Big Town Going Green features The Fortune Society’s Environmental Remediation Training.  Another effort on Fortune’s behalf to provide opportunities, skills and hope to formerly incarcerated men and women.

This Wednesday, May 16, at the Trump Soho Hotel, hundreds of young philanthropists will attend the Second Annual Spring Soiree of The Fortune Society, held from 9pm until midnight. The event will be hosted by the Fortune Society’s Junior Committee, including event chairs Luke Weil and Louise Tabbiner. Fortune Society is a non-profit that offers services to formerly incarcerated men and women. Of note, old friend John Forté, who is back amongst us after a bid at FCI Fort Dix, will perform. Best known as a producer for The Fugees and for a solo career that has included work with John Legend, Talib Kweli, Fat Joe, DMX, Herbie Hancock, Carly Simon, and Tricky, to name a few, John used to hang at my joints before his fall from grace. And now, it is wonderful to realize that after his stint he is once again a productive member of our world.

John “frequently seeks to team up with charitable causes when performing on tour. In the spring of 2011, Forté undertook a nine-week performance tour through Russia. All proceeds from the tour were donated to local orphanages and the international foundations Operation Smile and Petra Nemcova’s Happy Hearts Fund. Forté has been working with at-risk youth to deter them from drugs and crime. He has taught a music course to 12–15 year-old students with InArms Reach, a Harlem-based initiative for children of incarcerated parents. In addition to using his musical abilities to help spread a positive message to children, he has been working with a New York-based charity called Music Unites to promote the arts in underserved communities, where he educates students on his version of life, lessons learned, and the pursuit of happiness through music. Forté has also been involved with various organizations dedicated to prison reform, mitigating prisoner recidivism, and reforming federal and state drug laws.”

John came out of prison surrounded with love and teaming with talent and with lots of opportunity. This is a rarity. A person reentering society from prison is often burdened with debt, fines and an inability to find work or a place to live. There are few resources available to an individual and few choices except the ones that got them in trouble in the first place. Although it is in everyone’s interest to have the last crime they were convicted of and incarcerated for be their last misdeed, they are left with limited choices. Recidivism looms and everybody loses. The Fortune Society provides services that can change their world and therefore ours as well.

“Among those expected to attend are Vogue editor Valerie Boster, Vogue contributing writer Lauren Santo Domingo, gallery director Bettina Prentice, supermodel May Andersen, fashion designer Charlotte Ronson, star of Dallas’ Most Eligible Matt Nordgren, Socialite and Blogger Dori Cooperman, Antonio de La Rua, philanthropist and patron of the arts Fabiola Beracasa, financier Alejandro Santo Domingo, Sports Illustrated model Julie Henderson, and Real Estate Mogul and Owner of the Trump Soho, Alex Sapir.”

The event is clearly a gathering of the have’s doing their part to help the have-nots. I caught up with JoAnne Page, Executive Director of the Fortune Society, who told me all about it.

Tell me about the work of the Fortune Society.
I believe that, if you care about issues of justice, the criminal justice system is the “belly of the beast.” It is where issues of hope and despair, justice and injustice, racism and brutality, and how we treat those whom our society values most and least, all show up in their most naked form. The United States leads the world in incarcerating its citizens, with 25 percent of the world’s prison population. The two largest penal colonies in the world are the L.A. County jail system and Rikers Island, and we lock up a higher percentage of our black population than South Africa did during apartheid. Those are shameful statistics.

Fortune’s work is twofold: to advocate for a more just criminal justice system, and to provide a broad range of services to help men and women re-enter society after incarceration, or receive sentences that are an alternative to incarceration. When we succeed, everyone benefits: lives are saved, families are healed and communities are safer. Even though our work saves dollars as well as lives—for example, we save three dollars in incarceration costs for every dollar invested in our alternative to incarceration programs—we really struggle to raise the money to keep ourselves funded.

Tell me about the role of the young philanthropists, their motivation, and dedication.
It is wonderful to see young philanthropists like Luke Weil and Louise Tabbiner bring their friends together to have a party that helps to support Fortune’s work and to give hope to the people who walk through our doors. They are both members of our Board of Directors and have put a huge amount of work and caring into making the first soiree a success last year and to building on that success for this year’s soiree. We are honoring John Forte, who is gifting us with his music for the night and who deeply understands why Fortune’s work matters in the world. It will be a wonderful event supporting sorely needed services.

What motivates you personally to this cause?
The work that I do at Fortune is very personal to me. As a child of Holocaust survivors who knows something from my family history of the best and worst that human beings are capable of, it is both joyful and fulfilling for me to have my life work be about social justice and about creating a healing environment where people can rebuild their lives. I graduated from Yale Law School in 1980 with a commitment to work in the criminal justice system, and have headed the Fortune Society for the last 23 years.

I have the rare privilege of having the work that I do in my life be deeply linked to my values and to my personal history. Every day, I get to see people rebuild their lives, and grow to become people who matter in making the world better. Most of the people who work at Fortune, including members of our leadership, are people who themselves are formerly incarcerated and now are reaching back to help those who are coming out behind them. I believe deeply in the work that we do, and I get to see the faces of those whom we serve as they get their feet under them and start building new lives.

I taught a class at Sing Sing some years ago, and one of the men in my class told me that when he was growing up, he was told that he would either end up dead or in prison. I asked the other men in the class, and they had been told the same thing. Many of their friends were dead, and they had ended up in prison. Fortune is about giving people a chance at a future that holds more than death or incarceration and the soiree is a lovely event that will help usfund our work.

Marcus Samuelsson, owner of the Red Rooster and Ginny’s Supper Club, stopped by the Fortune Society’s Castle Gardens to demonstrate the importance of healthy eating.  This event showcased Fortune’s unique approach, embracing both client wellness and economic development within their communities. Read the article HERE.

Please RSVP Kristin Pederson at kpederson@fortunesociety.org

The Fortune Society Presents
Cooking Demonstrations
Wednesdays 4:30 P.M.-6:00 P.M.
Castle Gardens Lobby
625 W. 140th St

Thanks to all who attended and gave.  In addition Fortune would also like to thank our sponsors Avantair, Morgan Joseph Triartisan and Runa.

Did you miss the Soiree?  You can see pictures of this wonderful event in our gallery, below and see more on Flickr HERE.  We would also like to thank the very talented Larry Bercow for volunteering his time and talent to the Spring Soiree photo booth.  You can visit the booth HERE.  Be sure to check out his website  http://www.bercowstudio.com/

Successful Re-Entry Is Possible

Re-entry is different for everyone. Some are very well prepared. While others don’t try to begin picking up the pieces until they leave those gates. In my experience, hurdles will be placed in front of you, prepared or not.

Parole is not always easy to work with. Family doesn’t always understand. Society doesn’t always care about how much time you did. To be successful, there has to be an inside motivation. For most it’s not going back to prison. For others it’s for their family. But for whatever motivator, an underlying commonality in all ex-offenders, is to prove that successful re-entry is possible.

I’m not saying that NYS or NYC Department of Corrections (DOCS) has adequate fail-safes in place to help all offenders. What I am saying is that successful re-entry starts as early as possible, and some people understand that sooner than others. Also, it is about self-motivation. For example, I was an early convert in the criminal justice system. I got the message really early in my experience. I understood that I didn’t want to be there and I was definitely not coming back after I was released. Unfortunately, DOCS didn’t believe me and I ended up investing another 6 and a half years in my re-entry. However, that time was just preparation for the real “game”.

I didn’t realize that it was preparation until I was released. Once released, I had to learn how to balance life, on top of expectations from parole, family, and even society. I had to learn, relatively quickly how to balance it all. One of the benefits I had was knowledge of agencies, such as Fortune, that were designed to help people just like me. Not only that; they had people working there who were in my same situation and were now setting great examples of how to successfully re-enter.

I observed a lot and spoke very little. For once in my life I learned to use the two ears I have and shut the one mouth I have. And although I had a good family support network, I needed to see the formerly incarcerated being successful. I needed to see them being productive. I needed to see them in the same light that I envisioned myself. In the end I needed to be able to talk to them and hear the similarities in both our stories.

Successful re-entry is possible. It’s not easy, but it is possible. More importantly, when a formerly incarcerated individual re-enters society, does not re-offend, and becomes a productive member of society, their success discredits the negative connotations, stereotypes, and stigmas that are associated with being a formerly incarcerated person.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

(This profile was written by Alvaro for the Summer 2010 issue of the Fortune News, available for download here.)

My name is Alvaro Cumberbatch, and I’m the 28-year-old son of a loving single mother. I also just finished a six-and-a-half-year bid for robbery in the first degree. No one saw it coming when I was convicted in 2004. I was a good kid with a good job – I didn’t need to do that crime. But I wanted to be accepted within my group of childhood friends, and so I committed robbery with them just to fit in. Basically, I went to prison because I was a follower.

I heard a lot of great things about Fortune when I was upstate at Mid-Orange [Correctional Facility]. So after my release in February 2010, I decided to stop in and learn more. I had developed a passion for HIV/AIDS Counseling, and one of my immediate concerns was how I’d get a job in the field – especially with a felony and no outside experience. I thought the best route would be to have a reputable agency like Fortune give me some formal training and help me find a good placement.

When I first started with Employment Services, one of the facilitators told me that roughly 75% of Fortune staff had histories of incarceration, homelessness, or substance abuse. At first I didn’t believe it. Then several people shared their stories with me, and I realized that it’s not only true – it goes all the way to the top. Fortune executives like Glenn Martin and Stanley Richards have actually been incarcerated. Coming in off the street, that’s encouraging to me. It proves my goals are achievable too.

The webinar “Understanding The EEOC’S New Criminal Records Guidance: Education And Enforcement Opportunities” will feature a conversation between Community Legal Services Managing Attorney, Sharon Dietrich, and Carol Miaskoff, Assistant Legal Counsel in the EEOC Office of Legal Counsel, and others. In addition to detailing the key elements of the new EEOC guidance, the webinar will highlight best practices for employers, helpful implementation strategies for worker advocates, and key considerations for state and local policymakers to explore.

Sponsored by the National Employment Law Project (NELP), Community Legal Services (CLS) of Philadelphia, and the National Reentry Resource Center.

To register for this webinar, click here. Space is limited.
System Requirements:
PC-based attendees: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Macintosh®-based attendees: Mac OS®X 10.5 or newer.

June 7, 2012
9:00AM-10:30AM
The Gold Room (2168)
Rayburn House Office Building
Independence Avenue and South Capitol Street
Washington, DC 20003

For additional information and or questions about the briefing, please contact Helen Mitchell (202) 226-7810 or at Helen.Mitchell@mail.house.gov

Programs that enlist the formerly incarcerated to battle neighborhood violence are winning plaudits from police, mayors and the Justice Department.  See full article and video HERE.

The department said recently that it was instructing precinct commanders to review the legality of all stop-and-frisk reports, according to a report by WNYC. But such reviews — which should have been done all along — will be meaningless unless independent investigators actually interview officers to determine the proportion of stops based on reasonable suspicion, as required by law, and the percentage based on improper racial profiling, in which blacks and Hispanics are singled out.

The statistics are getting worse by the year. Last week, the New York Civil Liberties Union released a report — based on the department’s data — showing the number of street stops had grown to 685,724 in 2011 from about 97,000 in 2002, the year Mayor Michael Bloomberg took office. On Friday, the Police Department released data showing that the stops have occurred at an even higher pace for the first three months of this year.

The city has repeatedly argued that the program helps to keep guns off the street. But the N.Y.C.L.U.’s analysis found that the proportion of gun seizures to stops has fallen sharply — only 780 guns were confiscated last year, not much more than the 604 guns seized in 2003, when officers made 160,851 stops. Young black and Hispanic men continued to be stopped in disproportionate numbers. They are only 4.7 percent of the city’s population, yet these males, between the ages of 14 and 24, accounted for 41.6 percent of stops last year. More than half of all stops were conducted because the individual displayed “furtive movements” — which is so vague as to be meaningless.

The data also show that the police are significantly more likely to use force when they stop blacks and Hispanics than when they stop whites. This means minority targets are more likely to be slammed against walls or spread-eagled while officers go through their belongings. Even when victims are unhurt, they are likely to develop a deep and abiding distrust of law enforcement.

For all this, only about 6 percent of stops lead to arrests. But the stops can also end with officers writing summonses for minor infractions like disorderly conduct. The police issue more than 500,000 summonses a year, most not arising from street stops but as part of the “quality of life” campaign the department embarked on in the 1990s.

Some infractions can result in fines — some reaching hundreds of dollars — that can be hard for poor families to pay. Moreover, an unknown number of people who receive summonses do not show up in court to face judgment or pay their fines. Failure to appear can then lead to a bench warrant. The next time the person is stopped on the street, the outstanding warrant can lead to his being handcuffed and taken to jail. What began as a minor “quality of life” violation turns into an arrest record.

Some former police officers, seeing this pattern, are increasingly vocal in their complaints about commanders forcing officers to make as many stops and to write as many summonses as possible. Some, like John Eterno, a retired police captain and chairman of the criminal justice department at Molloy College on Long Island, have talked openly about a “quota system” for stops, which department leaders deny.

Several lawsuits have been filed by legal groups challenging the use of stop-and-frisk in many settings, including in public housing. The mounting evidence reveals a pattern of abusive policing that warrants the attention of the Justice Department, which should be using its broad authority to investigate these practices.

(Click the image above to download a pdf of this flyer.)