Life after prison. What happens next?
After after 20 years, Christopher Tapp will be a free man Wednesday.
What will his life after prison be like?
Greg Hampikian is a Boise State University professor in biology and criminology, as well as the director of the Innocence Project.
He has worked with people like Amanda Knox after she later became exonerated. Heexplains the difficulties some people face when leaving prison.
The transition is not a walk in the park, he said.
“When you go out and try to get a job, if it says that you were in prison, on the Internet, if it describes the crime in an old newspaper story, even people who have been exonerated, have a very difficult time getting a job because who’s going to take a risk, Hampikian said.
Hampikian said inmates are used to having to guard themselves and their things. when they are freed, they forget the simplest things.
“They have a hard time making choices, a lot of them. When you take them out for supper, hand them a menu, they’re like, ‘Well, you order for me’ because they’re not used to ordering,” Hampikian said.
The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics states more than 2.2 million adults in the U.S. are in a federal prison or jail right now and early 700,000 people are released from prison each year.
There needs to be more programs that help with the transition, Hampikian said.
Regardless of a convicted felon’s stance, Hampikian said people like Amanda Knox are still experiencing hardships.
“She went back to school, she took courses, she became a journalist, she’s got a good job but I think she would say she’s still affected by her four years of incarceration,” Hampikian said.
In January, we introduced a story about a local mentor program helping formerly incarcerated people transition into society. That program is called Free2Succeed.
This mentor program has also been gaining more applicants. It has more 200 people who have applied to become mentors and nearly 450 people who have requested a mentor.
For more information on that program, click here.
