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| Paroled Murderer Helps Others Adjust After Prison |
| By Newsday |
| Published: 05/20/2003 |
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When Thomas Trantino gives lectures to groups of ex-convicts about adjusting to life on the outside, they tend to sit up and listen. After all, Trantino knows of what he speaks. Imprisoned for 38 years in the shooting deaths of two police officers, Trantino was released on parole last year. Like many paroled felons, he found a society unwilling to have anything to do with him, much less give him a chance at a fresh start. The 65-year-old decided to use his experiences in a constructive way. With help and funding from the Haddonfield Quakers, Trantino now runs a program that provides support and counseling to ex-prisoners and other at-risk individuals. 'Beyond Prison Walls: Friends Transition Support Services' operates out of a renovated brownstone in Camden, New Jersey. The program is augmented by attorneys, family therapists, teachers, psychologists and criminologists who volunteer their time. Among Trantino's duties are giving one or two talks a week. 'I've done almost everything, including change,' he told the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill. 'A lot of them say, 'If this guy can do it, so can I.' I'm the worst of the worst.' Trantino murdered two Bergen County police officers in 1963. His death sentence was commuted in 1972, and he was denied parole nine times before the state Supreme Court ordered him moved to a halfway house last year. The challenges of re-entering society are many, according to experts. Housing, work, family dynamics, addictions and the difficulty of reconnecting to the world can be overwhelming. According to the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, almost two-thirds of inmates released from state prisons are rearrested within three years of their release. |
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