December 12, 2006
By Kathy L. Gilbert

Eight thousand prisoners are released from Oklahoma correctional systems each year with $50 and a bus ticket. Sometimes, even the price of the bus ticket is deducted from the $50.

That is not exactly a recipe for success, according to the Rev. Stan Basler.

"What do you think is going to happen?" asked Basler, director of the Criminal Justice and Mercy Ministries, United Methodist Oklahoma Annual (regional) Conference. "At the most fundamental level, people don't have what they need to start."

Basler has been working to help ex-prisoners find their way back into the world since 1994. "A felony conviction is still a substantial obstacle to an economic future," he explained. "Most of our people can get a minimum wage job but if you start without transportation, without a place to live, a minimum wage job will hardly sustain you, much less create any hope for a future."

The Oklahoma Conference runs two aftercare and re-entry facilities for prisoners and their families – one in Oklahoma City and the other in Tulsa – called Exodus Houses. Prisoners apply to live in the houses, are interviewed and assessed for chemical dependency. If accepted into the program, they can live in a furnished rent-free apartment for six months. They are eligible to apply for extensions after the initial six months.

"It is expected they will obtain some employment and save some of their money," Basler said. "When that happens they are responsible for their electric bill; that is all we ask them to pay."

When their time is up and if they have completed all the requirements of the program, participants are given an apartment's worth of furniture.

Living in the houses mean the ex-prisoners must attend a "Redemption Church" twice a week and if they are parents, they must attend parenting classes. Redemption churches are congregations of ex-prisoners, their families and religious volunteers.

Basler is a member of Penn Avenue United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City. Other redemption churches in the state are St. Luke's in Tulsa, Wesley United Methodist Church in Lawton and Warren Memorial in Ardmore.

Basler said the recidivism rate of those who have completed the program at Exodus House is extremely low. "I am not sure we have had any recidivate."

A second chance

Preventing recidivism, the rate at which former prisoners are arrested and sent back to prison, is the purpose of a bill before Congress called the Second Chance Act. The United Methodist Board of Church and Society is actively advocating for United Methodists to join in the fight to get the bill passed.

The Exodus Houses consist of 10-unit apartments which means the most they can house at each facility is 20 to 25 people. "We know this is only a drop in the bucket. That is why the Second Chance Act is so important," Basler said.

The Second Chance Act focuses on reducing recidivism by helping ex-prisoners find jobs and housing, providing them with mental health and substance abuse help and strengthening families.

In the United States, nearly 650,000 people are released from prisons each year and almost two-thirds of them are re-arrested for committing felonies or serious misdemeanors, according to Bill Mefford, a staff member of the Board of Church and Society.

"These numbers reveal that continuing care for prisoners is needed to stem the tide of recidivism," he added.

Some of the things the bill would provide are:

Grants which focus on jobs, housing and treating substance abuse and mental health issues; A resource center for states, local governments, faith-based organizations, corrections and community organizations to collect and disseminate best practices and provide training and support around reentry; and A federal interagency task force to identify programs and resources on reentry, identify ways to better collaborate, develops interagency initiatives and a national reentry research agenda.

According to statistics on the Human Rights Watch Web site, 70 to 80 percent of offenders re-entering the community have histories of drug or alcohol abuse. As many as 84 percent of criminals were under the influence of drugs/alcohol around the time of their offense, the site reports.

An increasing number of offenders have mental health problems and if treatment is not sought or available upon release, relapse is likely, states the Web site.

The average cost for imprisonment is $22,650 per inmate per year, Mefford said. Further, 10 million children have been affected by the absence of a parent due to imprisonment.

"The Second Chance Act will reduce recidivism, thereby preventing crime, making communities safer, strengthening families separated by incarceration, and rehabilitating ex-offenders into contributable members of society," Mefford added. "I strongly urge United Methodists to advocate for this important legislation and to join in the work of rehabilitation and redemption among those currently in our prisons."

Basler, a practicing attorney in his "first life," said he still believes what his 10th grade civics teacher taught him: When people are released from prison, they have paid their debt to society.

Working as a criminal defense attorney helped Basler see the people in courts as human beings and he discovered their humanity. When he started to explore his call to ministry he remembers praying, "God I will do this ministry deal, but I want you to remember I like working with people in trouble."

"After my second appointment I was offered this position," he said. "I guess I believe that God heard that prayer."

United Methodist News Service
Kathy L. Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.