Returning Citizens: Life Beyond Incarceration

The Philadelphia Mural Arts Project provides an opportunity for probationers and inmates to learn new skills, to channel their energy into repairing harm instead of their repeating mistakes. Anger and despair are replaced by pride in creativity and self-expression. Not art for art’s sake; art for our sake.

A sentence of life in prison without parole was a common one for teen offenders, until the groundbreaking Supreme Court decision ruled it unconstitutional. In the interim, thousands of young lives were virtually thrown away, consigned to hopeless imprisonment. Suddenly, hundreds of these inmates were unexpectedly set free, to reconnect and re-enter their lives. We hear their truth.

Jeff Brown runs grocery stores in urban “food deserts,” neighborhoods where access to fresh, healthy food is in short supply. For his workforce, he turned to an unexpected labor population: ex-convicts who needed work in the communities that form his customer base. "In general, they are grateful for the chance… they just want to take care of themselves and their families,” says Brown.

The formerly incarcerated face a range of barriers to re-entering society, but one of the most challenging and persistent is the search for meaningful employment. Though certain state and corporate mandates have helped to ease the stigma, many returning citizens have taken hold of their own destinies by becoming business owners and entrepreneurs, often by using skills they’d learned behind bars.

Seth Williams, Philly’s first black DA, was convicted on corruption charges and served three years in prison. He’s now a community activist who calls himself “the poster child of second chances,” advocating for returning citizens and working with credible messengers to combat street gun violence.

Susan Burton has helped guide thousands of women in transition from prison back to life in their community through A New Way of Life, which provides women assistance with housing and social and legal issues. Ardella’s House, founded by Tonie Willis, offers women a safe refuge, help with employment, family reunification, counseling, peer-to-peer mentoring and a place to be again.