On August 7, 2008 Mark Feit’s life came to an abrupt halt.

For years, the Salem resident lived the good life, capitalizing on the construction boom with a home, nice cars, a wife and children.

However, under the facade, he struggled internally with an addiction to alcohol and meth. As his addiction grew, he began to lose all the things that were important to him, including his freedom. In 2008 he was arrested for theft, criminal mischief and criminal trespass.

On the recommendation of the prosecutor, Feit was sentenced to 26 months in prison, of which he served 12. On August 8, he walked out of prison a free man, but still a convicted criminal to society and employers.

Feit was among the roughly 14,000 inmates incarcerated by the Oregon Department of Corrections in 14 prisons throughout the state. More than 600 inmates are released monthly according to Marion County Parole and Probation Deputy Sheriff Lacey Carter. Many entered the prison system with professional skills and others barely knew how to budget their limited income other than to fuel their addictions.

According to the DOC, as of May 2009, roughly 29 percent of those released return within three years.

As Oregon prepares to shave off almost a third of selected prisoners' sentences, the DOC and county parole and probation divisions are working to reduce the number of inmates returning to prison. While the Department of Corrections has always had a transition program in place, there are renewed efforts to help those on the inside learn to cope with life on the outside. Though largely voluntary, inmates can receive help beginning six months or more before their release.

Life inside

Despite popular lore, life on the inside of a prison does not include inmates lazily sitting around watching TV and exercising.

“If they don’t have someplace to be, they are in their cell,” said Wendy Hatfield, spokeswoman for the Oregon State Correctional Institute. Each inmate has a job to do, whether sweeping floors, helping in the kitchen or higher skilled jobs such as state Geographical Information Services (GIS) or with the DMV call center.

“They are expected to work 40 hours every week,” Hatfield said. “They have to contribute or they can lose everything they have gained.”

In prison, currency comes in the form of designation. Newly admitted inmates start at level one with little to do but work or spend time in their cell. At level three, inmates with cash can buy DOC-approved clear plastic TVs at approximately $400 each, get more time outside of their cells, or even get a station in the prison hobby shop.

Inmates at OSCI share a roughly 6- by 12-foot cell with another inmate. Those at level two and three have a view of the outside. At level one, inmates must look across the corridor to see daylight. There is one small metal table and chair, both attached to the wall. There is a metal toilet next to the foot of the lower bunk and a small sink.

A corrections officer operates the hardened steel cell doors and the only means of communication between inmates within a cell and the guards is through the cell door window.

“I was scared,” said Brian Sonderson, who spent three years incarcerated for attempted sex abuse. “Everybody wants to know what you are in for. People are flat out mean, even evil.”

Transition from the inside

Although Oregon reports a 29 percent rate of recidivism, many who work with the recently released dispute that figure. They say the reported number is far too low. In Washington State, the recidivism rate is 40 percent as of June 2009 and Idaho has up to 62 percent in inmates reoffending if they choose not to enter rehabilitation programs, roughly 42 percent if they do. Nationally the recidivism rate is 67.5 percent.

Oregon is working to lower these rates through various programs. According to reports from various states outside of Oregon, for every 1 percent drop in recidivism, the state can save between $1 million and $3 million, money that can be used for other purposes during an era of reduced prison budgets.

Transition Coordinator Ed Sim knows the revolving door well. He spent much of the past 20 years as a corrections officer and two years ago took over the transition program at the Oregon State Penitentiary’s minimum- and maximum-security facilities.

“I saw guys coming in and out,” he said. “And many of them were smart guys.”

The state currently works with several programs including the “Road to Success,” a classroom-style program with homework that teaches inmates life basics such as finances, how to interview for jobs, finding housing and services, such as food stamps, that are available outside of prison.

Additionally they learn how to readjust to freedom and how to reintegrate with their families.

“One of the biggest anxieties these guys have is finding work,” Sim said. “We do mock job interviews and videotape them so they can see what worked and what didn’t.”

Although most state penitentiaries have a release program, the Oregon State Correctional Institute was designated as an official transition prison. Approximately 500 of the 800 inmates are within six months of release at any given time.

Both Feit and Sonderson went through transition programs and said they have severe shortcomings.

“None of that works when you get out,” Sonderson said. “We practiced one time how to do an interview. They need more time for the program to work.” Although Sonderson was able to use his outside connections to find housing and employment, Feit has not been so fortunate.

“It didn’t really do much for me,” Feit said. “I’ve been trying but if there are no jobs, then what they teach you doesn’t do any good. There are professional homeless people milking the system and guys like me who want to do something to contribute but can’t.”

While the orientation for transition programs is mandatory for all inmates, participation isn’t. Approximately 35 to 40 percent of those within 6 months of release take the classes. However, one program has proven popular.

The Reach In program connects inmates with parole officers from the county to which they are released and has an 80 percent attendance rate. Carter said one of the biggest fears she hears from parolees is that their PO is out to get them from the moment they are released.

“We want to put a face to Parole and Probation,” Carter said. “We had a guy released after 17 years and he was petrified. We don’t want them to fear us but to give them a picture of what services are available in the community and how to access them.”

Carter said she works with two types of offenders at parole and probation: Those in the pre-contemplative stage, meaning they aren’t ready to change their lives or behaviors, and those in action stage, meaning they are actively working to make positive changes. There are also various stages between the two. The stages are based on assessments and rehabilitative efforts are made based on the scores.

The county is working on a partnership with Chemeketa Community College to develop a 12-week college program focused on pre-contemplative parolees, giving them access to education, subsidies for housing and food and no supervision fees if they are accepted into the program. The program will be funded by federal grants and a grant established from Oregon’s Measure 57. There are other programs in place based on the parolee’s needs and assessments.

“If you continue to let people be pre-contemplative, they will continue to do what they do,” Carter said. “If you aren’t addressing criminogenic factors, you won’t solve the problem.”

While many efforts are being made with those at a medium to high risk of reoffending, Carter said those at a lower risk don’t receive as many services.

Transition on the outside

Once released, former inmates face challenges they didn’t when they went in. For long-time inmates, cell phones, computers and even standard eating utensils can be foreign. They often are released with little money, no place to live and few employment prospects.

In 1979, Steve Silver was arrested for a myriad of property and personal crimes and spent five years locked up. In June 1984, he walked out of the prison gates with $100 and nothing else.

“They didn’t have a transition program,” he said. “Fortunately for me, jobs were plentiful then. I only spent three days in the streets before I found a job.”

However, given his attitude toward life when released he admits he could have been another recidivism statistic.

“There is a fine line between prison and punishment,” he said. “I didn’t have much change in my thinking. I just knew I wouldn’t go back, even if it was by police assisted suicide.”

His life changed when he met a Christian pastor who helped him control his emotions and find direction for his life. This led to his eventual work with Prison Fellowship Ministries and now he is director of Stepping Out, a transitional home for men. Although Stepping Out is a Christian ministry, he said men don’t have to be Christians to live and learn there. They only need to follow rules that prohibit going back to their old ways, something Silver said felons struggle with daily.

“They don’t give these guys enough time to plan for all the variables,” Silver said about the DOC’s transition program. “They also lack people who know how to make the transition process work efficiently. It is a very generic program.”

Every day, people come and leave Stepping Out, sometimes on their own, other times because they pick up the meth or crack pipes or steal from house members.

For those who do stay, Silver and staff counselors work with them to find community aid, refer them to jobs and teach them life skills.

“The best thing we do is provoke them to think outside the box,” he said.

Other nonprofit groups such as Prison Fellowship Ministries also work with inmates before and after release. Northwest Regional Director Mark Hubbell said volunteers enter the prisons and work one-on-one with inmates, something DOC transitional counselors have little time for because of the numbers of inmates pending release. Often starting more than three years before release, Hubbell said volunteers from “bridge churches” begin working with inmates who seek their help. The volunteers not only teach the inmates life skills, but also give them a network of support once they are released.

“We have a mentor that will meet them at the gate or bus depot when they get out,” he said. “The first stop they make is with the parole officer. Then we work to get them to living accommodations and resources.”

Once out, mentors help the former inmates adjust their way of thinking and with their behaviors and attitudes, Hubbell said.

Families left behind

Prison Fellowship Ministries also works with families of returning inmates to help them in the transition process.

“Prison families are in survival mode,” he said. “They have the stigma of a crime they didn’t commit.”

Few know this as well as Gretchen Vala, president and volunteer with Oregon Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants, CURE, a Beaverton-based nonprofit dedicated to helping the families of inmates.

“We start in the beginning with families,” she said. “Whatever your relationship is with the person, there is so much fear about the unknown.”

Volunteers with Oregon CURE get to know families through intake orientations. This helps families know how to communicate with inmates through phone calls and mail and how to add money to inmate accounts.

Follow-up comes through support networks around the state.

“Support groups help people talk about loved ones in prison,” Vala said. “It is a very accepting atmosphere. It is a networking aspect that is so important.”

Oregon CURE is also filling a void left when budget cuts forced the Department of Corrections to drop family release orientations. Many families have developed day-to-day routines to help them cope with life while a loved one is incarcerated and now must readjust their lives as well.

“When inmates are released they suddenly have many decisions to make,” Vala said. “They have to choose what they will have for breakfast or what to do in a given day. This can be overwhelming for them and for their families who have learned to manage life without them.”

Unshackled

There are efforts underway, both public and private, to assist those with criminal records. The federal Work Opportunity Tax Credit gives private employers a $2,400 tax credit to hire a felon within one year of release and keep them on for 400 working hours or more.

Vala said the National CURE is looking at ways to offer free college-level education for former prisoners and their families. A program is currently being tested through the New York state chapter of CURE. The Oregon Employment Department has programs to help released inmates prepare resumes and find felon-friendly employers, and Goodwill Industries has programs that offer job training and placement assistance.

However, those who need cash or face homelessness say there are too few beds in transition, too few job opportunities in a state with an 11.1 percent unemployment rate, and too few resources. Although he said he is remorseful of his crimes, including sex offenses, former crack addict and prison inmate Darin Panning said the state has been less than willing to help him get his feet on the ground.

“I did everything they asked me to do and I didn’t get any help from them,” he said. “If it wasn’t for Prison Fellowship or ROAR (Re-Entry Organization and Resources, based out of Calvary Church in NE Portland), I would be bouncing around from homeless shelter to homeless shelter probably doing drugs.”

While the programs aren’t perfect, Sim said there are success stories as evidence when he has former inmates who have found success come to the prison they left and share their wisdom and experience.

“Some people say to lock them up and throw away the key,” he said. “Are these programs perfect? No. The fact is these guys eventually get out and they will be my neighbor and your neighbor. I think they should have at least some of the tools to be successful. The Road to Success and Reach in provide these tools.”