Attempting a Triumph over the Business Committee into Contemplating Second-Chance Hiring.

Sitting on my bed one morning wallowing in deep consciousness, anxious before that very first call to a prospective employer the first on my long list of prospective second chance hirers. How would I be received? Would they believe me? Would they allow me to set up a formal meeting to further explain what the organization is all about? Maybe they will scoff at my objectives. What if no one would listen, what if my endeavor flops and I would become the talk of the town over how far-fetched my objectives were? Though I was quite confident with the program, I was still nervous about introducing the unusual yet revolutionary concept of second chance hiring to the business owners in my community.

Somehow in that instant, I realized that I had become the very thing I was advocating against. I had never interacted with the business owners that I purported to call and assuming that they will be mean and unresponsive to me, was me working against my own beliefs; "never make a decision based on any assumptions". Besides, there was no other way of knowing I just had to make that first call and the next until I had exhausted that list.

Second-chance hiring is a concept that was developed to express the process whereby companies and organizations will add an active policy to their company operations in which they would undertake to hire correctional facility leavers. Mr. Power Gwande a highly accredited former police detective and I have undertaken to introduce and spearhead this concept in our community. In July 2022 we established an organization called Alleviate Prison Leavers Re-entry Program.

People find themselves in prisons for several reasons. Unfortunately, our law enforcement and judicial sectors are more victim-centered over the accused. For someone to go through that brush with the law is the biggest cry for help, the accused are usually victims of circumstances mentally/psychologically and/or financially taking out their anger and frustrations into various forms of crime e.g. stealing, assault, rape, murder, etc.?

When a person is admitted into a prison, they come out usually after compensating the victim, paying for lawyers, a job loss, a criminal record in tow, stigma, rejection and isolation. A situation worse than before incarceration. Unfortunately, this cycle does not just end with the prison leaver himself but it has a direct correlation to the increase of crime in our town, the increase of touts on our streets, the roaming street kids, an increase in substance abuse cases, idleness, loitering, hooliganism, prostitution, uncontrollable street hawking, conman operations, public drinking, etc.?

Well someone may come up and say that isn’t it the government’s job to develop policies that break that cycle. In response, I would say yes it is but the government can do also with our help. It is rather encouraged for a company or persons to establish policies that employ those who have been put into a tight corner as a result of a previous brush against the law. The proper reintegration of prison leavers must be the responsibility of everyone. We have each done a thing or two in the past that we aren’t proud of and some of us were fortunate enough not to have met up with the full wrath of the law. If you were arrested tried in a court of law and sentenced to a prison term and then, later on, come out with a criminal record, would life still be that same for you and your family??

A criminal record is a record that shows a list of the crimes a person has been convicted of. Most government departments, employers, money lenders, and immigration use it to assess a person’s trustworthiness. In my opinion a total lack of confidence in the efforts offered by correctional services. Correctional services offer vocational, educational and religious support. The system has changed and has become more human from previous historical confinements which would be execution or slavery. I believe the correctional services are giving it their all?but it is the employer mindset that is lagging. A criminal record has become one's life sentence today, so even after a person is physically released from prison they remained confined or incarcerated by society.

Great people of innovative minds and experiences in different fields have committed offenses but upon release such persons are no longer considered employable, the returning residents themselves do not even bother to seek employment out in the open, especially in the formal sectors for fear of rejection, stigma, and isolation. They retreat quietly and become ghosts in our society instead operating the economy in secretiveness.?Managers, engineers, politicians, lawyers, teachers, nurses, accountants, technicians, and many more are among the formerly incarcerated. Their knowledge, skills, and expertise does not disappear after imprisonment. To fend for their families, some may be pushed into a tight corner and will be forced to use their expertise and knowledge in operations that may lead them into serious trouble with the law once again.

The families especially the children of the imprisoned persons suffer the direct consequences of the prison system, these are the justice impacted. They suffer the side effects of imprisonment, with one parent in jail and another working overtime to meet up the family’s financial needs, children become neglected and may end up without proper parental guidance and supervision. These children may too display delinquencies, association with the wrong crowd, substance abuse, prostitution/early sexual activities, teen pregnancies resulting in abortions, dropping out of schools, idleness, etc. Some of the children may not be bad themselves but will fall prey to sexual predators, child labor, human trafficking, and mental and psychological trauma. If these issues are not met and addressed, we are only breeding more criminal behavior and an unsafe community in which you reside and you and your children become potential victims of any of these side effects. For example a break into your home or company premises and your children partaking in drugs and alcohol on the streets and they too ending up in prison.

With this article, I would like to encourage prospective second chance employers to come forth to our hub, there you will find many men and women who have decided to turn their lives around for good and to lead a noble life. Some only made a bad decision once, some unknowingly hung out with the wrong crowd at a young age and ended up in prison, and some are even wrong convictions though we may never know.

?Our organization will only release a client for employment with a partner employer only after the client has undergone counselling, some financial literacy, and advanced business skills training with a mentor. The organization is aware that some salaries and wages are not enough to end the poverty cycle however one of the objectives is to get our clients sustainable farming and entrepreneurship projects for their long-term sustainability. Most vocational training acquired in prison cannot be put to use as the prison leaver will not be able to secure capital for equipment to start welding or making furniture. The secured job will only be a stepping stone to financial freedom.

The end.