When someone leaves a New Hampshire prison the odds are 50-50 that they will be back.
Staying out of the criminal justice system, is a difficult thing to do.
Jill Boisvert has stayed out for five years.
When she went in, she was 28 and had five children, including an infant daughter.
New Hampshire Public Radio's Dan Gorenstein has this look at what, on some measure, can be called a success story.
Jill Boisvert was ready for prison.
She had been addicted to crack cocaine for two years.
T.17
:06 the judge asked me, if I send you to this other program and you blow it, I am going to see that you do the whole seven years, but I'll give you that program if you want it. and I said, you know what, send me to prison...I don't know if I can follow the rules. I can't live with the anxiety if I do the wrong thing, I am going to have to go to prison. Just send me. So he did. And that day I left the courthouse to Goffstown and I was terrified.
:48 I didn't even know where G. was. And I saw the razor wire and was like, wow. I'm here, this is really it
Boisvert's story is stereotypically bad.
Complete with stories of violence, poverty and late night drug runs with her toddlers in tow.
What isn't typical about Boisvert's story is that after 2 ½ years in prison, she never went back.
In her closet hangs a momento of her experience.
T.12
2:31 my bedroom is kind of a mess, you are going to have to bear with me... here, these are the pants, the sweatshirt feel into the box. No zippers allowed, this is what I came home in.
T.12
:08 I keep the uniform in my closet so that I know there was a time I didn't have a choice. I didn't have any choices. My life was dictated to me. It's just important to sometimes remember, it didn't take much to get there, and it wouldn't take much to get back.
After her release she got work at her church as a receptionist.
She left that job to become a cashier in a Franklin convenience store.
Nine months and three managers later, she was promoted to store manager.
She discovered she actually could be a good supervisor.
She could deal with problems, like when the cash register would come up short.
T.1
2:52 not assuming immediately, there was a thief, going in and being able ot look at the tapes, and the video tapes and figure out what really happened and if there was a mistake go in and correct it...and I trained other managers at that...as a result of investigating before accusing, my staff tended to respect me...my turnover rate was lower, my inventories were always good...I did a real good job.
Boisvert says often it was easier to deal with customers who only took up five minutes, rather than dealing with her family.
T.20
4:04 I came home to a place where my husband lived in an apartment he had for two years and I had never been there...
T.20
8:22 everything was scary at first. I had child support that I was responsible for. I came out owing like six thousand dollars for my children and if I didn't pay that, I would go back. If I didn't have a job in a certain amount of time I would go back.
T.20
4:04...And my daughter, my youngest Anastasia had been returned from foster care to my husband a few months before I had been released. And I didn't know the child. I didn't know what her favorite bedtime story was. I didn't know what her schedule was...the first day my husband left me home alone with that baby, I didn't know what to do. b/c I didn't know what she wanted, why she was crying. And this is stuff that as a mom, you know. But I went to prison when she was three months old, and now she's 3 years old. I had no clue.
Like most female inmates, coming home from prison means kids.
And Boisvert has four.
T.5
5:22 that was one of the biggest things I struggled with, was make up to them for the time I had been away...I wore myself out trying...6:45 if I had to say no, or we aren't doing this, they'd hit you. They'd hit you with the guilt. 'Well, what about all the practices you missed, or what about all the time I wanted to play sports but you weren't there?' They'll use it against you. They sure will, if they think it will get them what they want. They are kids. That's what they do.
Boisvert says whether it was her kids, or her employers at the convenience store, she wasn't allowed to forget that she was a felon.
T.21
:38 I was there for four years. And I was well respected. I trained other managers. I trained two general managers. I could never, I was in the district manager training program, but I never got to be district manager. b/c even though they did hire me, given my conviction, they weren't willing to hire me any further. So I was in kind of a dead-end.
She quit that job, and replaced it with one that seemed more promising.
But then the father of two of her children was diagnosed with a fast-moving terminal cancer.
T.21
3:28 ... I came home when I could, but I basically packed up and it was ten weeks. He went from working 40 hours the week he was diagnosed. And in five weeks, this strong proud man who was able to intimidate me, I was no having to change his diapers. It was weird. I saw the life just leave him.
T.21
5:45 this experience has changed my outlook on things in my life, b/c do I want to ring a cash register now, do I want to make schedules and ring money? Is that going to be fulfilling to me now that I realize how short life can be?...or do I want to do something a little more significant with my life?
T.24
3:07 I would like to work with women at Shea Farm, assist them in what they can expect as far as re-entry into society. And how to set goals and how to meet them. They won't let me, b/c I am not five years post supervision. I am only 2 ½ years.
Over the past few months Boisvert has lowered her standards and extended her job search to include jobs that might not be as meaningful.
Right now, Boisvert says she and her husband are in a tight financial spot.
She hasn't held a paying job since late January.
So they've decided to sell their rental property in Franklin for extra money.
Even with her experience in the service industry, Boisvert says it's hard finding a job, and she knows why.
T.24
10:41 having to say, no matter how much space I put between me and events, I still carry it with me. I am Jill Boisvert, mom, felon, wife, neighbor, and whatever my job might be. It's still in the top five, it's always going to be there.
Boisvert just wants a chance.
But she understands how people look at her because when she managed the store, that's how she looked at people too.
T.23
1:02 I know that when I was a store manager, and I would get applications, I would look at the address and if they were from a certain part of town, I wouldn't even call them, b/c my experience was that was a bad neighborhood, and the people I had hired from that area previously hadn't either showed up, or showed up drunk, or stolen money, to the point where I wouldn't even call people with those addresses. I am ashamed of it, but I had a business to run, I had to answer to the home office. Who was I going to leave alone there for eight hours at night?
T.15
11:46 if somebody had sat in my office at a job interview and told me sob stories about their lives, I would have been like, thanks for coming...everybody's got tragedy in their past, it depends what they do with it that makes the difference.
In Boisvert's mind, what she's done since she left prison in 2000, is the strongest qualification she's got on her resume.
For NHPR News, I'm DG.
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