If you want to hear some stories like this, take a Greyhound bus out of a prison town. On release day, the prisoners get/acquire a bus ticket back to wherever t

If you want to hear some stories like this, take a Greyhound bus out of a prison town. On release day, the prisoners get/acquire a bus ticket back to wherever they need to be. So you'll see a group of people wearing the same drab, ill-fitting clothing, carrying their only life possessions in a shoebox. You get talking to these people and it's pretty clear that while many would like to escape the system, they don't know how. The stories are nearly universal - terrible home life as children, lack of support network, poverty, drugs, limited education or training. And, with a record, you are spot on that it is hard for them to find meaningful work.