Preparing ex-cons to live next door to you

The Pope’s visit to a Philadelphia prison was a reminder that the United States still locks people up at a higher rate than any other country. In large part because prisoners keep coming back. But the State of Pennsylvania has actually been trying to do something about that.

I talked with John Wetzel, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections who was facing budget cuts, and was worried about the kind of people he was about to release.

“These folks are coming back here, and we’re all invested in correction’s ability to actually correct people,” Wetzel said.

So he set about trying to turn his inmates into the kind of people you’d be OK with if they moved in next door. He set up transitional housing units based on the theory that an inmate needs education, skills, and to interact with his family when he gets out of prison.

“The transitional housing units are really focused on helping offenders get ready to come back into the community,” Wetzel said.

He was inspired by a trip to German and Dutch prisons where inmates sleep in real beds, can dress as they like, cook their own meals, and are never locked in solitary for more than eight hours. They also get paid real wages for their work so they have some savings when they’re released.

German recidivism rate after three years is still 35 percent. But the U.S. recidivism rate &#8212 despite our much harsher treatment &#8212 is almost twice that.

“The bottom line in Pennsylvania is $2.3 billion, and the fact that you would spend this much money without any focus on getting a return on investment is ridiculous,” Wetzel said.

“I’m going to release 18,000 people this year,” he said. “How do you want them to be? Older and angrier? Or with a set of skills so they can be successful when they get out?”

Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Corrections, John Wetzel, appears to take his title quite literally.