Silbert: Educate Ex-Convicts

Teaching and learning are the keys for ex-convicts to adjust successfully to mainstream society, according to Mimi Silbert, president of the Delancey Street Foundation, in a speech last night at the Cronkhite Graduate Center.

The Delancey Street Foundation, founded in 1971 by Silbert, is a fouryear rehabilitation program where former criminals may earn a high school diploma and gain job skills.

"I strongly urge the opposite attitude that most of us hold that [criminals] do not want to learn anything."

Silbert said residents teach each other skills already acquired from senior members.

"The most important learning that has occurred, what makes our residents turn around is that they are the doers, they are the professors, they are the therapists," she said.

When residents arrive, "They are vicious, they are violent, they are antisocial," said Silbert. But she said they often "can do extraordinary things."

"To teach hope to someone who has never seen it happen is the most difficult thing to do," Silbert said.

Residents earn money, which is routed back into the program, by working in business owned by the Foundation. In 1991, the program grossed more than six million dollars.

Silbert said residents have gained valuable experiences while trying to get their lives in order.

"Our people are luckier than those of you who came into this school," Silbert said. "Because they have hit bottom."

The prison system is not effective, because it does not educate the prisoners in any skills for the future, Silbert said. They often have low selfesteem and find it difficult to adjust to life outside their cells.

"Prison is the only place where these people are somebody. Their gang makes them somebody. Their violence makes them somebody," Silbert said.

At Delancey residents interact with one another in their own society.

"We try to make our lives somewhat of a neighborhood," said Silbert. "You're willing to take responsibility."

Silbert said the criminal justice system needs to emphasize rehabilitation rather than retribution.

"The state of California has more prisons than any other country and crime has risen," Silbert said, emphasizing the need for social reform for criminals and drug addicts.

"While they sit there and get larger and larger in number and angrier and angrier in despair," Silbert said. "We keep creaming the crop."

Delancey is a step towards this reform, Silbert said. "We want you here for one reason only," Silbert says to the residents. "We want you to make it."

The Foundation, which has branches in several states, is independently funded, according to Silbert

"Prison is the only place where these people are somebody. Their gang makes them somebody. Their violence makes them somebody," Silbert said.

At Delancey residents interact with one another in their own society.

"We try to make our lives somewhat of a neighborhood," said Silbert. "You're willing to take responsibility."

Silbert said the criminal justice system needs to emphasize rehabilitation rather than retribution.

"The state of California has more prisons than any other country and crime has risen," Silbert said, emphasizing the need for social reform for criminals and drug addicts.

"While they sit there and get larger and larger in number and angrier and angrier in despair," Silbert said. "We keep creaming the crop."

Delancey is a step towards this reform, Silbert said. "We want you here for one reason only," Silbert says to the residents. "We want you to make it."

The Foundation, which has branches in several states, is independently funded, according to Silbert