Across Iraq, other ex-inmates were doing the same.
Later on, ex-inmates can train in food preparation or pest control.
SOME people in the business say ex-inmates often have the qualities needed to be trainers.
The ex-inmates had, evidently, performed some surreptitious 'restitution' - wartime habits die hard.
Thousands of ex-inmates bore the scars of the nylon cuffs which held their hands tightly together behind their backs.
But the ex-inmates, and some correction officers, say resistance to change runs deep throughout the system.
So many ex-inmates rely on medicaid as their only insurance, but are often denied access to crucial services like mental health care under such programs.
It should be no surprise that ex-inmates have high rates of unemployment and homelessness.Doing timeThe sentencing laws also skew the system in another way.
After a couple of years of casual jobs, he now works at the Osborne Association, a New York group that helps ex-inmates to find jobs and homes.
Midway through the meal, two ex-inmates who had been released the previous week interrupted to ask if they could be let back in.
And guilty or innocent, ex-inmates emerge into a world ill suited to receive them, generally without the skills they need to adapt and prosper.
