Exonerees struggle to rebuild their lives and gain lasting employment

HOUSTON– Richard Miles set out to find a job after his release from a Texas prison in 2009 with a collection of newspaper clippings from his wrongful murder conviction as his resume. No one would hire him, including warehouses and fast food restaurants.

It was a period of painful rejection, familiar to exonerees. Some see their own struggles reflected in Calvin Duncan, who won elected office in New Orleans after clearing his name but likely won’t serve. Louisiana lawmakers sent a bill Wednesday to the governor’s desk abolishing his position.

“We’re still kind of seen as an inmate who’s committed a particular crime. It further deteriorates our ability to believe that the system can heal itself,” said Miles, who eventually found a job through a pastor at his church. “When cases like Louisiana happen, it just shows us that the system doesn’t heal itself.”

The fight in Louisiana has struck a chord among exonerees in the United States who see Duncan’s plight as a reflection of the prejudices and stigmas they face as they try to rebuild their lives.

Duncan served nearly 30 years in prison before his murder conviction was overturned in 2021 after evidence emerged that police officers lied to the court. He was elected clerk of the Orleans Parish Criminal Court in November, pledging to fix the system that failed him. He was due to take office on May 4.

Louisiana Republicans who want to disband the office say it’s not about Duncan’s past but a necessary step toward effective government.

“Even if they are seen as someone who is exonerated, there is still a stigma as someone who has been in prison,” said Jon Eldan, founder and executive director of After Innocence, a California-based nonprofit.

According to the National Registry of Exonerations, more than 3,800 people have been exonerated in the United States since 1989.

But unlike those released on parole or probation, exonerees do not have access to government-provided services such as employment or housing assistance and mental health services.

“I was turned down by a lot of prisoner reentry organizations because they said, ‘Look, you’re not on parole, you’re not on probation,'” said Jeffrey Deskovic, who was wrongly convicted of rape and murder in Peekskill, N.Y., and spent 16 years in prison before being released in 2006.

Thirty-eight states have laws that compensate people who are wrongly convicted. But it may be years before they receive that money.

After Innocence works to connect exonerees with organizations that help them with job training, housing, medical and dental care. He also tries to clean up their records to accurately represent what happened in their criminal cases, Eldan said.

Miles, who spent more than 14 years in prison, now runs Miles of Freedom, a nonprofit organization in Dallas that helps formerly incarcerated people, including exonerees, rebuild their lives.

The challenges Miles faced as an exempt person seeking employment — including a lack of viable work history, skills and training — are not unusual, but it also appears that some employers simply don’t want someone who has been behind bars on their workforce.

There are no government statistics to track the employment rate of exempt people. Numerous studies have shown that the unemployment rate for incarcerated people is much higher than the national rate. A 2018 study by the Prison Policy Initiative found that formerly incarcerated people are unemployed at a rate of more than 27%. A 2021 Bureau of Justice Statistics study found that 33% of federal prisoners released in 2010 did not find employment for four years. Nationally, the unemployment rate in March was 4.3%.

Deskovic used the compensation he received five years after his release from prison in 2006 to create the Deskovic Foundation, a New York-based nonprofit that helps free the wrongly convicted. He later earned a law degree so he could represent them in court.

Exonerees tell Deskovic that little has changed since the years after his release, when he applied for jobs, including as a donut shop clerk and as a weekly reporter, but could never find steady work.

Exoneree supporters portray Duncan as someone who rebuilt his life and won elected office, but still faces criticism of his innocence and his accomplishments after his incarceration.

“If he wasn’t exonerated, would they do this to him? I’m sure they wouldn’t,” Deskovic said.

Eldan’s organization worked with a state senator to help draft and pass a law in Delaware that provides compensation for wrongful imprisonment, as well as stipend and assistance with housing, food benefits, and health and dental insurance. It also provides exonerees with a certificate from the state that they were wrongly incarcerated and found innocent.

Eldan said his group is working with several other states, including California and New Mexico, to pass laws providing similar certificates of innocence and updating the criminal records of exonerees.

More states should fund programs to help exonerees after their release, Eldan and Miles said.

“But it’s difficult to put into law something that actually translates into real benefit for these people,” Eldan said. “It’s not because the state is bad, but because it’s just not particularly good at providing these services.” »

Ben Spencer spent 34 years in prison for a murder in Dallas that he did not commit before being exonerated and released in 2021. He applied for jobs at an Amazon warehouse and as an airport baggage loader, but was unsuccessful in getting a position.

Eventually, someone who had taken an interest in his case helped him find a job as a facilities engineer, doing repairs for a company. He has worked there for five years.

“I think I’m settling in a little more now. I’m still trying to figure out cell phones and computers,” Spencer said. “When I got out of prison, it was like waking up from a coma or a bad dream. And of course, I still had to try to get some financial stability. I guess I won’t say I’m there now, but I’m closer to where I want to be now than I was before.”

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