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TRYING TO DO THE RIGHT THING, CAUGHT BY A CATCH 22

Pamela Wyatt is willing to do whatever it takes.

In return, she asks for just one thing.

“A chance,” says Wyatt, a 42-year-old resident of our Garrett House community corrections program in Camden, NJ. “I would like another chance.”

A mother of six who hails from Atlantic City, NJ, Pamela is trying to do the right thing in the face of Catch-22 situations created by the felony drug ban in New Jersey. This federal prohibition, from which states may opt-out (as Pennsylvania has done), essentially disqualifies persons convicted of certain drug-related offenses from many forms of public assistance. The lame-duck session of the NJ legislature is currently considering reform measures to address some of these concerns.

“I’m embarrassed about my crime, I have remorse for my crime,” says Pamela, who was sentenced to four years on a drug distribution charge. “Being put away for my crime was a learning experience for me….It was the first time I was ever incarcerated. It was a wake-up call. It broke me down but it also built me up. And now I want to better myself.”

She will complete her stay at Garrett in January, about a year after she arrived at the facility from Kintok.  Currently working at a fast-food restaurant, she plans to earn her GED and ultimately earn a living in the field of medical billing and coding. “I would like to be a (sign of) hope for the next person, so that they don’t fall into the same situation I fell into,” Pamela says. “Absolutely, it (the ban) has been a problem. My crime is stopping me from getting a lot of jobs I’m interested in.

“I went to a job (opportunity) that I was interested in and I was humiliated because of my background,” Pamela recalls. “I filled out my application and the first thing (the person in charge) said was, ‘we don’t hire people with criminal records.’

“I felt like giving up, but I’ve learned not to give up so easily,” she adds. “I’ve been praying to God to deliver me from being discouraged. When one door closes there’s always another one that opens.

“Nobody is perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. But you get back up. What if you were in my predicament? How would you feel if you did the crime and now you were trying to better yourself, and you were rejected?

The ban “affects me because I have children I have to feed, I have bills I have to pay,” Pamela continues. “Children get sick, I get sick, and I need those types of (benefits) when I’m trying to re-enter society, and the ban takes it away when I need it.

“I don’t think it’s fair because you have some people like me who are re-entering society and need this help. I need the help right now. It doesn’t have to e for the rest of my life. Just give me a leeway. Just give me an opportunity.

 “I’m going to take whatever steps they want me to take,” Pamela declares. “And then take a step above those steps.”