Explore The Second Chance Club: Hardship And Hope After Prison Curated By Jason Hardy Classified In Readable Copy

provoking An empathetic, insightful insider's look at the parole system by a former New Orleans parole officer, Through the intertwining stories of seven parolees, Hardy reveals how the justice system often fails to give offenders the opportunities and tools necessary to reenter society.
Fiction is my usual genre, but I also enjoy social science books ones that ask the reader/listener to take a look at our world, society and the people within.
I knew I wanted to listen to The Second Chance Club: Hardship and Hope After Prison by Jason Hardy,

Hardy was a high school English teacher, had a master's degree in creative writing, but was toiling away in a retail job when he applied to become a probation officer in New Orleans.
Armed with a badge, a gun and good intentions, Hardy is handed his caseload overcases, double the national average.
The department is understaffed and underfunded, Here's a stat for you over,million people are on probation or parole in the United States,

Hardy focuses on seven of his cases in The Second Chance Club, Drugs are present in each of these people's lives, Some of them truly want a way out to a better life, But, what does that encompass A better life means something different for each person, Others are gaming the system, I found myself quite surprised by the breadth of Hardy's job, Maybe it's from reading all those fictional police procedurals for me, a probation officer sat in an office, with clients checking in on a regular basis, told to get a job and have a drug test.
Well, yes that happens, but there's much more to the job, Hardy and his coworkers regularly visit for home inspections and yes, home includes homeless tent encampments, find shelters, detoxes, counselling, court help and so much more than I knew.


I quickly became invested in the story of those seven cases, What would happen to each of them Would they escape the past, find a future or continue to live the life they know Sadly, disaster prevention becomes a phrase heard more than once in this book.


It was impossible not to stop, turn off the player and think as I reflected upon the latest chapter.
Hardy himself reflects that "Every hour on the job presented a new opportunity to reflect on my own privilege and the extent to which a persons place of birth dictates his aspirations.
. . "

The Second Chance Club gives us a real look at the inner workings of the criminal justice system and suggestions for what needs to change.
And change only comes with knowledge, An excellent book and most definitely recommended,

I chose to listen to The Second Chance Club, The reader was a favorite of mine and an excellent choice Jacques Roy, He seems to take on the personality of the author and becomes the voice for the mental image I had created.
It's calming and suited the subject matter, His voice is clear, easy to understand and pleasant to listen to, The speed of speaking is just right, allowing the listener to take it all in, He enunciates well. His voice rises and falls with the emotion/actions etc, This is a book that needs to be read in order to understand our justice system, those that commit crimes, and ways to help them to not reoffend.
This is also an eyeopening look at the life of parole officers and the jobs they do, I highly recommend this book,

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy free of charge.
This is my honest and unbiased opinion of it, Thank you so much for writing this book,
As a former PO myself, I have often thought that there should be a book about probation/parole that accurately describes the work.

This book is scarily accurate in the depictions of the overloaded caseload, the risk/needs assessment tool, the offenders, and the burnout among PO's.

You can feel the heat of the oppressive NOLA"s summer, the fine balancing act between jail and social services, and the families.

I loved the book for pulling back the curtain and giving a realistic look at what is desperately needed for the criminal justice system.
This book will teach you a lot about the criminal justice system in particular, how it plays out on the city level of New Orleans and statewide in Louisiana and the challenges that parole/probation officers face as they try to help those released from prison.
It's a tough read, but well worth it, An insiders look written by a parole officer at the relationship between incarceration, poverty, drug sentences, and homelessness, Ive previously read and highly recommend Michelle Alexanders “The New Jim Crow” and think thesebooks work well together to provide the reader a more complete understanding.
An eyeopening and sobering look into our parole system by a former insider, a book that everyone should read, Hardys client stories broke my heart, So many good people who become P, O. s with intentions to make a difference in their clients lives find themselves beat, buried under mountains of case files and within a system fraught with budgetary constraints and too few advocates.
The prisons are where the government money is thrown, not in rehabilitation efforts, We are better than this, America! An insightful look at the work of a probation and parole officer, and at what drives people into the criminal justice system and what might keep them out of it.
The title is a little misleading, as most of the people the author supervised during his tenure were not in prison for long if at all, and werent necessarily seeking a “fresh start.
” A couple of the books major themes are addiction and the lack of opportunities available for people mired in poverty, especially with a criminal record.


Jason Hardy worked as a probation and parole officer in New Orleans from, and the book follows his evolving relationship with the job and his coworkers, as well as the lives of seven of the more thanoffenders under his supervision.
These include an older homeless man struggling with addiction a young woman torn between a lawabiding job and the lure of boyfriends in the drug trade a drug dealer who gets a kick out of gaming the system a young man who struggles to control his anger and another who doesnt quite seem to want to kick his addiction and two brothers who have nothing to do once off the streets, with tragic consequences.
All of these folks are dealing with a lot of problemschildhoods in poverty and violence, addiction, mental illness and disability, and not really believing their lives can change.
A couple do see significant positive changes, while for others there seems to be little hopeor at least a great deal of uncertainty and risk.


As their probation officer, Hardy is put in charge of assessing risk and trying to get his people services to keep them out of jail.
Unfortunately, with few services available other than jailwhich is far more expensive than almost any other option, but often the only one taxpayers are willing to fundhe finds himself having to imprison people for treatment or just to get them off the streets to prevent them from committing crimes or ODing.
The realworld, daytoday aspect of the job is much more complicated and haphazard than grand theories would have you believe.


I enjoyed the stories in this book and found the authors writing engaging, and it also answered some questions I had about POs, like “why are they so useless to domestic violence victims” Answer: they really want to keep their people out of jail and there isnt much they can force on people short of that.
They may routinely ignore positive drug tests for the same reason, And it is insightful about the job and the conditions that created it, A few interesting passages:

“Increasingly, . . I didnt think about what was right or fair so much as what was practical, If we couldnt address the needs that drove the armed robbers to violence, then the only way to stop them from harming other people was to take them out of circulation for a while, at great cost to both the armed robbers and the taxpayers.
”

“Most offenders were hopelessly behind in the job race, Most had at best a ninthgrade education, All had criminal records, some of them extensive, And they all carried around the lesserknown but equally pervasive disability Id seen again and again: They didnt know anyone whod had any success at conventional work.
They couldnt believe that any employer would take them seriously, They believed they spoke the wrong language and wore the wrong skin,

The offenders who got jobs overreacted to minor workplace slights, In the drug game this was necessary, the most common and reliable way of showing you werent willing to be taken advantage of.
People expected it of you, It played differently at Sears and Chilis, Bosses who tried correction were accused of being disrespectful, Customers who complained were told to piss off, Offenders who werent fired usually quit within a few weeks, Compared with drug running, working for minimum wage was boring, and the pay sucked, and it was hell on the body.
In eight hours on the corner you could make twice what you made in two weeks at the dish pit.
”

And on asking a pair of offenders who they root for when watching CSI, one of their favorite shows:

“Both brothers fell over laughing.
When they caught their breath, they said they always rooted for the cops, and they explained why, In TV shows, the bad guys were motivated by obvious malice, They stole because they were greedy, They killed because they didnt value life, The people who broke the law in New Orleansthat is, people like the Landrysdidnt see themselves that way, They broke the law out of necessity, Gang violence was written off in much the same way mob violence was written off in the movies: a means of settling scores among people who couldnt appeal to the criminal justice system for relief.
”

None of it necessarily new to those familiar with the issues, but intelligently observed and wellexpressed, It shows sympathy and understanding for people caught up in the criminal justice system, but without romanticizing them aside from the actual crimes, theres a whole section on counselors trying to convince a young woman to be less homophobic, with minimal success.
Probation and parole are a crucial piece of the criminal justice puzzle and one about which people not involved in the system dont tend to know much, and this book provides an excellent and thoughtful overview with compelling human stories.
The big takeaway for meagain, perhaps, an obvious point, but worth repeatingis that arguing about whether crime is an issue of societal influence or personal responsibility is really beside the point: either way, we know providing services and offering meaningful alternatives is what reduces it.
So, why arent we doing that The first half held me, but by the second, the essays started to take on a numbing pattern.
Doubtless this mirrors the actual job, but it didn't do much for me as a reader, Worth picking up for the window into addiction and recovery, Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review,
This is an excellent look into the lives of parole officers and parolees, Each person ki n the author chose to focus on in the book had such varying degrees of need for social services and it is incredibly sad that these people can get the support they need.
The caseloads are extremely high which makes it hard for the officer to triage the probationers, I really admire the efforts these employees go to help and understand the probationers, He really points out where the system is greatly lacking and the various reasoning behind that,
I highly recommend this book,.
At first glance this book looks like something you might pass on and you might say, “I dont want to read about probation and parole.
” But then you might pause, taking a closer look at it and think about that one person you know or heard about thats in prison and decide Ill just take a look.
And I hope that happens because I think youll enjoy it!
My husband had a life sentence and has now been out of prison for overyears.
He has the privilege of working for and representing a place for the formally incarcerated to transition back into society.
It can be done and its a big job but it can be done one person at a time,
This book is well written and gives us a glimpse of the system at large, The author takes us through his daily duties and lets us meet all the challenges he sees and the endless struggles.
Addiction, poverty, and the homeless, Its a compelling story with his honest view of the system and I hope you struggle with it as much as I did.
I definitely recommend this book and want to thank the publisher for allowing me to read this,

This was a NETGALLEY gift and all opinions are my own, Jason Hardy grew up in New Orleans and knew that the criminal justice system was very broken, But, he wanted to be part of the solution, not just complain about how it didn't work, so he got a job as a probation and parole officer.
This book reflects his/years in that role and sadly shows just how little difference he made in that time.
When prisoners get out of prison and are on parole they are not eligible for ANY social services benefits, so sadly unless these newly released prisoners have a support system and few do, hence why they were in jail to begin with already in place it's only a matter of time before they reoffend again.
With almost no resources to offer, probation and parole's role is just to maintain contact and send the person back to jail if/when they reoffend.
It's depressing and demoralizing work with few rewards, I read a lot of hard books and hands down this is by far the most sad and depressing book I've ever read and that is saying something for me.
I was really hoping for at least ONE success story by the end of the book, But, the two parolees Hardy considers "a win" at the end of his employment were both helped by agencies outside the department of corrections honestly both cases just got lucky at the right time.
In the epilogue he does give some updates of newer programs New Orleans is offering that do shed a little more light on this issue, but it's probably just a drop in the bucket of success against the overwhelmingly depressing issues of mass incarceration, illegal drug trades, and lack of decent jobs and housing for former inmates.
While I feel like a lot of attention has been given to mass incarceration and false imprisonment especially for people of color, I haven't read much before this book about the issues facing former inmates when they get out.
But, this issue is equally or more important because if nothing changes for these people they will go back to what they know and what got them arrested to begin with.
A very sad and hard book, but shining a muchneeded light on this issue,

Some quotes I liked:

"Like addiction, the phenomenon Travis was describing appeared to transcend race, age, and gender.
People who got the least respect in the world felt the greatest need to demand it of bosses, friends, even strangers on the street.
They felt slights more acutely than the rest of us, And the impulse to right the wrong frequently cost them what little opportunity they got, " p.

"Fortythree percent of parolees in Louisiana would be back in prison within five years, Nationally, the parole revocation rate was closer topercent, Anotherpercent absconded, meaning they stopped showing up and were never heard from again, Those numbers didn't include people who died of drug overdoses and people who completed their community supervision sentences as poor and addicted as they were when they got out of jail.
Federal probation costs close to,per offender per year, compared to the roughly,per offender we spend in Louisiana, . . A Vera Institute of Justice study found that the average cost to incarcerate someone in the US is,per year.
At about,per year, Louisiana is on the low end of perinmate spending, In five states, the annual tab exceeds,, " p.

"The money became an addiction unto itself, and the skills that a person acquired as he rose in the drug world weren't transferrable to most other professions.
In time, many drug dealers who tried to go straight came to see themselves as uniquely unsuited to lawful employment.
Chest thumping, shit talking all the Don'tcrossmeorelse measures essential to survival in illegal enterprises like drug distribution and robbery were dealbreakers in the civilian workforce.
" p.

"The longer I studied successful drug dealers, the surer I became that the lifestyle addiction wasn't fed only by money and power and the thrill of the chase.
Getting over on authority figures was a fix unto itself, Conning a cop or a PO was one thing, All the dealers had done that at one time or another, Not many could claim they'd gotten a judge soapboxing about the American dream, " p.

"Lately we'd had a rash of offenders relapsing in their last month in drug court, When their counselors asked what had happened, the offenders were honest, If they graduated, they were off probation and out of drug court, They lost their access to services, Medicaid and SSI carried over in theory, but there was no one along to help the offenders stay in those programs' good graces.
Before enrolling in drug court, most offenders had extremely negative views of the criminal justice system, Eighteen months later, offenders were so attached to the support systems they'd found in drug court that they were failing drug tests on purpose and asking their POs to get their probations extended another year.
" p.

"Good jobs will always be the single strongest crime reduction measure there is, When you take away need, most forms of risk don't know what to do with themselves, Companies that go out of their way to hire offenders to recruit them rather than tolerate them and

that do so with an understanding of where many offenders are coming from, are doing a far greater service to public safety than any court or law enforcement officer.
" p.

"A lot of people at the New Orleans District were beginning to wonder whether the current moment in the drug debate represented a dangerous half measure in which drugs were still illegal enough to sustain a black market but not so illegal that dealers feared being caught.
To put it another way, the half measure approach gave up the drug war's greatest asset fear among drug dealers that their profession could land them in prison but without gaining the tax revenue or regulated product or sharp declines in blackmarket violence that were supposed to come with legalization.
"Worst of both worlds' was how some POs came to describe it, " p