By Jeremy Tyler · Criminal Justice Reform
People assume prison is the punishment. In reality, for many non-violent offenders, the real punishment begins after release.
After serving ten years in federal prison, I expected freedom to feel liberating. Instead, it felt paralyzing.
I didn’t know how to use a smartphone. I didn’t understand modern technology. I didn’t know how to open a bank account. I couldn’t get a job at a coffee shop because my record made employers assume I was dangerous. I couldn’t rent an apartment because I had no recent history. I couldn’t even eat a normal meal without getting sick because my body had adapted to prison food.
No one prepares inmates to reenter society.
There are no reintegration programs that teach modern life skills. No technological training. No psychological preparation for the overwhelming shock of a world that moved on without you.
Meanwhile, the prison system profits every day you’re inside — and offers almost nothing to ensure you succeed once you’re out.
You leave prison not at ground zero, but in a deep hole.
The system says, “You’re free now.” But society says, “We don’t want you.”
I was rejected by multiple banks. Rejected by entry-level jobs. Treated like a liar when I explained my sentence for a white-collar crime because “no one goes to prison that long for that.”
Reentry is not about freedom. It’s about learning how to exist in a world that has decided you no longer belong.
If we truly care about reducing recidivism, we must stop pretending release is the end of the sentence. For many, it’s where the real struggle begins.
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