Remember Those in Prison
A new initiative in Iowa is encouraging employers to consider hiring men and women with criminal records, highlighting the positive impact such hires can have for businesses and for their communities.
The United States Attorney’s Office will be presenting a series of three workshops across northern Iowa to help assist former prisoners to find and keep employment.
In 2000, Dana Bowerman was arrested for her role in a methamphetamine ring in Texas. She was sentenced to 19 years and seven months in prison—a sentence even the judge overseeing the case admitted was very harsh.
“I needed time to get my head straight,” Bowerman admits, reflecting on a life that had gone from being an honor roll student to a 15-year addiction to methamphetamine at the time of her arrest.
The community reentry team connected Albert with Paving the Way, one of Prison Fellowship's reentry partners that helps former prisoners in their search for employment.
For many prisoners, the challenges and difficulties that come with incarceration don’t end when they leave prison for the outside world. Free from the monotonous routine and structured environment of prison, these men and women are thrown into a world that is unfamiliar, with little (if any) support structure, few contacts that will do anything other than lead them to reoffending, and bearing a “scarlet letter” that makes it virtually impossible to establish themselves as productive members of society.
This is Benny's dream: helping former prisoners rebuild their lives.
Use this practical tool to help ex-prisoners become responsible employees.
Nationwide, as many as 60 percent of ex-prisoners are unemployed one year after their release from prison. This signals pending disaster — not only for the ex-prisoners and their families, but also for the broader community.
A reentry organization founded in Cleveland, Ohio, is working to eliminate misconceptions that employers have about the risks involved in hiring ex-prisoners.