How giving formerly incarcerated people a second chance benefits employers
The month of April is historically recognized as Second Chance Month — a time to raise public awareness about giving those who have been convicted of crimes and completed sentences the opportunity for an honest second chance at successfully reentering society.
For employers facing an increasingly tight labor market, second chance hiring also offers a unique opportunity to tap into a ready and willing workforce.
According to a Tennessee Department of Correction report, approximately 15,000 convicted felons are released each year from incarceration or some form of judicial supervision in Tennessee.
Formerly-incarcerated individuals are often highly motivated to gain employment to ensure compliance with the terms and conditions associated with their release. Many second chance hires have also gained significant and valuable skills while incarcerated such as high school diplomas, vocational trades and postsecondary degrees.
I’d settle for just allowing someone on the registry a fair chance. I’ve been on the registry for 17 years. Lost my job due to corporate downsizing. Have had 4 job offers pulled after I was legally required to tell them I’m on the registry. Misdemeanor offense.
As a SO in Florida, when dose my sentence end? I have tried, for 2 months to get a job and my conviction 14 years ago is blocking me from employment. This is discrimination. Had I murdered someone or robbed a bank. I would have no problem getting a job.
I have a Masters degree. After my release, it took me nine months to find a job, and even then the job I got was a minimum wage sweatshop job in an industrial laundry. $ 8.45 an hour. I am reasonable enough to know that my old profession wouldn’t be available. But I was over qualified for the vast majority of the jobs that I applied for. I interviewed well, but was never hired. It’s hard for me now, unemployed and pretty much indigent, to feel hopeful. There were no vocational training opportunities available for the 18 months I was incarcerated and probation offered no help in securing work. I’m throwing the bs flag at second chance centers because if you are on the registry, you won’t be helped. I’m alive today because I refuse to let people tell you me that my life has no meaning. Thank you for letting me rant.
Sadly the real goal of the registry is to get us too kill ourselves. They can’t really put death sentences for the offense so they continue to push us down in hopes we do it. Many on here and other sites cheer when they start removing people from the registry but I dread it. The reason they do it is those cases that most agree shouldn’t be on the registry. This is so the opposition little as it is will die out. Then they can continue to push harsher and harsher punishment without any real opposition.
They forgot to mention, Convicted Murderers are welcome, but sex offenders are not.
When in college after prison, while on probation, I used my research papers as a chance to talk about this exact subject. College tends to be more receptive to helping people so usually I did well. But on a personal level I know I worked hard right out of the gate because the alternative was back to prison. I have kept in touch with a few people and them having different types of charges and no probation they worked hard at the first job to gives them a chance. If people haven’t done there work on themselves inside and they are just interested in what sent them before, they will mess up soon enough. I think it’s worth the chance to hire a few second chance people and if some don’t work so be it. I’m sure out of 10 hires, 6 will work out.
Yes…This All Fine and Good…BUT, If You are a Person Forced to Register, then, Most Things Will NEVER EVER APPLY!
We are Excluded From Most things!…99.9% of the TIME!