“In California, known for decades as one of the nation’s most avid jailers, the trajectory of law and order is shifting. Through litigation, legislation and a series of ballot initiatives, the state’s prison population has dropped 25 percent over the past decade… Those who have family tend to find their way. But long stretches behind bars leave many without support.” J. Rodriquez and N. Bernstein, The New York Times

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“Gretchen Newby, executive director of the Stockton-based nonprofit Friends Outside, which provides support to prisoners and their families, said the city was experiencing a ‘cluster effect’…It’s common to come out with untreated illness, chronic conditions due to age and neglect,’ Ms. Newby said. ‘How are they going to live?’ Friends Outside case managers work to answer this question, lining up job interviews and transitional housing.

The roughly 600,000 men and women who leave incarceration nationwide each year are the long tail of the nation’s prison boom. Finding housing tops the list of challenges they face, followed by getting and keeping a job. These practical barriers are compounded by internal obstacles. Researchers report high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as histories of abuse and neglect among prisoners. These early wounds are compounded by the violence, humiliation and bone-deep isolation of the prison experience.

‘It’s a lot of work to unravel the garbage I created,’ said Jesse De La Cruz, who spent three decades in and out of California prisons. Former prisoners, he said, are expected to ‘change everything they’ve done all their lives in three months. It doesn’t work that way.’

David Eng was fortunate in this regard. He was sentenced to 17 years to life for second-degree murder…After 28 years, he left prison with the support of a handful of family members and friends. A brother in Stockton offered him a place to stay. A year and half later, he has a car, a new wife and a job helping other returning prisoners get on their feet at Fathers and Families, a Stockton nonprofit.

Mr. Eng is part of a wave of newly released lifers pouring out of California’s prisons — nearly 4,500 since Gov. Jerry Brown took office in 2011, compared with a handful a decade earlier…Results are typically measured in terms of recidivism, defined as a return to prison within the first three years out. Those who manage to stay free past this milestone — roughly half — are considered success stories.There is some logic to this form of accounting: The longer you are out, the more likely you are to stay out.”