Financial Literacy Helps Everyone (Feedback)

My name is David Jones and I am a student in the Economics & Finance Department at UALR. I am writing this in response to an article I read by Ken Galchus titled “Ex-Offenders Need Financial Literacy Too” (April 28).

First of all, I thought it was an excellent article and truly brought up an underappreciated topic concerning the recidivism rates in our state and country. I too am an ex-offender; I was released around Thanksgiving in 2012. I made some horrible decisions in my youth for which I gave up almost seven years of my life to the Arkansas Department of Correction.

I was blessed, however, to have a great family and support system that endured all of this with me and was intact upon my release to assist me with reintegration to society. Upon release, I re-enrolled at UALR and began school full time. I am maintaining a 3.94 GPA and just received two private academic scholarships. This is where I met Dr. Galchus, my professor in quantitative business analysis class this past semester. I was not aware that he was involved in these programs to help educate people who are near release.

The lack of understanding of financial matters in the most basic way by offenders is truly amazing. In my opinion, it also contributes heavily to recidivism. It is already difficult to get on one’s feet with a criminal record; add to that the trouble understanding finance and you contribute to the revolving door of the system.

I wrote Dr. Galchus and thanked him for writing the article and wanted to thank Arkansas Business for publishing it. This is a topic that gets very little discussion throughout various forms of media, but one that could truly improve the quality of life of our society if it was properly addressed. Thanks for your time in reading this.

David Jones

Little Rock