A Way Up

Book excerpt: The first thought after any arrest is usually how long it will take to get out. Whether in jail or prison, your sole focus is getting out. Recent statistics show that three out of every four persons incarcerated always end up returning behind bars within the first three years of release. A large percentage of these people are from low-income communities where access to financial capital, education, and job opportunities is limited, and the family ends up getting stuck in a deep cycle of poverty that they found extremely difficult to break out from. Arrested for crimes often sponsored by poverty and the dire economic conditions that defined them, they are taken through a criminal justice system that is far more interested in keeping them in the poverty-incarceration cycle than rehabilitating them and giving them a better chance at life. With no income and criminal history after release, they are unable to pay for food, housing, and health needs. And what happens eventually? They slip back into a life of crime, and the cycle continues. It is high time we nullify this poverty-incarceration two-feeder system. How? By dealing with the root, which is poverty. So how do you break the cycle of poverty? You may want to get out of jail or prison, but are you ready to get out of poverty? How? The answers are found here in learning how to experience your own economic development post-incarceration. Do you feel stuck? Are you tired of going in and out of jail? Or are you an ex-offender who has found it difficult to progress because of barriers associated with your criminal history? This workbook is the clear road map to creating generational wealth and living the kind of life you deserve. This workbook is the guide to finding a way up, not just a way out.