By Izzy Wollfarth | LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE – Beginning at age 16, Christi Cheramie was locked away for 25 years. She was a “juvenile lifer,” which is what juveniles serving life sentences without parole were called before the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the statute.
On Feb. 15, 2019, Cheramie was released from prison. She recalls the ride home vividly.
“I remember asking myself while I was looking out the window, where do I belong?” Cheramie said. “I didn’t quite understand where I was going to fit in a society that I didn’t know.”
Robert Walter Spencer said he grew up at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Spencer was in charge of the sound systems for the annual prison rodeo and was called on frequently to help. When Spencer was released in 2020 after spending 40 years incarcerated, the simple quiet of a friend’s empty home frightened him.
“Every little crack and creek and piling affected me,” Spencer said. “It was almost like having PTSD. It’s gotten a lot better, but at first I was kind of intimidated being alone.”
Second Chance Month is a nationwide effort, celebrated in Louisiana in April, to promote opportunities for successful reentry through awareness of the challenges formerly incarcerated persons face when returning to their communities.
Including people who were arrested but not convicted, roughly 77 million Americans – or 1 in 3 U.S. adults – have some type of criminal record. In Louisiana, 52,473 people are incarcerated, and 95% of them will eventually come back to their communities.
The first 72 hours following someone’s release from prison is a critical transition period when basic survival needs such as housing, food and identification documents must be arranged so that the formerly incarcerated can avoid homelessness, recidivism and unemployment.
Cheramie recalled the countless friends who were released before she was, many of whom she escorted to the prison gate.
“I remember them being cut a $10 check and given a bus ticket and (someone) saying, ‘OK, you can go home’ and being dropped off at the bus station,” Cheramie said. “And then, bam, I see this person come right back to prison. I didn’t quite get it, but I do today because there aren’t enough resources to help people.”
In 2015, Louisiana had the highest imprisonment rate in the United States. The state was spending $700 million annually to incarcerate nonviolent offenders at 1.5 to 3 times the rate of neighboring states, with low returns on public safety.
The Louisiana Justice Reinvestment Task Force was formed to research evidence-based policy approaches to the state’s criminal justice system.
Legislators, law enforcement officials, court practitioners and citizens came together to write a package of 10 bills that refocused prison space on violent offenders, removed barriers to successful reentry and strengthened community supervision protocols, thereby reinvesting in victims’ services and recidivism reduction. Former Gov. John Bel Edwards signed the bills into law on June 15, 2017.
Prison populations were projected to drop by 10%, producing an expected savings of $262 million over the next decade. The hope was to strip Louisiana of its title as the most-imprisoned state in the country.
“I’m proud to say that I was involved in just about every prison-reform movement the whole time I was in the Legislature,” said attorney Danny Martiny, a Louisiana Reinvestment Task Force member.
Martiny served in the Louisiana Legislature for 25 years as a Republican House representative, chairman of the House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee and then as a state senator and chairman of the Senate Judiciary B Committee.
Martiny said crime should not be a Republican or Democratic issue.
“The bottom line is you have to do what’s fair, and we were able to do it,” Martiny said.
By 2022, there was a 26% decline in overall prison population and almost $107 million was reinvested into supportive services, with nearly $71 million going into reentry services such as educational training programs, mental health screenings and expanding the number of transitional specialists in jails.
However, violent crime spiked across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic, and new Republican Gov. Jeff Landry called a special legislative session in early 2024 that narrowed and eliminated possibilities for parole, increased sentencing and reversed the “Raise the Age Louisiana Act of 2016” that had ensured that juvenile offenders were kept in age-appropriate facilities.
Under the 2024-2025 state budget, Gov. Landry also took away $4.5 million from nonprofits. The First 72+, a New Orleans- based halfway house and reentry nonprofit, lost a $250,000 appropriation under Landry’s line-item vetoes.
“We plan to work with the legislature to develop criteria for what type of NGO requests represent the best use of our scarce state recourses,” said Landry in one veto letter to both the House and Senate chambers.
Even though violent crime has dropped since then, the changes in 2024 have contributed to prison overcrowding and the return of higher corrections costs.
“I think what happened is now there’s been a pressure for new legislators to be tougher on crime,” Martiny said.
Renee DeLouche, assistant secretary of the Department of Public Safety & Corrections said the 2024 legislation has “increased transparency in sentencing, providing individuals with a clearer understanding of their timelines and, in turn, allowing for more intentional planning around program enrollment and participation.”
The Corrections Department operates five regional reentry programs and three Short-Term Enhanced Programming facilities that help high-risk offenders eventually reenter society.
While in prison, individuals can enroll in General Education Development programs and other instruction to develop their reading and writing skills.
According to department data, 10,466 Louisiana inmates enrolled in fiscal year 2024-2025 in career and technical education programs and industry-based certifications, which provides inmates with skills such as welding, automotive technology, and carpentry. Of the 10,466, 7,278 completed the programs.
Similarly, 490 individuals enrolled in a literacy program, with 64 completing the course.
“The desired outcome of reentry initiatives is transformation – helping individuals move from being dependent on public resources to becoming active, contributing members of society,” DeLouche said. “In doing so, they shift from being perceived as a societal burden to becoming taxpayers, role models and participants in community development.”
Following his release, Spencer, the man who once ran the sound systems for the Angola rodeo, enrolled in a two-week program with the Louisiana Parole Project, a nonprofit dedicated to reentry services and mentorship, where he learned how to use a phone, create a bank account and apply for government assistance.
Spencer said learning these soft skills are invaluable for those leaving prison.
“It’s a tremendous impact because it gives you a helping hand up,” Spencer said. “A lot of guys get out, they have nothing and by them having nothing, this is a big benefit for them.”
Legislators have advanced bills this spring echoing the Louisiana Reinvestment Task Force’s earlier agendas.
Republican Rep. Jerome Zeringue of Houma, who said in a House committee meeting that he remains tough on crime, advanced a bill ordering compassionate release for prisoners who expect death within 120 days.
Gary Wescott, secretary of the Department of Public Safety & Corrections, testified in favor of the bill.
“I struggled with this, prayed about it, and I feel comfortable that we are doing the right thing,” Zeringue said.
Zeringue’s bill is similar to a bill Martiny authored in 2017 that included a provision for the temporary release of a “limited-mobility offender” to off-site care facilities.
Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans, also proposed a bill extending good-time credit to be awarded to an inmate earning an associate’s degree, which advanced to the Senate floor unanimously.
A House bill creating a transitional reentry program for female parolees also progressed and is pending discussion in a Senate committee.
Andrew Hundley, executive director of the Louisiana Parole Project, said at a recent hearing that the increasing presence of reentry services in prisons has a positive impact on Louisiana communities.
“Louisiana has come to understand that if we want safer communities, we have to prepare people for success before they come home and give them opportunities to reach their potential,” Hundley said.
He added that the bill for female parolees is the next logical step in that process.
Coming home from prison, Spencer finds joy in the otherwise mundane aspects of life like mowing the lawn.
“People who are incarcerated, feel, cry, long, dream,” Cheramie, the woman who was locked up at 16 and held for 25 years, said. “They have the same feelings.”
This story was reported and written with the support of the non-profit Louisiana Collegiate News Collaborative, an LSU-led coalition of eight universities funded by the Henry Luce and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur foundations.