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Jason Corralez donned a freshly pressed collared shirt. He hadshaved neatly around his salt-and-pepper goatee. He looked like aman about to go on a job interview, which he was. It was a job hedesperately wanted, but one question gnawed at him: Would they bewilling to hire a convicted murderer? Mr. Corralez had one advantage as he applied for the position atTrader Joe's in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Both hisbrother-in-law and nephew worked at the grocery store. But as hiswife drove him to the interview, Corralez was worried about thatquestion on the application that asked if he had ever beenconvicted of a felony. He had written: "Will discuss duringinterview." When he arrived at the store, the manager queried him about hisr sum . Corralez went through his work experience, which allhappened to be from his time in prison, where he had been since hewas 17: upholstery work, yard maintenance, small engine repair,clerical tasks. "I explained my job experience," he says. "All thecourses I took anger management, morals and values." Corralez didn't leave out why he went to prison, either. "I'm anex-felon for the offense of second-degree murder," he told themanager. A former member of The Mob Crew, an East Los Angeles gang,he served 24 years for killing a member of the rival MS-13 gang ina drive-by shooting. "This is the person I was," he said, "and thisis the person I am now." According to Corralez, the manager stepped back, stunned. "Thankyou for being honest," Corralez recalls him saying. As theex-prisoner walked to the bus stop, he knew what it meant. "I tookeverything that I had accomplished, everything that I had to do toget a second chance," he says. "But I could see it in his reaction.It was like the nail in the coffin." Corralez's struggle to transition from prisoner to free member ofsociety is one that thousands of inmates across the country aregoing through as states trim their prison populations on a scaleunseen in American history. From California to New York, Texas to Michigan, a record number ofconvicted criminals are either being released from cells or servingtime in community-based programs as states, under pressure to cutcosts, adopt new philosophies on how to handle nonviolent offendersand many inmates incarcerated in the 1970s and '80s near the end oftheir terms. In some cases, lawsuits designed to reduceovercrowding are forcing authorities to open prison doors as well. These days roughly 700,000 ex-cons are hitting US streets each year a new high, according to Marc Mauer, executive director of theSentencing Project, a Washington-based advocacy group. While thevast majority of the inmates are nonviolent, some, like Corralez,served sentences for serious crimes and are now winning parole inhigher numbers. The result is an unprecedented test of authorities' ability tomonitor the newly released prisoners, of social service groups'capacity to help them forge new lives, of the inmates' willingnessto start over, of communities' tolerance to let them do so. Nowhere is this social experiment playing out with more intensitythan in California, the nation's largest jailer. It is looking tomove as many as 33,000 prisoners out of state penitentiaries overthe next year alone, many of whom could end up on the streets. Itwill provide the country's clearest look at how ready manycriminals are to be on the outside and society's readiness tohave them there. * * * America's arc in getting to this point involved a lot of clankingcell doors. From 1973 to 2009, the US prison population grew bymore than 700 percent the result of an uptick in crime, hugenumbers of drug arrests, and tough sentencing laws. At the end ofthat time more than 1.6 million people sat behind bars in federaland state penitentiaries, the largest inmate population in theworld. Yet in 2010, for the first time in 38 years, the US prisonpopulation declined. Experts cite myriad reasons for the modest(0.3 percent) drop: a decrease in crime in many cities, more use ofalternative sentencing, and fewer people put back in prison forparole violations. Early release of inmates for good behavior wasalso a factor. I am an expert from diamond-sawblade.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Wood Circular Saw Blades , China Diamond Scroll Saw Blade, TCT Saw Blade,and more.
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