part-time at Classic Market Café and Hallmark cards.

“She (Cindy) was so proud of me when I would obtain a goal: my degree, my treatment, when I graduated,” Deborah said of Cindy’s affirming nature. “She was always just cheering me on, saying she was just amazed at how remarkably I was doing. And so her support was just really, really important.”

Through her relationship with Cindy and others, Deborah says that she ultimately has gained a sense of peace in knowing that things will work out for the better.

“Because you can’t do it alone,” she said. “And you don’t need to.”

Katya, Mark and family aboard Amicus II. Through their business, Katya and Mark have figured out a way to combine two of their passions: sailing, and working with young adults.

Editor’s note: When you think of the people who helped shape the Amicus we know today, Katya Goodenough Gordon has got to be on the list. Katya’s work with girls helped form the backbone of what is now Amicus Radius. As you’ll read, Katya’s zipcode may have changed, but she’s never truly left Amicus!

Guest post by Katya Gordon

What Amicus has meant for me has evolved many times through the years.  About 12 years ago when I first joined the Amicus team, we were given the immense freedom and responsibility of creating a pilot program with “serious and chronic” teenage girl offenders in Minnesota.  We were told that we were to employ the principles of gender-specific programming (what works for girls) and restorative justice to our program.  What this would actually look like was for us to discover.  Through much blood, sweat, and tears, as well as moments of euphoria, healing, and rays of truth that shone like a shaft of light through the bars of a prison cell, we developed a program that centered around the circle process.  The girls in our program, along with their families and support systems, had the answers to their complex and horrific pasts.  They knew what needed to happen better than us, better than any system, and better together than any of them alone.  Our job became clear—to clear the path for them to connect deeply with one another and figure out what needed to be done—today, next month, and next year.  We learned that every person has a story.  We learned that hope is an important torch that Amicus must carry, even if (especially if) we are the only ones.  We learned that truth-telling, grief, and healing is messy.  All these things were deeply instilled in me and came to symbolize the “Amicus spirit,” embodied by our programs but available to anyone with an open heart and a listening mind.  To make a long story short, the program morphed into the girls program we call “radius” today, and I left the picture to marry my soulmate, Mark, and bring two daughters into our lovable but oh-so-imperfect world.

Fast forward a few years.  Mark and I, committed circle facilitators and also outdoor enthusiasts, bought a sailboat.  It was time to bring our principles to the vast waters of Lake Superior and beyond.  Naming our boat was as easy as naming our children (which each took about one 2-minute conversation)—Amicus, of course!  But wait!  How could we be so sure, and so, um, presumptuous?  The word carries such…soul.  Amicus to us meant all that was hopeful in spirit and nonjudgmental in practice. It meant that we intended to be a real “friend”—respectful of all peoples, believers in personal transformation, and unafraid of the messiness of life.  Surely we would feel nurtured by such a spirit.

And we have.  Amicus took us to the Bahamas for a year when our girls were 2 and 4.  She gracefully sailed over rough waters, weathered storms and reefs, and brought us safely home.  When we outgrew her, we bought a boat that would bring us into the next layer of our life vision—taking others sailing, and in doing so spreading the growth and joy with which we have been blessed.   Naming our new boat—a 40-foot steel cutter–was easy again—Amicus II, of course.  Change really does start from the inside.  Sailing had changed us, and we knew it could change others.

Now we are the proud owners of a small charter sailing business on Lake Superior.  We work every day to bring the Amicus spirit into our everyday lives and into the lives of those who sail with us.  While we take plenty of people on two-hour day sails on the north shore, our passion is taking young adults sailing for weeks at a time, and in the next year we have planned four voyages that will bring us through the Great Lakes and to the Caribbean.

Why young adults?  As anyone who works for Amicus, Inc., knows, young adults are steeped in the most formative years of their lives, and they are living them in tumultuous times.  The preposterous cost of higher education, the addictive pull of electronic media, bewildering and conflicting moral and political paradigms, the need to separate from one’s parents, and the lack of entry-level living wage jobs all conspire to make life anything but easy for many of today’s young adults.  What we offer is not that different from what Amicus, Inc., has always provided—a supportive environment in which to make important decisions, a break from daily life, and opportunities for meaningful relationships.  Young adults who sail with us know that life doesn’t have to be fun to have fun.  They learn that there are many ways to live, some which they have never even considered.  They learn that it is not foolhardy to have dreams and work hard to realize them.  Our deepest hope is that we are carrying the torch that Amicus, Inc. lighted in us, and both Mark and I are proud to consider our sailing mission a small branch in the incredible work that is happening on land.  Thank you Amicus!

In January of 2012, the Saint Paul Circle of Peace, an Amicus-supported grassroots organization dedicated to decreasing youth violence, took 55 people to the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis to watch a live performance of “The Lion King.”

The Circle works with young people who have been involved in the juvenile justice system, helping them find their way to a more successful path by reconnecting with their community. The Circle has met weekly at Unity Church Unitarian for nearly two years, offering friendship, support and guidance to the younger participants and to each other. Many of the young Circle participants are residents of the Boys Totem Town juvenile detention facility or have been judicially assigned to the Evening Learning Center program.

Much of the performance’s audience that night in January went to the Orpheum to see the story of a lion finding his way back to Pride Rock. The Circle of Peace brought its own young lions.

Amicus Volunteer Recruiter James Cannon speaks at the 2011 Second Chance Day on the Hill

Post by Steve Nelson

One of our staff recently told me about an encounter he had at a volunteer recruitment event in a local shopping mall. He was staffing one of the many tables set up by organizations hoping to entice shoppers into learning more about their volunteer opportunities when a man came up and asked about Amicus.  Upon hearing that we work with Minnesotans with a criminal record, often helping them successfully reenter society after a prison sentence, the man shook his head and said “Oh now, I can’t get involved with you. You see, I’m ‘anti-crime!’

We both laughed  about that one.  In reality, I can’t think of an action that particular gentleman could have taken which would have been more “anti-crime” than volunteering for Amicus or getting involved with one of the other local organizations focused on reentry.

Conversely, there’s nothing out there more “pro-crime” than denying employment or housing opportunities, or even positive friendship to those who are leaving prison after serving their time. People involved with reentry know that not everyone we work with is going to make it on the outside.  Sometimes they go back into prison because they’re not ready to make the life changes they need to make.  Just as often though, it’s because they encounter so many closed doors, so many hopes unfulfilled, that, even if it’s just for a moment, they give up. It might be failing to call in to the Parole Officer or stopping by a bar for a drink instead of checking employment listings that day. It’s nothing flashy, but more than enough to send you back to prison if you have a record. Occasionally though, giving up can also take a more violent or desperate form.

Watching the “giving up” scenario play out way too many times is why I believe the most “anti-crime” stance on the planet is taking personal responsibility to ensure that the bridge to restoration isn’t closed to those with criminal records due to neglect and disrepair. Unlike those we see talking tough on tv news, protecting and enhancing that bridge is how we can be truly tough on crime.

We can support policies which give those with criminal records a fair shot at a job interview or the opportunity to get a lease on an apartment or house where they can find peace and recharge.  It doesn’t have to be easy, just fair – a process that looks at the individual, not just the crime. We can also ensure that judges have the discretion to see that some of the juveniles in their courtroom who have made a mistake don’t always have a public record following them into adulthood.

You can help do all that and more at Second Chance Day on the Hill on Jan. 31.  There’s a rally of all who believe in second chances in the rotunda at 10 a.m.  and it’s followed by opportunities to visit your legislators, strengthening their resolve to be fair to ALL their constituents, even the one in four of them who has a criminal record.  For more information and to learn about bus transportation to the event, check out the Minnesota Second Chance Coalition website -  www.mnsecondchancecoalition.org.

See you there!

Breeze Red-Sky consistently walks into the Amicus office with an ease and, yet, a quiet determination not seen much. Underneath that demeanor lies a person on a unique journey of trying to rediscover his roots and the value of simplicity.

Breeze Red-Sky finds Amicus to be a safe place from which to continue his journey back into community.

As part of an Ojibwe tribe, Breeze grew up in the Red Lake reservation. He was influenced by his family’s cultural values and the fact that they placed little worth on material things.

When Breeze was starting his final year in high school, he began dealing marijuana and soon became careless. The dealing drew him into more serious and violent crime, and in September of 1989, Breeze was convicted of burglary and second-degree murder with intent.

Breeze was determined to push himself forward despite his 22-year incarceration at Minnesota Correctional Facility – Oak Park Heights. A guard encouraged him to start reading and that helped Breeze start on a path to learn more and take advantage of the college courses that were available to him while he was there.

Breeze also began steady work on his release plan and took specific classes in computer programs that helped.

He learned many things through his preparation, including the resolve to make a living despite reentering into a society that is not always open to individuals with a criminal history.

“With the conviction, don’t get discouraged, keep your head up,” he said about the numerous times prospective employers will say no to a job-seeking ex-offender.

“One of them is going to be yes. Remember you have to take stepping stones.”

Breeze first heard about Amicus at Oak Park Heights as Amicus volunteers were working there with other inmates. The facility’s transitions staff also recommended he look into the agency, as he was preparing for release.

He describes his first visit to Amicus as nice and comforting. “You always get that welcome back feeling…You always feel it when you walk in the door.”

The reassuring environment is what attracts Breeze to the office multiple times a week and it provides him a safe place to job search and make necessary calls.

With ambitions to develop his own business, Breeze also decided to take advantage of the Heads Up Strategies class taught by Amicus facilitators Julie Jefferson and James Cannon.

Breeze’s class learned many skills related to interviewing and job searching and Breeze recommends it to anyone with a criminal record who is hoping to build their skills in that area.

“Being in there with other people like yourself gives you a sense of confidence that you can do this,” he said.

To help move beyond his past mistakes, Breeze intentionally surrounds himself with people who encourage him.

“I just don’t want to go back…I wasted too much of my time in there (prison),” he said. “You just have to keep a good attitude about it.”

Patience has become more important for Breeze as he is trying to withstand the urgency of daily life. Now, Breeze said that he is working to slow down a bit and appreciate simpler things.

Breeze admits that personal change is not easy. He is currently trying to confront the challenges of living at a halfway house and having a lack of support.

Still, he knows the strides he is taking will be worth it and says, “if you are bound and determined, it is going to come,” Breeze said. “There are going to be bumps in the road… dust yourself off, pick yourself up and keep going.”

The new Amicus "Radius Evaluation Team" will work with Wilder Research and Hennepin County to explore "what works" in juvenile justice programming for girls.

 Girls have often been overlooked in the U.S. juvenile justice system, but that’s changing. While boys are still arrested more often than girls, arrest rates for female juveniles are growing at a much faster rate and an estimated 15,000 girls are arrested each year in Minnesota alone. Girls also represent 44 percent of Minnesota’s out of home placement population – over 6,500 in 2007.

In response to these facts, Amicus, a local nonprofit which works with inmates and those reentering society after involvement with the justice system, has partnered with Wilder Research to explore what works best in addressing the needs of girls involved in the juvenile justice system.

For over a decade Amicus has operated Radius, a nationally known program that works with girls ages 12-18 who have been involved in the juvenile justice system. Radius is built along the belief that girls who get involved with delinquent behavior have very different needs than boys. They’re more motivated by relationships and their relationships, good or bad, often contribute to their behavior.  Girls are also more likely to have experienced trauma, abuse or mental health issues.

The grant provides funding for a rigorous evaluation of Amicus Radius that will compare outcomes (including re-arrests, reconvictions, and out-of-home placements) for program participants with a historical comparison group. Wilder Research and Amicus will also be working collaboratively with Hennepin County’s Department of Community Corrections and Rehabilitation to gather and analyze data. The project will help identify the most effective program elements of Radius and inform efforts to duplicate those elements in other girls’ programs throughout the country.  In addition to the outcome and process evaluation, an estimate of the return-on-investment (ROI) for the Radius program will be conducted to assess the economic value of the program, informing public policy discussions about the value of this or similar programs to their communities.  The evaluation program is scheduled to run through September 2014.

“We’re very excited about this opportunity to examine what works in our Radius program and grateful for the partnership with Hennepin County and Wilder Research” Amicus President Louise Wolfgramm said.  “We know that Radius is having a deep and powerful impact on girls’ lives and we’d like to be able to show the world that as well.”

Wolfgramm also noted that more rigorous evaluative measures are rapidly becoming a standard expectation for those funding nonprofit programs and believes lessons from the partnership’s work with Radius will help Amicus improve its program evaluation across the agency.

“For a nonprofit to thrive in this economy, it must be constantly seeking out new ways to show its value to society. We’re grateful that this opportunity with Wilder Research can help us look closely at our already great agency and make it even better.”

Amicus’ Katahdin Fellow, Sonya Zuniga, is helping girls and young women find their own paths out of the dark places of trauma, despair and anger, toward more hopeful futures.

Post by Steve Nelson

“I’ve been there, I know,” is a phrase that might cause eyeballs to roll at the Amicus Radius program.

The fact is, most of those who dedicate their careers to helping girls involved in the justice system, can never really know what it’s like for a girl dealing with the most serious issues, because “having been there” is simply too high of a price to pay. Fractured families, life on the street, abuse, drugs, and other criminal activity can weave a net that many can never escape.
Sonya Zuniga has the mixed blessing of being able to speak from experience.

Sonya is Amicus’ Katahdin Fellow, a new position created to help talented individuals who struggled as teens but now aspire to gain the academic and work experience needed to help others in the social work field.

In this role, Sonya is helping establish a support group for young women who have “graduated” from Radius but could still use some support to deal with the stresses of challenging lives. With financial support from the Katahdin Fellowship, Sonya is also a second-year student at Inver Hills Community College, studying psychology.

Not too long ago though, Sonya was studying for an advanced degree in finding a place to sleep for the night. At age 13, she was one of the estimated 2,500 kids in Minnesota who struggle with finding housing each day. She bounced from place to place, friends’ houses, cars, public parks, doing whatever it took to get what she needed to live on. She dropped out of school at age 15 and had no idea what her future might hold.

“I don’t know how I got through it,” she recalls. “Summer wasn’t so bad. I would stay up all night if I had to. One day I just woke up and got tired of the way I felt. I was angry. I was lost.”

She started entering a series of treatment facilities and halfway houses, began working on her GED and started reaching out to people who might help.

At one treatment facility Sonya came across a very good counselor who helped get her out of her shell. She opened her eyes to see how the lives of girls only a little older than she was were being wasted through chemical dependency and other issues.

“There was so much talent! Musicians, artists, poets, people who loved to help people. When I look back on it, I remember
asking what could have been done differently. Maybe they could have seen that they were more than what they were doing. That’s what happened to me…You grow to hate life at that time. What we need to find are ways to help make them fall in love with it again.”

She credits reading and poetry among her lifelines. Even when she didn’t know where she was sleeping that night, she almost always carried a book in her backpack- earning her the nickname “bookworm” among her friends. “That was my escape. I think it might have taught me to care about things. I knew I was different and wanted something better for myself.”

Sonya sees one shortcoming of typical programs for “troubled teens” as their limited duration.

“If you’ve lived so many years one way, a short time of doing things differently isn’t enough. So many of these girls get released back into the same environment they came from with only a few nice words to say to themselves as they look in the mirror.”

That’s why she’s passionate about the beginnings of a Radius “graduate” program. “Yes, you’ve graduated from the Radius program, but let’s keep the progress going. Let’s keep thinking… We need to provide a safe place for our participants to look at themselves – a supportive place where they know they’re not alone.”

Sonya’s “now” life is going well. She’s reconciled with her mother and is a mom to two daughters, ages three and five. She is in her first full semester of school and is watching her dreams become reality, step by step. Still she never leaves her past so far behind her that she can’t see herself when she works with a troubled Radius girl.

“I know the feeling of surrender and defeat; of hopelessness and destructiveness and hatred and anger. I’ve been in the darkest place ever at a really young age. I also know what it takes to rise above it.”

Poinsettias

Post by Susan Mwarabu

I heard the following story of a man and his poinsettias a while ago and I have no idea who first came up with it. Like all parables,  it would change and take on different meanings depending on the events of the day.  In this rendition, it’s a story that applies to everyone, but is especially relevant to those who have a challenge in how they view themselves.  It goes like this:

There once was a man who had a garden of beautiful poinsettias. He was also a very busy man and had lots of obligations that took him away from being able to take care of his garden.  Well one day, he had to go away on a business trip.  He was exhausted when he came back and couldn’t muster the energy to tend to his poinsettias, which were by then overrun with weeds.  It occurred to him that he could simply outsource this job.  So he hired someone to tend to his garden.

Satisfied with his brilliant idea, the man got busy taking care of his other duties. Once done, he decided to go out and relax in his yard. His eyes skimmed the landscape and took in the fresh-cut green grass and travelled on to take in the sight of his beautiful poinsettias. It took him a few seconds to realize with horror that the area that had once been his garden was now a gaping space. The worker he hired to remove the weeds had failed to distinguish his weeds from his poinsettias.  The beauty of the garden had therefore been cut down, along with the problem.

The man resolved that from then on he would always take care of his own gardening needs because he could best distinguish what he wanted his garden to look like.

Our lives are very much like this garden. If we don’t tend to our weeds and spotlight the most attractive side of ourselves, no one else is going to see the poinsettias inside of us. For ex-offenders, the weeds might grow even a little higher.

The weeds in an ex-offender’s life take many forms. In some cases, it is a lack of the work skills needed to land the employment one wants. In other cases the weeds are someone’s attitude on life and unwillingness to own up to his or her mistakes. In other cases, it is a need for the right education to compete in the world. While in others, it’s low self-worth or inability to see that what needs to get done will only be accomplished by the individual herself.

There is a poinsettia in every ex-offender, but it takes work and effort to show this to a community that often assumes our gardens contain only weeds.  For over 40 years, Amicus has worked to help each of its clients bring out their inner poinsettias. Amicus has many programs, all designed to help ex-offenders find a way to show the best side of themselves to the world. But even with assistance from Amicus, the ultimate responsibility lies on the individual ex-offender. The maintenance of our lives boils down to how we care for the personal gardens growing within. Amicus might help someone find the best growing conditions or lend a tool or two, but the individual provides the constant care.

In the end, if one does not take responsibility for weeding his or her own garden, the  beauty and possibility of who they could be will  get lost in the weeds in their lives.

Community Web of Connections

Perhaps the most ubiquitous emotion an ex-offender goes through upon release is the fear of making a mistake that could result in revocation of their probation or parole. A common thread of all probationary and parole terms is that an ex-offender must avoid having any negative contact with law enforcement. It is a rule that makes perfect sense because it is designed to impress the importance of abiding by the law.

For an ex-offender, fear takes several forms. There is fear of not getting a job, fear of not getting housing, fear of re-offending, fear of everyone knowing you have a criminal background. Basically, an ex-offender’s existence is riddled with fear, which serves as a backdrop of all actions they intend to take upon reentry into their communities. One  addition to an ex-offender’s set of fears is perhaps most evident in the recent public demonstrations taking place throughout the country.

Fear to re-offend has led to a  conspicuous lack of ex-offender representation in public demonstrations, such as in the recent Occupy Movement. Regardless of whether one approves of the protests, we would be hard pressed to find anyone currently on probation or parole holding a sign talking about restorative justice or any form of ex-offender issue.

An ex-offender involved in a public demonstration such as the Occupy Movement, would be risking the possibility of having contact with law enforcement, which could result in loss of parole and probationary privileges.   The Right to Assemble is therefore one constitutional right that an ex-offender would be reticent in exercising. The fear of re-offending drives an ex-offender to shroud themselves with the cloak of normalcy in the hopes of living a ‘normal’ life.  Fear of losing probation or parole privileges is perhaps the sole reason an ex-offender works hard to ‘blend in,’ because only then, does an ex-offender have a chance at gaining employment, obtaining housing and being part of a community.

While groups such as Amicus and the Minnesota Second Chance Coalition (of which Amicus is a member)  can provide a voice in support of fair policy for those with criminal records, too often, an ex-offenders’ fear of making themselves known relegates them to being a spectator in the happenings of their community.

What will our community look like if we do not find a way to reconcile and have discourse with those who have erred, paid their dues and are now ready to get back into the world?   One can’t help but wonder; what will be the fate of ex-offenders who may not have a voice to represent their plight?

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