The Harlem Parole Reentry Court, a component of the Harlem Community Justice Center, helps parolees from the Harlem community who have been imprisoned for non-violent, drug-related offenses make the transition from life in prison to responsible citizenship. To promote accountability, participants are required to return to the court frequently to meet with case managers and parole officers and appear before the judge, who closely monitors their compliance with court orders. Judge Brigitte Fortune, who used to preside over the Reentry Court, discusses how the court works.
As an administrative law judge, how did you work with parolees before you were assigned to the Parole Reentry Court?
I only became involved in the process at the violation stage, and so I often felt frustrated and helpless. There are so many obstacles that new parolees have to overcome. It’s not that their intention is to get out and violate parole, but they often don’t know how to maneuver; they may not know how to do very basic things that some of us may take for granted. They can come out with the best intentions but fail anyway. I saw this again and again and it became a concern of mine.
Has the problem-solving court model shaped your thinking about parole?
I visited the drug court in Brooklyn and was impressed by how they treated drug offenders as people with a condition—they didn’t excuse the fact that the offenders had committed a crime against the state, but they attempted to deal with the underlying condition. That’s what made me want to be more than just the person who returns offenders to prison at the end of the process. I wanted to make a difference, to get in there at the beginning and allow these men and women to have a true opportunity to succeed.
Can you describe what the Harlem Parole Reentry Court does?
It’s a community-based program in which we try to help the parolee make a successful transition from being a prisoner to being a responsible citizen. The people who come to this program come from three precincts. They are people who have a relationship to this community and are being returned to the community. What we try to do is hook them up with the resources within the community so that they have a real opportunity to succeed. It’s not that the rest of parole doesn’t do a great job, but it’s helpful when you have a community-based program that allows parolees to see the impact their behavior has on the community, and on their families. Everyone benefits—the parolees, the community, the city.
Why do you think the reentry court model works?
It’s very hands-on, very intensive supervision. It’s probably harder in many ways than regular parole because you have a great many people who are monitoring everything you’re doing. The idea is to set up a plan that best suits you and that’s going to give you the best chance of succeeding. So it’s intensive, it’s more personalized, and that to me is the best part of the reentry program. When you have all this focus on you, everyone can see what’s going on—what’s working with you, what’s not working with you—you can get adjustments at any time during your supervision.
As the judge, how do you interact with clients?
My main interaction is on the bench. I see parolees when they’re released, then I see them every two weeks and then, depending on their adjustments, once a month. They can see me more frequently or less frequently depending on how they do. The parole officers are the first line of supervision and have the day-to-day contact with the parolees. I’m here as an added resource.
When I’m off the bench I interact with them in the waiting room outside. I make sure I go out, treat them like gentlemen, say “good morning” and “good afternoon.” That’s when they’ll tell me about their brother or their son, about what’s going on, and we chat, so I’m available to them. I want to know what’s going on in their lives. I take a holistic approach. I need to know if their family is in place, their employment is in place, their treatment is in place; I need to know that all of those components are working.
Also, I require the parolees to keep a journal. You’d be surprised at how honest they will be. You can tell whether they’re happy about what they’re doing, whether they’re getting discouraged and are going to give up soon. That helps me a lot when I go out into the room and I see them. It opens up more opportunities, as well as a dialogue. And they know that everything that’s said and written is for the team. We’re all working together.
What are the challenges of doing this work?
It is challenging when you have such a short period of time to try to change someone’s whole outlook on life. And many of the gentlemen here have spent so much of their lives doing what they’re currently doing, and they think that that’s fine. Except for the blip of incarceration they were doing well! And you want to make a difference. You want to show that there’s real opportunity out there. You don’t have much time to do that, and your time can be shortened by their behavior… You’re calling upon people to do things that perhaps they’ve never done before. And that’s a challenge.
How do the sanctions and rewards work?
The sanctions can be anything from a verbal reprimand to reincarceration. You can have a variety of sanctions, from additional restrictions and curfews to having the parolee sit here for a great part of the day. Rewards might be extended curfews, overnight passes and travel passes. I can reduce the number of court appearances if a parolee has been in the program for a while and is doing well. We get creative with our sanctions and with our rewards.
What is the importance of the community to the court?
The court relies on the resources of the Harlem area and utilizes community-based organizations to provide services to the releasees. Having the court located in the community where the releasees live and receive services makes us a valuable and convenient resource that can be utilized by the releasees and their families. It also allows for addressing re-entry on multiple fronts, including its effects on family and community.
How do you encourage ex-offenders to remain law-abiding? How do you provide support while also delivering the message of accountability?
You show them that there’s something else out there. There’s something other than crime you can do. You do that by having the services that we have here, like transitional temporary employment. You keep them busy.
But as they get out the door, you want something in place that allows them to meet their basic needs. And then they work from there. If they don’t have anything to eat, then they’ll get it some way, somehow. If they can’t pay to get on the train to get from place to place, then they’re going to get on the train anyway. They’re going to loiter if they have no place to rest. So we want to take care of their basic needs—the temporary employment, the temporary housing, the drug treatment—so that they have something to build on. If they come out and they have nothing, then they’re going to end up doing nothing.
If you provide them with the basics, it gets them from day to day. It provides for their needs for the day so that they can look for something better for tomorrow. And that’s life. I don’t know too many people who don’t get up in the morning and use one thing as a building block for the next. So all we’re doing is we’re just showing them how it’s done. This is what life is. That doesn’t mean you’re going to get up happy every morning. That doesn’t mean you’re going to love your job. If you want something done, you work for it. If you do something wrong, you’re going to be held accountable. You’re going to lose that job if you don’t get to work. You’re going to lose that job if you don’t get there on time. You are going to not only lose that job but you’re going to have to come in here, to me, and explain to me why.
And like I said, this is not magic. This is what we do every day in our own lives. We understand the impact our actions have on our communities and our families. It’s life, and you’ve got to get to living. It’s really very simple to go out and do what you need to do, and at the same time it’s the most difficult thing in the world.
How successful do you think you’ve been so far?
I can’t use the standards that I would use for myself. If a person’s been on heroin for 20 years and the only days they didn’t use it were when they were incarcerated—and even on some of those days they may have used it—then if that person comes out and remains drug free for a month, that’s a success, even if that person goes back to shooting up afterwards. I try very hard to look at the individual, and to determine what will be a success for the person, both short- and long-term. And in order to achieve that long-term success, I realize that we have to have the short-term periods of success and then incentives to help that person move forward.
How much do you think it matters that you’re an African-American woman?
I’m not sure that if I were not African-American and I were doing the same thing that it would make much difference, but I think it’s important to the parolees. I know that a great concern of many African-Americans when they’re involved in the system is that they be treated fairly. I think it would be beneficial to see more minority men involved in these courts. I think that goes a long way, in terms of the parolees’ belief that they’re getting a fair shake. Sometimes they would like to see themselves when they walk into a courtroom. But I don’t know that my being an African-American and doing this job is more important than someone being Irish-American or Italian-American and doing this job. I think it’s important that all of us are doing this job. We all bring our cultures and our perspectives to this role.
What advice would you give to those interested in starting a reentry program?
The key to the reentry program is remembering that everyone is going to have to step back from their traditional roles. Here, everyone’s role is expanded and restricted at the same time. You have to be willing to give up the kinds of control that you normally used to exercise and understand that you will gain so much more working as a team, respecting the opinion of everyone at the table.