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If officials want the recidivism rate to decline for ex-convicts, Oklahoma must increase opportunities for incarcerated individuals to get job training and encourage more businesses to become \u201csecond chance\u201d employers who will hire people with a record, lawmakers were told at a legislative study this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main objective is getting second-chance employers to give these people a chance,\u201d said Gina Richie, reentry case manager for The Education and Employment Ministry (TEEM). \u201cYou can train them. You can put them in CareerTech. But if you don\u2019t have anybody that\u2019s going to hire them, they\u2019re going back to crime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richie knows that reality firsthand.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack in 1996 I went into incarceration. And when I got out, I found out I was unemployable,\u201d Richie said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t matter what my resume said. It didn\u2019t matter what my education said. No employer would give me an opportunity to work. I had three children. I wasn\u2019t able to take care of them, and so I wasn\u2019t able to pay my court costs and fines. So they sent me back for failure to pay court costs and fines.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richie said faith-based organizations subsequently helped her gain work skills and trained her to handle job interviews as a person with a criminal record. The second time she was released from prison, Richie was directed to \u201csecond chance\u201d employers. She went on to eventually work for the State of Oklahoma at the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and was later hired by TEEM.<\/p>\n
The challenge for ex-cons is not simply to obtain employment, but also to obtain a job that will allow them to cover the basic cost of living while simultaneously paying off fines and fees imposed as a part of their prior conviction.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody can live on $7.25 an hour,\u201d Richie said. \u201cThat is not possible, especially when you have children, you have court costs and fines, and you have everything stacked against you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Damion Shade, executive director of Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform, said about 70 percent of individuals who obtain employment after exiting prison do jobs such as food services and building maintenance.<\/p>\n
Shade said those \u201caren\u2019t bad jobs,\u201d but they won\u2019t cover living expenses and court fines.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve worked those jobs,\u201d Shade said. \u201cBut for people with the financial liabilities of those exiting an incarceral setting, those jobs aren\u2019t enough to keep food on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n
State Rep. Justin Humphrey, R-Lane, said the fines-and-fees issue often compounds and overwhelms former prisoners.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re stacking misdemeanor case upon misdemeanor case upon misdemeanor case, and then they\u2019re getting D.A. (district attorney) probation, D.A. probation, D.A. probation, and they\u2019re getting all these fines and that kind of stuff,\u201d Humphrey said.<\/p>\n
He said in those situations it soon \u201cbecomes an impossibility to pay all those court costs and fines,\u201d and people quit trying.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers discussed ways to increase job training opportunities for those in prison as part of a study requested by state Rep. Nicole Miller, R-Edmond.<\/p>\n
The issue hit close to home for state Rep. Mauree Turner, D-Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n
Turner\u2019s father \u201cwasn\u2019t able to get a stable job after his bout with the criminal legal system until maybe a decade after being released,\u201d the lawmaker recalled.<\/p>\n
Jessie Wiese, vice president of program design and evaluation at Prison Fellowship, also understood the issue from multiple viewpoints.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was 21 years old when I robbed a bank at gunpoint,\u201d Wiese said. \u201cI was sentenced to serve 15 years in Iowa\u2019s correctional system. There can sometimes be few helpful hands reaching out in prison, yet I was fortunate to find some.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the time he neared the end of his prison sentence, Wiese was studying for the law-school admissions test. He went on to graduate magna cum laude, pass the bar exam (twice), and finally became a licensed attorney after a 10-year battle with the state of Virginia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe credit for these accomplishments belongs to those along the way who believed that I could make good on my second chance,\u201d Wiese said. \u201cMy background experience and current work all deepen my conviction that prison environments should be marked by widespread transformative programming that fosters tangible changes in habits, thinking, and behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adam Maxey, deputy state director of Americans for Prosperity, noted that 98 percent of individuals currently in Oklahoma prisons are scheduled to be released at some point in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndividuals in prison are learning something every day,\u201d Maxey said. \u201cThey\u2019re either learning how to be a better drug addict or criminal, or you\u2019re learning a skill or something that you\u2019re going to help use to better your life and your situation when you\u2019re going to get out. And so, regardless of if the state has the resources to reach everyone or not, everyone is learning something. So improving the environment and improving what those people are learning and doing to help them when they get out to set them up for success is a huge step forward for the state of Oklahoma. Because there\u2019s dignity in work.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n