Helping inmates find good jobs after release is increasingly the focus of corrections officials. This is a tremendous change for the better. Rather than telling offenders to find a job, they are now helping them find one. A good job is an essential element in successfully returning to the community from prison.
Over 700 top leaders gathered at the National Offender Workforce Development Conference for an enthusiastic discussion on ways to help offenders find good jobs after release. Transcripts of the sessions are available here.
It was terrific to be among so many leaders who viewed inmates as people worth caring about. That is quite a change in attitude from when I walked through the prison gates 11 years ago.
The following week, the White House Faith Based Office sponsored a terrific roundtable on reentry that highlighted a report by Public Private Ventures entitled "Call to Action: How Programs in Three Cities Responded to the Prisoner Reentry Crisis". The report was an analysis of how local faith and community-based groups in Jacksonville, Memphis and Washington, DC provided effective services to ex-prisoners—primarily employment services, case management and mentoring, with early results that lowered recidivism rates to 50 percent below the national average.
In St. Louis, Doug Burris, the Chief Probation Officer of the Federal Court has established an excellent jobs program for the offenders he supervises. In cooperation with local churches, businesses and community groups, he has succeeded in placing so ex-offenders in jobs that the unemployment rate of those under his supervision is one-fourth of the unemployment rate of the general population of St. Louis! Take a look at the Jobs Toolkit Doug offers the offenders. It is excellent. The St. Louis program works closely with Connections to Success, which offers faith-based mentoring to poor families.
Many states have statutory barriers that prohibit ex-offenders from working in fields completely unrelated to their crimes such as cutting hair, working in schools, nursing homes, hospitals, power plants, etc. Often the only way to obtain employment in these situations is to get a pardon. Yet it is a nightmare to figure out because each state has its own rules for pardons and its own statutory barriers to employment. Margaret Love painstakingly compiled a state-by-state analysis of the process necessary to receive a pardon in her book, Relief from the Collateral Consequences of a Criminal Conviction: A State-by-State Resource Guide. It is indispensable to anyone seeking to obtain a pardon.
Offenders receive far more from a job than just a paycheck. They also receive the satisfaction that comes from knowing that someone is willing to pay them for their hard work. That is worth a lot after years of feeling powerless in confinement.
In His service,
Pat Nolan
Resources
Ready4Work programs to help local faith-based organizations support the reentry and reintegration of ex-offenders, both adults and juveniles, into their communities.
"Just Out: An Early Report from the Ready4Work Prisoner Reentry Initiative" studied the success of job programs that worked with over 1700 ex-offenders in 17 sites around the country. The report is very helpful in learning what is working and what doesn’t seem to be as successful.
Dress for Success promotes the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.
Career Gear provides career counseling, interview coaching, business clothing, and follow-up job support to men actively seeking employment.
DOJ Reentry Employment Services Links to many helpful studies on helping inmates obtain and retain employment after incarceration.
NIC Training Series for Practitioners Providing Employment Services to People with Criminal Records
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