PBH Prisons Committee Attempts To Keep Ex-Convicts out of Prison

The Prisons Committee of Phillips Brooks House is revamping its program to attack what a member says "we really should care about" -- the fact that over 80 per cent of parolees eventually return to prison.

Ernest J. Schaefer '68, outgoing chairman, said last night that the committee is planning several ways to fight the problem. First, it is drafting a letter to Massachusetts Governor John A. Volpe asking the state to finance and control a halfway house.

The present halfway house, with its 15-man capacity, is grossly inadequate, Schaefer said. And many parolees need time to adjust to life on the outside before they can hold steady jobs, he said.

Hopes for Help

The committee, whose new chairman is Jay B. Breese '69, hopes to get endorsements of its letter from the Massachusetts Prisons Association, a group which lobbies in the statehouse for prison reform, and from the Rehabilitation Services Committee, a group of businessmen who help find jobs for parolees. The committee hopes to send the letter to Volpe next week.

A second measure for cutting down the rate of return is the committee's plan to work with the Cambridge Economic Opportunity Center and the Rehabilitation Services Committee to find jobs for parolees.

New Direction

The projects represent a new direction in the Prisons Committee's work. For 12 years, Schaefer said, the committee has confined its efforts to teaching classes in the prisons, and it will continue teaching. "But all the prisoners are really interested in," he said, "is getting out and staying out."

One way the Prisons Committee is helping them get out, Schaefer said, is by facilitating the Legal Aid Society of the Law School in its counselling of inmates who are being unlawfully detained. The committee will act as a liaison between prisoners and the Legal Aid Society.