By Patrick Keating | SACOBSERVER.COM WIRE SERVICES

MICHIGAN (NNPA) – When he was 23 years old, Ronald James Coleman-Bey, also known as James Robert Percy-Bey, stole $62 from a bookstore by pretending his finger was a gun. He estimates the robbery lasted about 20 seconds.

Ronald James Coleman-Bey with his wife, Judi. Photo Courtesy of the Michigan Chronicle via NNPA

Last month, just a few weeks shy of his 55th birthday, he was released on parole after 31 years in prison for that crime. Coleman-Bey was a parolable lifer, one of a class of prisoners serving life sentences for offenses less than first degree murder, and theoretically eligible for parole after serving a set number of years.

Now that he’s out, Coleman-Bey hopes to find a job and re-start his life, with help from his wife, Judi Coleman-Bey. He said the most pressing matter is finding a job, but that he’s having a hard time getting a Social Security card with the name Coleman-Bey on it.

The “Bey” suffix has a religious connotation. The couple belong to a Muslim sect called Moorish Science of America. Adherents to that sect often add either “Bey” or “El” to their surnames.

On Dec. 10, Coleman-Bey applied for General Assistance. He said being dependent and seeking aid from others was depressing and embarrassing.

Judi Coleman-Bey, who fought for years to secure his parole, added that from her point of view, he is doing very well in terms of adjustment, and that the hardest part is over. She emphasized that they would make it, that their love has been tried and tested, and is true.

Making it on the outside can oftentimes be an uphill battle, according to Russ Marlan, a Department of Corrections spokesman and former Detroit-based parole officer. He said the difficulties parolees face often depend on what type of support they have on the outside.

Coleman-Bey was fortunate in that he had a loving wife waiting for him. He is determined to stay out and not end up back in prison, like many other parolees.

According to Marlan, recidivism had been an ongoing problem, with about 48 percent of parolees returning to prison within four years of their release. To help address that problem, the Department of Corrections started a pilot prisoner re-entry program three years ago. The goal was to better prepare prisoners to return to society.

The program began with eight pilot sites, including Wayne County, and is now in 15 sites statewide. Marlan said it wasn’t until last year that funding for the program went from $12 million to $33 million, in order to bring the rest of the state under the program.

He also said the prisoner re-entry program enjoys bi-partisan support in the state Legislature, which is one reason it got more money instead of less.

Different areas of the state have different issues, which is one reason the Department of Corrections lets each pilot site use money for the program in its own way. Marlan said one pilot site consists of a nine-county region around Traverse City. There, transportation is a major issue because of a lack of mass transit or individual cars for the parolees.

By contrast, in Benton Harbor, high unemployment is a major concern, while in Ann Arbor, the issue is affordable housing.

The Corrections Department has made other changes to help improve parolees’ chances of success. Marlan said prisoners are no longer paroled on a Friday or Saturday, leaving them unsupervised until sometime the following week when they would first report to their parole officer. Many prisoners often ended up violating terms of their paroles without someone to watch over them during those few days.

Not all parolees go through the prisoner re-entry program, however. Coleman-Bey didn’t. He, his wife and Marlan agree it probably wasn’t necessary in his case.

Marlan added that the parole board picks who goes through the re-entry program, and that those who do are typically those who were paroled before and failed to stay out of trouble. He also said the fact that the board granted Coleman-Bey parole in the first place indicates they felt recidivism was unlikely in his case. He said the board is generally very tough about granting paroles to prisoners serving life terms.

The issue of parolable lifers is central to the Citizens Alliance on Prisons & Public Spending (CAPPS), a group which argues that many of the older parolable lifers pose no threat to public safety, and that keeping them incarcerated only adds to the taxpayers’ burdens.

A CAPPS report available at the organization’s website, www.Capps-mi.org, claims that each time a parolable lifer is denied release for another five years, it costs Michigan taxpayers a minimum of $112,000). And, as the years past, these costs to begin to include more medical care.

CAPPS Executive Director Barbara Levene said Coleman-Bey is representative of a much larger class of older inmates, adding that while they are pleased that he is out, the group hopes its advocacy work in general has been useful in raising consciousness about parole issues, and in encouraging the parole board to look more closely at some of these cases.

The Department of Corrections normally paroles about 11,000 to 12,000 prisoners each year. Marlan said that in the last two year, 8,000 prisoners went through the prisoner release program, and that there has been about a 26 percent improvement in the recidivism rate. That equates to 400 fewer people coming back to prison — 400 people who are productive, taxpaying members of society.

“They’ve not come back to $30,000 a year prison beds and more importantly, have not gone out there and committed crimes,” he said.

In each pilot site, a sort of “post-parole board” comprised of local people from the faith-based community, judges and representatives from the local prosecutor office, local law enforcement, Goodwill Industries, Michigan Works! and and others who understand the issues of prisoners returning home, oversee the re-entry program and those who go through it.

Although Coleman-Bey was not paroled as part of the re-entry program, he can still sit down with his parole officer and discuss steps he can take, and resources he can utilize to help get a job.

Marlan emphasized that the re-entry program is not about coddling prisoners; rather, it is about helping parolees — who would be coming home in any event — succeed in becoming productive, taxpaying members of society.

Above and beyond finding a job, Coleman-Bey would like to help out youngsters, try to keep them from making some of the same mistakes he made. He would tell them crime doesn’t pay and that once they get into the system, it can do anything it wants with them.

“There’s no glory in going to jail and having a number,” he said. “A lot of youths out there, they glorify going to jail.”

He added that prison is a slave environment.

While his wife is angry he spent so many years in prison, he is not. He admitted to being bitter years ago, but now he feels disappointment with himself. He said both his late brother and late father tried to instill positive values in him, but he was young, wild and wanted to do his own thing.

He also noted that the robbery was basically done on impulse, and that he had two checks from Chrysler in his pocket at that time.

He said, “It was foolish.”

This story comes special to NNPA from the Michigan Chronicle.