How are you integrating equity into your work with the reentry workforce?
The first thing we must do is create a welcoming and inclusive environment where formerly incarcerated people feel comfortable, safe, and seen for the strengths that they bring with them.
Because we work with people who are just coming home from recent incarceration, we have to provide wraparound services in addition to providing job training and placement services. Often people need time to acclimate and support finding a stable place to live along with food, mental health counseling, and financial literacy education.
Partnering with employers who are committed to hiring people with criminal records. Helping employers onboard new hires and equip them with tools to advance and then supporting our graduates as they advance beyond their first job to career opportunities to offer family-sustaining wages.
What do you believe needs to change to help people with records gain equity in society?
There are many things that need to change to help people with records gain equity in society. Here are a few of the most important:
We need to provide more support for people with records. People with records face many challenges when they try to reintegrate into society. We need to provide them with more support, such as job training, housing assistance, and mental health counseling.
Issue a temporary basic income upon release: Providing short-term financial stability for formerly incarcerated people would operate as an investment, helping to ease reintegration and provide opportunity for training public safety and recidivism reduction benefits that would result in long-term cost savings.
Implement automatic record expungement procedures once people have been in the community without reoffending for 10 years: A prison sentence should not be a lifetime punishment.
