The gates have opened and you have just been released from jail. Now what?

It is a hard path with many obstacles to go from jail to getting a job, health care, a place to live, a bank account or a car. Getting back to the life that most of us take for granted will not be easy.

On Tuesday, May 14, at the auditorium behind the Executive Education Building on Union Boulevard in Allentown, The Lehigh Valley Justice Institute conducted a unique seminar to help the people who run the government, run the justice system and operate the many nonprofit enterprises and government offices more fully understand and appreciate how tough it is for the formerly incarcerated to find their way back into society.

Lehigh County Commissioner Dan Hartzell was one of the approximately 50 attendees who played the role of a recently released detainee.

“I certainly expected this to be a challenging program,” said Hartzell. “I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. But the gravity of the situation faced by those earnestly trying to return to life after sentences in jail or prison becomes clear very quickly as you, the former inmate, make the effort. It becomes clear that it’s essential to remove unnecessary barriers to successfully rejoining society whenever possible.”

Among the other participants were Northampton County District Attorney Stephen Baratta and Northampton County Controller Tara Zrinski.

Also participating as a re-entering citizen was Maraleen Shields, executive director of the PA Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Fairness.

U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero from the Pennsylvania Eastern District was the principal speaker.

“Re-entry is an issue that impacts every community.,” said Romero. “It’s not just something that’s unique to Philadelphia or unique to our large cities. We have re-entering citizens in every county and encountering all the kinds of obstacles that you see here today, whether it’s having to go to probation, having to go to the church, the courts, etcetera. Re-entering citizens are dealing with all these issues as we speak today.”

Romero estimated that between 600,000 and 800,000 people are released from prison each year. She said 5 million people in 2020 were under supervision of the correction system.

Volunteers were staffing tables representing such entities as, “Treatment and Counseling,” “Employers,” “Courts,” “Social Service,” “Quick Loans and Pawn,” “Halfway House,” “Health Clinic” and other gateways to getting back on one’s feet after incarceration.

To complicate matters, a moderator walked around the room randomly and arbitrarily handing out “Wild Cards” with surprises such as, “You have a recent tattoo,” which might keep a former inmate from selling their blood to a blood bank for much needed cash.

The program was organized and sponsored by Lehigh Valley Justice Institute, whose Executive Director Joe Walsh participated. He was the one giving out the “Wild Cards.”

Lehigh Valley Justice Institute, according to literature handed out at the event, has a five-step “unique approach.” They identify the problem. research and analyze data, find a local solution, publicize the results and do follow-up research.

Of course, these are things that most citizens don’t really have to worry about because, generally, they exist within stable families, have health care, get a good education, stay out of trouble, have good credit and life is easy. But there is no guarantee that a regular citizen won’t end up incarcerated. Life is full of stories about well-educated, well-connected and privileged citizens being convicted of crime and doing the time.