I have a son who is in prison. In dealing with the shame, the confusion, the grief, the embarrassment, the anger and the humiliation of that experience, I had a defining moment. I could be a "victim" of the circumstance or I could take action. I have chosen to take action.

I am now the Co-Coordinator of Southern ColoradoCURE. CURE (Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants :) is an international organization dedicated to repealing the death penalty wherever it exists and to advocacy for the incarcerated, their families and the formerly incarcerated. This wonderful organization, although a 501©(3), is not a charity and doesn’t provide services beyond information and advocacy. We work to change unreasonable laws and departments of corrections regulations; we advocate for prisoners and we support, succor and inform their family members.

You may all remember the wonderful, idealistic push during the late 1960s and 1970s to empty those fortress-like mental institutions. The goal was to provide idyllic, bucolic, community settings for those who had been locked up in prison-like buildings. Well, the mental institutions were emptied, but the community support didn’t materialize. Guess where those mental patients are now? Yep, in real prisons. Departments of corrections are struggling to deal with genuine mental problems that have led to violence or other crimes (theft for food or drug/alcohol-related crimes) due to lack of treatment at the community level.

My personal passion is reentry. Once a person has been incarcerated, as you probably know, that record stays with them forever. There is no such thing in the United States as "paying your debt to society." Once released, whether on parole or having served all of a sentence, a former felon faces almost impossible barriers to a normal life. How many job applications ask the question, "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?" We don’t allow employers to discriminate on the basis of race, creed, age or other uncontrollable factors, but we encourage them to discriminate against the formerly incarcerated.

I would love to have a second career in job placement for former inmates. I want to work with employers to see the tax and other advantages of hiring someone who, if on parole, MUST have and keep a job; who has been kept idle, perhaps for years and who would LOVE to become a contributing member of society.

Are there bad apples? Of course there are. But employers fire people every day — bad apples are not restricted to those who have served time in a prison. Are there people who should be in prison? Of course there are. But is it over 10% of the population of the United States of America? I don’t think so.

Dr. Brook Henderson, PMP