For Christina Wigg, one of the hardest things about getting out of prison was other people judging her.<\/p>\n
\u201cJudgment everywhere I went,\u201d she said. \u201cJudgment from family, judgment from peers, judgment from employers trying to get a job, housing, everything. That moment you have to check that box and say you\u2019re a felon, that\u2019s with you for life, that never changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I had to check that box, everything inside of me diminished. All my hard work that I did, everything that I pushed so hard to do just went out the door,\u201d said Wigg, who completed six years of probation after spending a couple years in prison for drug-related charges.<\/p>\n
She said she applied for at least 30 state jobs before she got one.<\/p>\n
Wigg was one of five formerly incarcerated individuals who spoke during Wednesday night\u2019s Juneau Reentry Coalition\u2019s community discussion. More than 30 people attended the event at Northern Light United Church; most of them have not been incarcerated.<\/p>\n
Alaska struggles with a high recidivism rate, rising prison populations and costs. The Juneau Reentry Coalition is a collaboration of individuals and entities committed to reducing recidivism by supporting individuals returning to the community after incarceration.<\/p>\n
During the portion of the discussion called \u201cfish bowl,\u201d everybody seated in circular tables looked to the center table where Wigg and others shared what obstacles and barriers they encountered leaving prison and reentering the community.<\/p>\n
Housing was brought up, as was finding employment and opportunity.<\/p>\n
Kara Nelson, director of Haven House, said she was in and out of prison for substance abuse issues. When she got out, she struggled with how to ask for help.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was trying to pretend to everyone like I had it all together and was moving forward, but in reality I just had no idea what I was doing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was impossible to rebuild even if I knew how to,\u201d Nelson continued. \u201cBeing on probation and trying to be a parent, trying to stay clean and do all these things I was supposed to do, and really being terrified to ask for help because then it looks like you don\u2019t have your crap together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrea Robinson, who finished treatment at Rainforest Recovery at the end of January, said the challenges associated with parenting is one barrier.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I got out of treatment, it had been so long since I was engaged with my kids that I had absolutely no idea what to do with my children, and it was scary,\u201d she said. \u201cI felt like I wasn\u2019t ever going to be able to be the mom that I used to be. You just forget how to take care of somebody else when you want to really bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robinson said peer support from other moms and dads would go a long way because seeking help for parenting is difficult.<\/p>\n
Robinson said she was required to go through parenting classes before getting custody of her kids, but she had a hard time getting into one. A few places in town offer them, but \u201cso many people are trying to get their kids back that they\u2019re just completely booked up,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are the voices and perspectives that need to be central to the Juneau Reentry Coalition,\u201d said discussion moderator Sol Neely, assistant professor of English at the University of Alaska Southeast.<\/p>\n
Through a partnership with the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority and the Alaska Department of Corrections, the Juneau Reentry Coalition is working on a comprehensive community plan for successful reentry. It hopes to have a first draft in June.<\/p>\n
Kevin Enloe has spent 20 years of his life in and out of prison. Despite his excitement each time he was released, Enloe described the outside as \u201ca lonely world\u201d where he had no \u201cconnection\u201d to other people.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody that you knew before you went in doesn\u2019t trust you and rightfully so,\u201d he said. \u201cI burned every bridge that I had. So you\u2019re not really accepted into the normal society; it\u2019s closed off.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the \u201clying and stealing and drug using\u201d community he\u2019d been a part of, \u201cthey\u2019ll always accept you back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t go to this community because it will lead you to more chaos, and this community won\u2019t accept you, so you\u2019re stuck in this empty void. Where do you go? Who do you talk to?\u201d Enloe said.<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t blame anyone but himself. \u201cI created my storm,\u201d Enloe said. But it\u2019s a barrier he still struggles with today.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter Lisa Phu at 523-2246 or lisa.phu@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For Christina Wigg, one of the hardest things about getting out of prison was other people judging her. \u201cJudgment everywhere I went,\u201d she said. \u201cJudgment from family, judgment from peers, judgment from employers trying to get a job, housing, everything. That moment you have to check that box and say you\u2019re a felon, that\u2019s with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":9158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-9157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9157"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}