What Gate Money Can (And Cannot) Buy
As Ignacio Pedroza travelled the more than 350 miles from Pelican Bay State Prison to his home near Oakland, he was paying close attention to the roadside signs—particularly the ones that advertised prices for gas or food. Things were more expensive than they had been when he went to prison 12 years earlier.
In his pocket, Pedroza had $200 in a debit card the state of California had given him upon release. He was busy making calculations in his head, trying to figure out what that money was actually good for.
Pedroza was lucky: Because his parents picked him up from prison he didn’t have to spend his money on a bus ticket home. Still, Pedroza, who had spent years watching people come back to prison after being unable to make ends meet on the outside, found the amount of money California gave him on his way out of prison “laughable.”
Roughly 600,000 people are , according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Experts often say the are critical to determining whether a former inmate’s path will lead away from prison or make
