White-Collar Crime: The Grim Truth About Post Incarceration
Post prison isolation can be as debilitating as being incarcerated
It is astonishing that so many people perform occupational crimes without fully understanding that the consequences of getting caught far outweigh the temporary gains. Easy money isn’t easy. In fact, it’s the hardest cash anyone can come by. The repercussions of an occupational crime are life changing and many who commit them never fully recover.
It is difficult to adjust to a regimented life behind bars with total strangers and fellow convicts, but this controlled environment helps the time go by as rules give purpose to prison life. But from the day a white-collar convict is paroled from prison, the “safety” of a regimented lifestyle (interspersed with hours of downtime) vanishes and is replaced with heavy responsibilities in the outside world. Post prison life is challenging for any ex-con, but release is especially challenging for white-collar criminals because prior to being incarcerated, most lived lives of relative ease and privilege.
In addition to the emotional adjustments of being a white-collar parolee, there are also active issues to deal with. Although no longer physically incarcerated, parolees remain under PO supervision for a period of time. But before heading “home,” most ex-cons are required to transition into a half-way house (Residential Reentry Centers - RRC’s) which are an integral part of the carceral system and are notoriously grim. They are “prison light” but inmates are still under surveillance, must endure onerous restrictions and intense personal scrutiny. Little is known about halfway houses because most are loosely regulated, but an informative examination of the state of RRC’s in the United States is presented in a compelling article in the September 2020 addition of the Prison Policy Initiative -https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/09/03/halfway/.
Before being released from the halfway house, an ex-con must have a place to live, be gainfully employed, begin paying restitution and penalties if they haven’t done so already, and often must pay child support. Readjusting to non-institutional life and attempting to rise to the occasion of being a better person while grappling with the ever present acute remorse and humiliation is no easy task. Especially when it comes to reconnecting with remaining family and friends.
Not only are white-collar parolees readjusting to a less regimented lifestyle after being in a fully controlled environment, but many changes have occurred during their incarceration. Family members and friends may or may not be waiting for them upon their release, and for those who do have a joyous welcome, this is usually short lived due to expectations that are often unrealistic. There are a myriad of stressors that come with a life that is now unrecognizable and from this vantage point, it is easy to think that the only positive thing about being released from prison is no longer being behind prison walls.
It is common for post incarceration issues to include depression as everyone has seemingly moved on with their own lives as a matter of coping and necessity. Finances are nil and jobs for ex-convicts are hard to come by and because of this, some ex-con white-collar criminals get into the field of prison coaching or deterrence work. While this has become a valuable endeavor for the white-collar ex-con and those who need to hear their messaging, few make it in that field unless they are well connected, wholly committed to remaining in their ex-con persona, and are in a position to be self-employed. But most ex-convicts end up in low paying menial jobs, or meaningful jobs, (rewarding but with little pay), or if they are lucky, find employment with friends or family members. One of our WCWP member’s ex-husband who is in his late forties has been living with his parents since his release a couple of years ago is is still looking for work. A far cry from living with his wife and children in their suburban home provided by his formerly high paying job of many years. But the comfort of home, family, and community wasn’t enough, as is the case for so many white-collar criminals who suffer from what I call, More Disease, which is contagious and often deadly.
In addition to the uphill battle of finding employment, white-collar ex-cons must also contend with ex-wives that have moved on with new partners, endure child custody issues, or experience fractures with older children who may not be amiable to spending time with their parolee parent due to the trauma that parent caused them and their family. White-collar ex cons also often have few remaining friends to lean on due to a broken bond of trust. In addition to the emotional stresses, there are financial obligations at hand and little to no income to pay for them. Under these circumstances, it is easy for an ex white-collar convict to find themselves more alone on the outside than when they were incarcerated. The adjustments the white-collar ex-con is now facing are not unlike the adjustments the perp’s family members had to make when they lost their partner/father to prison and their home and all life sustaining stability to the government to cover the cost of the perp’s criminal actions. And just as the family had to survive the bomb that went off in their lives that left them destitute and ostracized by their communities due to misplaced guilt by association, the ex-con must also find a way to survive and rebuild their own lives.
It’s a long road for a perp and his family from investigation to re-entry and all totaled, this event can span from three to ten years or more. Sadly, in some cases, children are grown by the time a perp is released from prison, and those formative years can never be recovered. The hard climb out of the deep hole white-collar criminals dig for themselves and their families is ongoing, and none of it ever had to happen because white-collar crimes are acts performed out of greed rather than need. Occupational crimes are not only detrimental to an employer and society but are an egregious dereliction of duty to families because innocent spouses and children do not deserve to lose the lives and community ties they spent years building only to be treated with such utter disregard. Children especially do not deserve to carry the stigma of a parent committing a serious crime and being incarcerated or to be parented from prison, or humiliated by a parent whom they loved and trusted beyond measure. There is nothing more stabilizing than the family unit and when that stability is taken for granted and abused, it is often impossible to regain.
White-collar perps routinely say that they committed their financial crime for their family but this is a serious misconception and also places blame on innocent family members rather than where the blame belongs which is on the shoulders of those who think they deserved or just wanted “more” for themselves. The truth is that families would rather have less of everything than less of their life partner/father. Life post prison is rarely ever the same again for white-collar perps or their family members and while some families are able to reunite, that is the exception rather than the rule. In the end, there is not enough money in the world that can replace one’s family. White-collar ex-cons and their families are always chasing sunrise, because recovery can and often does, take a lifetime.
The White-Collar Wives Project has been assisting families from the onset of the investigative phase of a white-collar crime all the way through to re-entry to help all find their way home. There are no shortcuts along this arduous journey but when each step is carefully planned and executed, and if all parties are willing to stay the course, families can rebuild together, and start again.
The White-Collar Wives Project has been featured in the New York Times, The American Bar Association Journal, Forbes, Market Watch, Bravo/Oxygen, the ACFE, and esteemed national podcasts
