Re: [WardFive] CSOSA Article: "The Struggle for Employment-Ex-Offenders

This was a great article released last year which also a follow up on a great Washington Post Article which was another year or so older which highlighted a lot of the work that Kenny does with Miller & Long to help reach out to others in the construction industry to hire returning citizens.  I can tell you that as of the last summer Kenny with the support of M & L and others in the industry was able to start that support group for returning citizens at M & L and it has helped many who work with the company.  Likewise I can tell you from working with Tony Lewis, Jr who is a great leader in our ward and the city that there has been some real strides in helping to improve the image and find employment for many of our returning citizens.

This article however doesn't touch on something of great importance.  In years past much of the work for returning citizens has been in areas such as Construction at various levels and through other entry level jobs but because of the economy this has become a greater issue.  First from the standpoint that many individuals who years ago wouldn't be looking at the entry level jobs are now looking at them because of the economy which is making it harder for them because in many cases they are competing with individuals with more education and without the blemish on their record.

The second issue has been that Construction for the most part has continued to major decline in private/residential construction.  This coupled with the troubled economy has caused many journemen to continue to work which means less room to bring in new individuals which in many cases would be apprentices which most of the returning citizens would be.  To make matters worse much of the work we see these days (especially in this region) are public private partnerships or public projects such as the DHS headquarters which requires that many of the employees pass background checks.  Because of this many of the new positions which would usually go to returning citizens in the industry or even to returning citizens who are already working end up being out of their reach because they can't pass the clearance.  During the hearing last week my self and a few others from the industry including two of the union representatives were talking about how problematic this was on the DHS project and talking about various individuals who we have come across in this exact situation.  

Likewise what we have also seen in this region is greater difficulty in obtaining the required insurance and other financial securities for companies because they have returning citizens on their employee rosters much like they face with individuals with lower credit scores.  This is something that companies are facing which the government (a) hasn't truly worked to try to address and (b) doesn't have a great deal of control over in certain areas.

In addition from a DC standpoint we have seen seen constant decreases in the resources for training and grants to programs such as those run by Covenant House and Goodwill of Greater Washington which worked in large part with returning citizens. All the while we are seeing increased numbers of returning citizens.  This coupled with other governmental cuts in programs such as Project Empowerment through DOES and a few other programs has unfortunately almost caused a perfect storm.

Many of these issues is why industries and companies which have had good track records working with returning citizens had to stand against Councilman Barry and his legislation. It wasn't about not wanting to hire returning citizens so much but because of the changed business environment many of those companies now must know before hand who they are looking to hire. Going back to the DHS project many of the companies who did hire in the city were hiring specifically for that project.  For some of them they had a time period of 10 - 15 days to staff up prior to starting the job from the time they were awarded a contract.  If you take a few days to review and interview individuals and then hire then make them offers you are screwed 5 - 7 days later if not longer when it comes back and they aren't cleared to work.  These are the types of issues which have repeated their selves in this city and there are several examples of individuals who were approached by security on the job after having their reports come back and being asked to leave the property not to return.  

What truly needs to happen in this city which isn't talked about enough is a real effort in helping to train our returning citizens in not only obtaining the same old jobs which are becoming less and less available but also creating new opportunity for them to gain jobs and open their own businesses.  

If I can find my copy of the article from the Post I will share it.

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Eric J. Jones, MSF
ejjones.threed@gmail.com


"I for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they'll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action."

                                                                            El Haj Malik El Shabazz

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