The view from a Hagerstown jail

In her debut Publisher’s Letter this month, Suzanne Fischer-Huettner writes:

[This publication is] written for people who want to know more, understand more and put themselves in someone else’s shoes for a short time to take away an experience that will help each of us understand Baltimore issues and our legal rights a little better.

I thought about her words on Monday, while I waited to be admitted into the Maryland Correctional Institute in Hagerstown.

Alright, so I wasn’t being incarcerated (although that would spice up this blog post a bit); I was accompanying a reporter from The Daily Record on a story assignment. As the paper’s Web editor, I get the privilege of tagging along on special assignments.

But on Monday, while I waited in the pouring rain to be let into a medium-security prison’s meat-packing plant, it didn’t feel like such a treat.

For me, touring the facility’s apprenticeship programs - at the meat plant, several textile shops and a printing depot - was an eye-opening experience. I never thought I’d be in a confined space with a group of convicted violent offenders who were (no joke) sharpening knives just 10 feet away.

But at the same time, it became clear to me how vital programs like these are to the offenders and to all Marylanders.

The officials in charge of them kept mentioning the lower recidivism rate (the number of released inmates who lapse back into criminal behavior). They estimate that 25% of participants in training programs relapse, as opposed to 55% of inmates in the general population.

That’s a HUGE difference, and it makes sense: one group has job training, a resume, and a skill to offer to a potential employer. The other group has none of these things.

It was sad to see so many middle-aged inmates who had been incarcerated for decades (admittedly of their own wrongdoing). But it’s easy to see their contributions to society are improved dramatically through progressive programs like those offered in Hagerstown.

As Suzanne says best: “What I’m talking about is the human side of the law.”