CEO Isabelle Day of Quality Ingredients of Burnsville was having difficulty filling jobs last year when she read a Star Tribune column about hiring former inmates.
Starting pay is $15 an hour and can reach $40,000 a year, and employees get annual bonuses, health care and a retirement plan.
Day and her plant manager work through Twin Cities Rise, the nonprofit trainer that puts ex-inmates and other low-income folks through a rigorous curriculum of personal empowerment, training and soft-skill development before placing them in internships, at temp agencies or in full-time jobs.
“These are great people who have made mistakes,” Day said. “In many cases, these people are stronger than somebody walking off the street to apply. The work is tough. We see a sincerity and great communication skills. They tend to be respectful, thoughtful and mature.”
As the job market gets tighter, employers are slowly turning to nonprofits such as Rise, Emerge, Building Better Futures, Summit Academy, Genesys Works, Goodwill Easter Seals and others that help former felons build skills and land decent jobs.
“We are safer when these guys have jobs and housing,” said CEO Dan Pfarr of 180 Degrees. “We are their step from prison to the civilian world.”
The Minneapolis nonprofit serves men on parole as they move from prison to community with short-term housing and counseling. It links them to training and organizations connected to employers. It has to happen quickly. Most parolees get only 60 to 90 days to get housing and find a job, with expenses covered by the Minnesota Department of Corrections.
The transition from prison to work, and civilian society, is not easy, particularly if you have been locked up 10 or 15 years and never operated a cellphone or computer. It also takes the right mind-set and a willingness to beat the odds.
Close to 60 percent of Minnesota inmates are back in prison within two years.
Minnesota has a lower-than-average incarceration rate but one of the highest rates of people on probation, which can end up being a “back door” to prison re-entry.
More than half of those returning to prison are on parole violations, according to the Minnesota Department of Commerce. Pfarr and Richard Coffey, 180 Degrees program director, said the violations often are for noncriminal acts, such as being late or taking a different route than prescribed to training or jobs.
“These guys, and we deal with about 300 a year, get a case manager and we work with them on a plan. Some of them have some training. I’m impressed with many of them. Life for them can be daunting,” Pfarr said.
Low jobless rate’s upside
The good news is that the low unemployment rate is prompting employers to warm to hiring former inmates.
Tony Bulmer, a former prisoner, has moved up over six months from a laborer position to a $20 supervisory position at Gregory Foods in Eagan. He’s also moving from a 180 Degrees residence to his own room in September.
“I’m taking this opportunity to the fullest,” said Bulmer, 31, also a trained diesel mechanic.
Bulmer grew up working in a family-owned bakery and likes machinery, which has helped in his new role.
“If I can see how it works, I can figure out how to do it,” he said.
A groundbreaking report last year by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) provides a road map into the “successes of corporate policies giving formerly incarcerated Americans a fair chance at re-entry.”
It’s been embraced by large employers including Google, Total Wine, the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Foundation, Koch Industries, Walmart and other companies.
Locally, Quality Ingredients, Target, Bremer Bank and numerous small businesses are on board.
And Rise and its national partner, Root & Rebound, which advocates for former inmates, have received great response from local employers for their “Minnesota Employers’ Fair Chance Hiring Guide.”
The guide takes employers through legal compliance and risk minimization, background checks, the rewards of hiring a second-chance worker, best practices for “onboarding” former inmates and strategies for helping them integrate into the workforce.
As the Minnesota prison system and number of prisoners and parolees generally ballooned over the last 30 years, in part because of mandatory sentences for drug and other nonviolent offenses, the state has spent disproportionately less on education, training and employment services.
Louis King, CEO of Summit Academy, which works with low-income people to earn high school-equivalency degrees, and train for entry-level posts in building trades, IT and health care, has said the best social-welfare program is gaining skills, and showing up for a living-wage job.CEO Isabelle Day of Quality Ingredients of Burnsville was having difficulty filling jobs last year when she read a Star Tribune column about hiring former inmates.
“Turnover was high and we were using [costly] temporary agencies for labor,” she recalled.
Today, six of the 60 factory workers on the floor of Quality Ingredients are ex-offenders.
Starting pay is $15 an hour and can reach $40,000 a year, and employees get annual bonuses, health care and a retirement plan.
Day and her plant manager work through Twin Cities Rise, the nonprofit trainer that puts ex-inmates and other low-income folks through a rigorous curriculum of personal empowerment, training and soft-skill development before placing them in internships, at temp agencies or in full-time jobs.
“These are great people who have made mistakes,” Day said. “In many cases, these people are stronger than somebody walking off the street to apply. The work is tough. We see a sincerity and great communication skills. They tend to be respectful, thoughtful and mature.”
As the job market gets tighter, employers are slowly turning to nonprofits such as Rise, Emerge, Building Better Futures, Summit Academy, Genesys Works, Goodwill Easter Seals and others that help former felons build skills and land decent jobs.
“We are safer when these guys have jobs and housing,” said CEO Dan Pfarr of 180 Degrees. “We are their step from prison to the civilian world.”
The Minneapolis nonprofit serves men on parole as they move from prison to community with short-term housing and counseling. It links them to training and organizations connected to employers. It has to happen quickly. Most parolees get only 60 to 90 days to get housing and find a job, with expenses covered by the Minnesota Department of Corrections.
The transition from prison to work, and civilian society, is not easy, particularly if you have been locked up 10 or 15 years and never operated a cellphone or computer. It also takes the right mind-set and a willingness to beat the odds.
Close to 60 percent of Minnesota inmates are back in prison within two years.
Minnesota has a lower-than-average incarceration rate but one of the highest rates of people on probation, which can end up being a “back door” to prison re-entry.
More than half of those returning to prison are on parole violations, according to the Minnesota Department of Commerce. Pfarr and Richard Coffey, 180 Degrees program director, said the violations often are for noncriminal acts, such as being late or taking a different route than prescribed to training or jobs.
“These guys, and we deal with about 300 a year, get a case manager and we work with them on a plan. Some of them have some training. I’m impressed with many of them. Life for them can be daunting,” Pfarr said.
Low jobless rate’s upside
The good news is that the low unemployment rate is prompting employers to warm to hiring former inmates.
Tony Bulmer, a former prisoner, has moved up over six months from a laborer position to a $20 supervisory position at Gregory Foods in Eagan. He’s also moving from a 180 Degrees residence to his own room in September.
“I’m taking this opportunity to the fullest,” said Bulmer, 31, also a trained diesel mechanic.
Bulmer grew up working in a family-owned bakery and likes machinery, which has helped in his new role.
“If I can see how it works, I can figure out how to do it,” he said.
A groundbreaking report last year by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) provides a road map into the “successes of corporate policies giving formerly incarcerated Americans a fair chance at re-entry.”
It’s been embraced by large employers including Google, Total Wine, the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Foundation, Koch Industries, Walmart and other companies.
Locally, Quality Ingredients, Target, Bremer Bank and numerous small businesses are on board.
And Rise and its national partner, Root & Rebound, which advocates for former inmates, have received great response from local employers for their “Minnesota Employers’ Fair Chance Hiring Guide.”
The guide takes employers through legal compliance and risk minimization, background checks, the rewards of hiring a second-chance worker, best practices for “onboarding” former inmates and strategies for helping them integrate into the workforce.
As the Minnesota prison system and number of prisoners and parolees generally ballooned over the last 30 years, in part because of mandatory sentences for drug and other nonviolent offenses, the state has spent disproportionately less on education, training and employment services.
Louis King, CEO of Summit Academy, which works with low-income people to earn high school-equivalency degrees, and train for entry-level posts in building trades, IT and health care, has said the best social-welfare program is gaining skills, and showing up for a living-wage job.
companies hire felons | companies that hire felons | Companies that hire ex-offenders | Employers that hire ex-offenders | employers that hire felons |Jobs for felons | jobs for ex-offenders | jobs that hire felons | places that hire felons | felon friendly jobs | felon friendly employers | how to get a job with criminal record | second chance jobs for felons | temp agencies that hire felons | high paying jobs for felons | felon friendly
Half the states bar ex-cons from
getting the occupational licenses they need to re-enter the
workforce. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say it doesn't
make sense.
by Adam
Edelman / NBC
News
Mike Grennan, a former convict who's getting by piecing together
small construction gigs in Port Huron, Michigan, says he's paid
his debt to society — but, when it comes to getting an
occupational license to be a home-building contractor, he just
can't outrun his criminal past. That's because Michigan, like two dozen other states, has laws on
the books that prevent ex-felons like Grennan from getting the
professional licenses they need to work in a variety of
blue-collar trades, including cutting hair, welding, doing makeup
and cosmetics, construction and more.
"It really frustrates me. I have a really good work ethic, and
I've paid my debt to society," said Grennan, 46, who has been in
and out of state prison for chunks of his adult life, due to a
series of convictions he said stem from an addiction to heroin.
Mike Grennan finds work as a subcontractor for small
projects in Port Huron, Mich., but he hasn't been able to
get his occupational license to be a homebuilder because of
his criminal past.Courtesy
Mike Grennan
Now, a growing number of states are trying to bring down the
barriers convicts face in re-entering the workforce after their
release — and that includes a new raft of laws in recent months
that have drawn bipartisan support and are aimed at making it
easier for ex-cons to get occupational licenses in
fields from which they were formerly barred because of their
criminal pasts.
Since his 2013 release from Michigan's Jackson State Prison,
where he served a three-year sentence on larceny and stolen
property charges, Grennan has been blocked from getting his
residential maintenance and alteration contractor's license —
which he needs to legally work as a homebuilding/renovation
contractor. That's because of "good moral character" clauses in
Michigan law that essentially prohibit people with felony
convictions from getting approved for more than 70 percent of
occupational licenses granted by the state.
More than 70 million Americans with prior criminal
records are facing similar barriers to re-entering the
workforce, where 25 percent of all jobs require an occupational
or professional license, according to the National Employment Law
Project, a left-leaning workers rights nonprofit based in New
York.
"You're looking at crisis in which a large proportion of the
American public are just locked out of all sorts of jobs, which
not only hurts them and their families, but creates a challenge
for employers, often times in in-demand occupations that are
looking for qualified workers," said Maurice Emsellem, NELP’s
Fair Chance Program director.
The added irony, Emsellem and other experts said, is that so many
others, in similar situations to Grennan, actually learned their
trade in prison, where they were preparing to come out ready to
find a job and re-enter society — only to find out that they
can't.
Inmates training to become commercial underwater divers
receive classroom instruction at the California Institution
for Men state prison in Chino, California. They are among
those who can get the licenses they need to get
jobs. Patrick
T. Fallon / Bloomberg via Getty Images
"There's a lot training happening in construction and
manufacturing inside prisons," Emsellem said. "People go through
all this effort to reform themselves. And then they can't work
when they get out. It's an extraordinary and powerful irony.”
This year, at least eight states have tried to fix the problem. In March, Delaware Gov. John Carney, a Democrat, signed into law
a measure removing some obstacles for former convicts seeking
licenses in cosmetology, barbering, electrology, nail technology
and aesthetics. Under the law, state licensing boards can no
longer include convictions older than 10 years as part of their
consideration process; and the waiting period prospective
licensees must observe before applying for a waiver of a prior
felony conviction was slashed to three years from five.
Weeks earlier, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, signed a
similar bill that eliminated "good moral character" and "moral
turpitude" clauses from licensing board requirements and forced
boards to limit disqualifying crimes to those "specifically and
directly" related to the profession in which the applicant was
seeking a license.
Also that month, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, a Republican,
signed bill mandating that occupational licensing boards render
their decisions about whether past convictions would be
considered disqualifying before applicants spend time and money
on training and classes. Previously, applicants had to complete
relevant training before even applying for their license.
Similar laws have gone into effect this year in Tennessee,
Wyoming, Kansas, Maryland and Massachusetts. And since 2015 —
following a set of best practices for state lawmakers published
by the Obama White House regarding occupational licensing reform
— at least seven other states have put laws on the books
lessening licensing restrictions for applicants with criminal
histories, according to the Institute for Justice, a
libertarian-leaning public interest law firm.
The restrictions were originally enacted to increase public
safety by ensuring that licensed tradespeople met high standards,
experts said. But states that have maintained such obstacles to
re-entering the workforce for former convicts have actually seen
public safety harmed, according to a widely cited 2016 study by
Arizona State University economics professor Stephen Slivinski,
because the laws result in significantly higher rates of criminal
recidivism. The study also found that states with fewer
restrictions have lower rates of recidivism.
Even as bipartisan support in state capitals across the U.S. for
reform is growing, not everyone's on board. Bill Cobb, who now works as the deputy director for the ACLU's
Campaign for Smart Justice, knows all about it.
In 1993, Cobb, then a 24-year-old college student in Philadelphia
and a veteran of Operation Desert Storm, pleaded guilty to
robbery, criminal conspiracy and kidnapping charges for driving
the getaway car in a crime. After he served a six-year sentence
at a Pennsylvania state prison, Cobb enrolled in a Philadelphia
program that would set him up to get an occupation license for
commercial truck driving.
"I took out thousands of dollar in loans, passed all the written
exams," Cobb said, "only to find out that that I would not even
be able to get a job driving as a result of not being able to get
an occupational license."
Cobb later found work as a telemarketer before embarking on an
advocacy career to help people who faced a similar predicament
coming out of prison. "I did my time. I was ready to move on and
live my life well," he said.
Pennsylvania has to date rejected substantial changes in its
licensing laws.
Jobs for Felons: The Facts about
Companies that Hire Ex offenders and Felons (2018)
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ex-offenders | employers that hire felons | Jobs for
felons | jobs for ex-offenders | jobs that hire felons |
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employers | how to get a job with criminal record | second
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| high paying jobs for felons
About one in three of the more than 300 employees at
Oregon-based Dave's Killer Bread has a criminal
background. - Courtesy,
Dave's Killer Bread
By Jacob Lewin - Marketplace
A major effort is under way in this country to reform the way we
sentence drug criminals. Thousands of felons are getting early release according to the
U.S. Sentencing Commission, and that will continue for
years to come.
The question is, will there be jobs for them?
If you visit the bakery at Dave's Killer Bread outside Portland,
you'll find pumps sucking two-thousand pounds of ingredients into
mixing bowls. You'll also find that a third of the
company's 300 employees have a criminal past, including plant
manager Ronnie Elrod.
“We're just so happy to have a job that typically we've got an
attitude of gratitude rather than a sense of entitlement.
And we also know that opportunities are going to be hard to come
by for us so we have to take those opportunities that come along
and we really have to make good on them,” Elrod
said.
And Harvard sociologist Devah Pager believes that's true.
She is studying the job performance of ex-cons
in the military. “Those with serious criminal pasts perform just
as well if not better than their counterparts with no criminal
records. At least with appropriate kinds of screening,
individuals with serious criminal records can perform very well
in the workplace,” she said.
Another of Pager's studies shows that a criminal record seriously reduces the chances
of getting a job. “I hired groups of young men to pose as job
applicants and sent them all over the city applying for jobs and
half the time they reported having a felony conviction and simply
by checking that box, their chances of receiving a
call-back or job offer were cut in half,” Pager
said.
Dave's Killer Bread has hired so many ex-convicts because, well
because of Dave...Dave Dahl, that is. After serving 15 years for
drug crimes, Dahl returned to his family's bakery and in 2005
created his namesake bread. “It was based on the epiphany I had
in prison which was that I could turn my own life around and
eventually the feeling was that we could help others to do the
same thing if they were willing to do most of the work
themselves,” Dahl said.
The company uses its hiring practices as a selling point, with
Dahl's picture on every package, even though a judge put him on
conditional release after he rammed into some police cars two
years ago.
This year Dave's Killer Bread was sold to Flowers Foods for $275
million.
Jobs for Felons: The Facts about Companies that Hire Ex offenders and Felons (2018)
companies hire felons | companies that hire felons | Companies
that hire ex-offenders | Employers that hire ex-offenders |
employers that hire felons | Jobs for felons | jobs for
ex-offenders | jobs that hire felons | places that hire felons |
felon friendly jobs | felon friendly employers | how to get a job
with criminal record | second chance jobs for felons
| temp agencies that hire felons | high
paying jobs for felons
Oregon company makes a point of hiring ex-convicts
In 2004 I committed a Felony 4 Theft . I was convicted but no jail time, I was placed on probation which I have completed. In 2006, I was given another Felony for Unemployment Fraud again no jail time and amount paid back before court hearing. These two Felonies were huge mistakes in my life and very humiliating for me everyday of my life. I went from a $70,000 a year job in Dayton, Ohio with great benefits to a $40,000 a year job with little to no benefits and currently unemployed.
Through these past seven years I have lost my family of two wonderful children and a great wife who has been by my side through all of this humiliation. I lost my home and my dignity We all live from my mistakes and I keep trying to get back into the career I am very good at but can not get past the background checks that many companies require before they hire a person. Twice, I made it all the way to actually going to the new work place and working over 5 hours before the HR department came down with a delayed background report and the bad news that I can not work for this company due to background convictions.
I am so tired of having to live each day in humiliation, not being able to provide for my family and have a place to call my own home. I have learned many things these past seven years and have seen how less forfeit people survive on little to no income. I have an education and so many technical skills and can get hundreds of jobs at or around $80,000 a year and could provide for myself and my family and their futures for college and retirement. but I get shutdown with one question, “have you ever been convicted of a felony”.
I am asking you to please help me in any way you can to be able to get these two mistakes off my background. I am sincerely sorry for all my mistakes.
Please, any advice would be helpful. I am losing hope and faith!
Thank You,
G.S.
Felon with Many Skills Needs a Job
Hello G.S.,
Finding a job with a criminal record often isn't easy. Ex-offenders and felons stand a better chance at getting hired by applying at smaller businesses. Smaller businesses are less apt to spend money on expensive background checks. One out-of-the-box suggestion I have is, if the the application on paper, leave the question that relates to having a criminal record blank. It is often overlooked by being left blank and you won’t have to address the question at all. If it is noticed, and you are questioned, always answer truthfully. Hopefully you will get an interview where the employer will get a chance to meet the person behind the application and you can sell yourself.
I often suggest to ex-offenders and felons looking for employment is to apply for temporary employment. There are clerical or other jobs that would put you in an office environment. There was a time that going to a temporary agency was the last resort for many job seekers, but for ex-offenders and felons looking for jobs, it is a good place to begin a new career. In the past five years, the demand for temporary employees has risen over 30%. In these tough economic times, companies are searching for ways to keep their labor costs down so they can remain competitive. More and more employers are utilizing temporary staffing agencies as a way to cost effectively fill vacancies. Not only do companies save money by using temporary labor, they get an opportunity to try out new workers before hiring them on a full time basis. Another interesting trend is the length of assignments. It is not uncommon for an assignment to last up to six months, so a temporary assignment may not be so temporary. Often companies end up hiring their temporary help if they prove to be good employees. You may also pick up some new skills and even make new business contacts that may be valuable later.
There is a twist for ex-offenders and felons when it comes to applying for temporary assignments. They should apply at smaller independent temporary employment agencies. Independent agencies don't have to deal with restrictions larger agencies may have placed on them by their parent companies as they relate to hiring ex-offenders and felons. They are free to hire anyone they choose. You can find listing in your local telephone directory and make appointments for interviews and prepare yourself accordingly. Be professional and dress as if it's a 'real' interview, because it is. You will be employed by the staffing agency and they will send you to assignments. Make sure you have an up-to-date resume and work on your interviewing skills. While agencies unquestionably will look at your work history and skills to determine a proper fit, the interview is the key to getting a good placement. The person conducting the interview is usually the same person who will decide what assignment you'll be offered. Your aim should always be to make a good first impression. Do not talk about your criminal history until you are directly asked about it. If you are asked, be honest but brief.
Even if the assignment you get isn't in your field, hey, a bucks a buck and it will help tide you over until better opportunities present themselves.
Best of luck to you.
Jobs for Ex-offenders and Felons: Where can Ex-offenders Find Jobs
Jobs for Ex-offenders and Felons: Ten Steps to Getting a Job with a Criminal Record
Jobs for Felons: The Facts about Companies that Hire Ex offenders and Felons
Felon with Many Skills Needs a Job
companies hire felons | companies that hire felons | Companies that hire ex-offenders | Employers that hire ex-offenders | employers that hire felons |Jobs for felons | jobs for ex-offenders | jobs that hire felons | places that hire felons | felon friendly jobs | felon friendly employers | how to get a job with criminal record | second chance jobs for felons | temp agencies that hire felons | high paying jobs for felons
Last year, I wrote a highly critical opinion piece for the Sun-Times about Gov. Bruce Rauner after learning that he had denied clemency for a client of mine.
Given Rauner’s extreme reluctance to grant clemency to ex-offenders, even to those like my client who had gone on to live honest and productive lives for many years, I questioned why anybody would bother to file the petition.
Though I couldn’t know it at the time, however, that same governor soon would lay the groundwork for my client to earn a second chance. In August 2017, Rauner signed House Bill 2373 into law. This legislation resulted in a significant expansion of the kinds of criminal records a judge can decide to seal from public view.
Last month, as a result of that law, a judge granted my client’s petition to seal his record, closing the book on my client’s addiction-fueled criminal conduct, which began when he was 17 and ended when he was 31. Today, he is 51.
My client’s story, which he has given me permission to tell as long as I don’t use his real name, reminds us that people who make bad decisions as teens and young adults still can grow into law-abiding, productive members of society. If we don’t start believing in our human capacity to change — to learn from our mistakes — we will fail to see the potential in many of our fellow, returning citizens.
My client, Larry, grew up in Chicago with an alcoholic father. His mother managed apartment buildings. Neither of his parents graduated from high school. Larry himself struggled in school, and was diagnosed with dyslexia in the fifth grade. Once assigned to special ed classes, he was teased and bullied relentlessly.
The summer before Larry entered high school, he started drinking beer. By his freshman year, he was smoking weed and using cocaine. He dropped out of school after his sophomore year. A year later, he was arrested for the first time.
He was charged with felony burglary and sentenced to probation.
In no time at all, Larry had gone from high school dropout to convicted felon. His future did not bode well. It is estimated that more than 70 percent of the men and women in United States prisons did not graduate from high school.
Larry’s next arrest, for residential burglary, occurred while he was still on probation. He was sentenced to prison – the first of two prison stints he would serve before turning 20. Larry’s preferred choice of crime? Breaking into cars, though he wasn’t particularly good at it. He was usually drunk or high when arrested.
In 1990, Larry picked up his fourth — and final — felony conviction. He was spared prison, though, sentenced instead to an intensive, in-patient drug treatment.
Larry struggled with his sobriety for another 10 years. But a health scare in 2000 finally convinced him to stop drinking and drugging.
Today, Larry takes his sobriety seriously. He has been sober for nearly 18 years. He attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings three times a week.
A couple of years ago, he met his wife at an AA meeting. With her encouragement and support, he started meeting with a literacy tutor. At the time, his reading comprehension was that of a second grader. Today, he can read at a fifth-grade level.
So there you have it: Larry is sober. He can read a bit better. And he always manages to work for a living, despite his significant educational deficits. The jobs he has found, such as valet parking attendant, don’t pay well, but they are honorable and he has gotten by.
I met Larry and his wife in 2015 and filed his clemency petition in 2016. While the petition was pending, Larry was selected to be a participant in the CTA’s Second Chance Program, cleaning buses and rail cars. Recently, he completed his second full year in the program.
Earlier this year, shortly before a judge granted his petition to seal his criminal record — made possible by the law Rauner signed — Larry learned that his name has been added to the CTA’s hire list.
Over the years, Larry has learned not to give up on himself. And today, he says at age 51, he feels like a “different man.”
He’s a man of few words, but on the day after the judge granted his petition, he called me to say thanks.
How did he feel?
“Really, really good,” Larry said with a chuckle. “Like I never got in trouble before, though I know I did.”
Ina R. Silvergleid is a Chicago attorney and owner of A Bridge Forward LLC. She specializes in helping people with a criminal background eliminate barriers to employment, professional licensing and housing.
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Edward Minor had a paper due for his English class on income inequality
at Wayne County Community College in Detroit. He’d completed all the
research and knew what he wanted to write. The main issue was time—he
only had a few hours.
But countless, frustrating obstacles delayed his progress, from the
laborious pace at which 62-year-old Minor types to figuring out how to
save his document. The final step, however, was really tripping him up.
Since he was using a computer at the library, he needed to email the
file to himself so he could edit it later on a different computer.
“Do I just put my email address up here?” Minor asked, pointing to
the bar at the top of the web browser. Eventually he got some help from a
computer technician, but he wasn’t confident he’d be able to find the
document later.
“They’re
doing it so fast and I’m trying to follow,” he says. “They don’t see
that there’s a baby right here in front of them. I’m a baby out here!”
Ed Minor types at the Detroit Public Library, wearing a pin with a photo of Angela Davis.Photo: Nick Hagen
Indeed, Minor’s relationship to the world isn’t so different from
that of an infant. That’s because, in October 2017, Minor was released
from prison after being incarcerated for more than 40 years. A
modern-day Rip Van Winkle (who left society for a mere two decades),
Minor is adrift in a society that left him behind.
The
hunt-and-peck typing method he employs, which itself is slower than
usual, is just the beginning of his technological difficulties. The
computers, wireless internet, and touch screens that many take for
granted are alien to him. Even looking at a computer screen—with all its
strange icons, commands, and windows—is like deciphering the Rosetta
Stone.
While Minor may be an extreme case, he squarely fits the
description of Americans who suffer most from the digital divide, a
phenomenon that describes how technology can contribute to inequality:
He’s elderly, he’s poor, and he’s a person of color.
Resolving the
divide’s underlying issues will be anything but simple, but the
negative effects are pretty straightforward. If you don’t have access to
the internet or the skills to use it, you also won’t have access to
countless jobs and resources. As Tom Wheeler, former chair of the FCC, said in 2015,
“The bottom line is this: If you are not connected to the internet…you
cannot participate fully in our economy and our democracy.”
As of 2015, Detroit was the least connected city in America. Forty percent of Detroit’s households have no broadband connection and 70 percent of its school-age kids have no internet access at home (excluding smartphones).
For its size, Detroit is woefully under-connected. But rural areas and small metropolises often have it worse. According to a Brookings Institute report,
almost one in four people in the United States lived in low
subscription neighborhoods in 2015. Fewer than 40 percent of households
subscribed to broadband internet.
Price is often an inhibiting factor. Detroit’s two main broadband
providers, Comcast and AT&T, respectively, offer plans for their
slowest connections at $25 for 12 months (and $50 afterwards) and $40
per month with a $99 installation fee.
Ed MinorPhoto: Nick Hagen
Federal programs can lower the cost of these plans, but a study by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance
(NDIA) showed that in Cleveland and Detroit, AT&T didn’t built out
the infrastructure sufficiently to provide residents with high enough
connection speeds to meet program guidelines. In other words, there’s a
major correlation between plan availability and poverty.
The NDIA
has described this as “digital redlining,” a reference to the practice
that denied people of color access to housing, and which ran rampant in
Detroit in the mid-1900s.
That’s in line with what Diana Nucera,
director of the Detroit Community Technology Project, has witnessed.
“Whether it’s artificial intelligence or internet access or healthcare,”
she says, “the problems of the digital divide all stem from the same
place: racism.”
I described Minor’s situation to Nucera and asked what she thought.
“If he’s a victim of the digital divide, he’s also a victim of several
other things before that,” she says. “It’s much more complicated than
giving this gentleman a computer.”
Before Minor ever went to prison, understanding modern-day technology was the least of his concerns.
He
came from a challenging home life. “My family were alcoholics,” he
says. “I never met my mother’s side of the family. My father’s side was
just drunks, dope fiends, dealing in corn liquor. My father was always
jumping on my mother; my uncles were always jumping on their
girlfriends.”
That contributed to his feeling aimless as a youth
growing up on Detroit’s west side. “I didn’t know what to do with my
life,” he says. “Didn’t want to do anything with my life.”
As for technology, his family didn’t even own a color TV.
“The problems of the digital divide all stem from the same place: racism.”
Minor was imprisoned once for seven months for breaking and entering.
When he was released, he wanted to pay back a favor for a friend that
helped him out while in prison. But the only way he knew how to get the
money was to steal it. Planning to mug someone outside a nightclub, he
says he brought an unloaded BB gun whereas his co-defendant, without
telling him, brought a real gun.
According to Minor, his accomplice shot the person they were mugging,
and after they were arrested, made a statement saying Minor committed
the murder. Minor says he was pressured by his lawyer and the judge to
plead guilty to second degree murder.
The sentence: life with parole.
Ed Minor checks the bus schedule on his phone.Photo: Nick Hagen
Since getting out of prison, Minor has lived with his cousin in
Southfield, an adjacent suburb of Detroit about 15 miles from downtown.
On a normal day, Minor wakes up at around 11am, eats breakfast, and
takes an hour and a half-long, two-bus transfer journey—with an
undersized bicycle in tow—to either the WCCC campus or Detroit Public
Library’s main branch. There he’ll do school work and develop his
computer skills for several hours before heading to his job as a
dishwasher at a nearby restaurant.
He often closes out, which
means leaving work at around midnight and catching one of the last rapid
buses heading north. At that time of night, the bus no longer runs for
the last four-mile leg home, so he either bikes or walks depending on
the weather. Once, the bus never came and his co-worker paid for a
rideshare. He rarely gets into bed before 3am.
While at the downtown library, the person assisting him is often
Keronce Sims, a computer technician. He teaches classes on computing
basics, but his main job is helping patrons and employees troubleshoot
computer issues. That means he’s often running from one request to the
next all day long.
“What aren’t I responsible for?” Sims says with
a laugh. “I’m one of three in the building…I’m putting out some
matches, some candles, some fires.”
Local libraries are common destinations
for people without computers or internet access. Detroit’s main branch
has about 80 computers and there’s no time limit on how long someone can
use one or, aside from games and X-rated content, what they can use
them for.
In his 30 years at the library, Sims has seen all types of people use
the computers for every conceivable reason: to apply for assistance,
look for work, write a thesis, sue someone, or just to watch videos and
go on Facebook.
Sometimes, according to Sims, people have panic attacks when trying
to take care of a stressful matter using a machine they don’t
understand. “I see it all the time,” he says. “I see a lot of
impairments. Some are dyslexic, some are recovering from a physical
injury or a stroke. Some are visually impaired. I’ve seen people with
missing digits.”
Sims has been working with Minor since the summer
and is encouraged by his effort. “Some people inquire about our
services but don’t show up,” he says. “But [Minor] showed up. He knew
nothing at first—the whole digital world was foreign to him.”
Keronce Sims helps Ed Minor navigate a computer at the Detroit Public Library.Photo: Nick Hagen
In addition to having a felony on his record, little free time in his
daily life, bad eyesight, hyperthyroidism, and no car, Minor also has
very little money, and few people he can rely on besides his cousin.
He’s also battling the type of culture shock that has nothing to do with
the digital world. Simply going to the supermarket is a stressful
experience that results in decision paralysis. “I stick to chocolate or
vanilla ice cream and white socks,” he says.
As director of DCTP,
Nucera oversees programs that foster use of technology based on
community need. One of those programs is the Equitable Internet Initiative,
which will provide 150 Detroit households with high-speed internet
access. The program also involved training 25 local “digital stewards,”
two of whom were in their late seventies, in hardware installation and
WiFi setup. Age matters, but it’s not the primary barrier.
Minor has a passion for housing. After he’s done taking his
prerequisites at WCCC, he’s planning to take classes on real estate.
Despite everything he’s been through, he’s remarkably optimistic.
“Oh, it’s gonna get done,” he says. “Keep doing what I’m doing, don’t cry about it, move with it. I feel I’m on a mission.”
Sims and Nucera both think he has the capacity to overcome his technological difficulties.
“Clearly
he’s extremely resilient,” Nucera says. “You don’t come out of prison
after 40 years as an optimistic man without having a sense of self and
being very intelligent. It’s not about his ability to learn. It’s about
whether or not society can accept someone who’s been in prison for that
long.”
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Claims of racial disparity in how criminal background checks are used led to $3.7M class-action settlement.
By Kavita Kumar Star Tribune
Target Corp. has agreed to pay $3.7 million to settle a lawsuit over concerns that the way it uses criminal background checks as part of the hiring process has disproportionately hurt black and Latino applicants. “Target’s background check policy was out of step with best practices and harmful to many qualified applicants who deserved a fair shot at a good job,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which worked on the case. “Criminal background information can be a legitimate tool for screening job applicants, but only when appropriately linked to relevant questions such as how long ago the offense occurred and whether it was a nonviolent or misdemeanor offense.” As part of the settlement of the class-action complaint, independent consultants will recommend changes to Target’s current screening guidelines. For example, they will come up with a list of convictions that are not considered job-related and should not disqualify a person from a particular position. They will also review the company’s appeals process that offers candidates a chance to show evidence of rehabilitation. “We’re glad to resolve this and move forward,” the Minneapolis-based retailer said in a
statement. “At Target, we have a number of measures in place to ensure we’re fair and equitable in our hiring practices. … And in hiring, like the rest of our business, we hold diversity and inclusion as core values and strive to give everyone access to the same opportunities.” Maurice Emsellem, program director with advocacy group National Employment Law Project, said this is one of the largest settlements of its kind and will likely provide a model for other employers as they look to adopt better hiring practices and policies. In 2016, the U.S. Census Bureau agreed to pay $15 million to settle a similar class-action suit that involved an estimated 450,000 black and Latino applicants who may have been passed over for jobs because of background-check practices. “Employers are now way more tuned into the laws and policies that encourage them to create more fair practices to hire people with records,” Emsellem said. “But there’s still plenty of big employers and small employers who have a long way to go to clean up their policies.” As part of the settlement, which was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in New York, black and Latino applicants who were denied employment from a Target store because of a criminal-background check since May 2006 will be eligible for priority hiring or interviewing for current open positions. Alternately, they can seek a financial award of up to $1,000. Target is also giving $600,000 to five organizations that work to help individuals with criminal backgrounds find employment: AccessAbility’s Career & Educational Pathways program and RS Eden in Minnesota, Center for Employment Opportunities and the Fortune Society in New York, and A New Way of Life Reentry Project in California. In 2016, Target was among the companies that signed on to a White House pledge that encouraged employers to eliminate unnecessary barriers facing applicants with criminal records. Like many major employers, Target started using criminal background checks as part of its hiring process more than a decade ago. The retailer, which employs about 345,000 workers and is among the nation’s largest employers, used to ask job applicants about their criminal history on the initial application form. But as part of the so-called “Ban the Box” movement, critics complained that such screening at the outset made it difficult for ex-offenders to get jobs even if their offenses were from when they were young or were not pertinent to the positions for which they were applying. In 2013, Minnesota passed a law barring private employers from asking about criminal history on application forms. The following year, Target removed that question from its applications nationwide. “Now, we gather criminal background information in the final stages of the hiring process,” Target said in a statement. “This ensures individuals are considered for employment based on their qualifications, interview and availability.” However, the company said it still believes it’s important to consider conviction history. “Individuals are given an opportunity to explain their criminal history and provide information about the circumstances, mitigating factors, good conduct and rehabilitation,” the company said. “We exclude applicants whose criminal histories could pose a risk to our guests, team members or property, and design our process to treat all applicants fairly while maintaining a safe and secure working and shopping environment for team members and guests.” According to the lawsuit, Target’s policies mandated automatic rejection of applicants for broad categories of misdemeanors and felonies such as violence, theft and controlled substances convictions within seven years of applying. If an application required further review, it was forwarded to Target’s human resources division, which used its discretion to make a final determination “rather than apply any objective or validated measures,” the complaint said. Such a screening process imported “the racial and ethnic disparities that exist in the criminal justice system into the employment process, thereby multiplying the negative impact on African-American and Latino job applicants,” the lawsuit said, noting that those groups are arrested and incarcerated at rates much higher than whites. The plaintiffs in the case included Carnella Times, a 47-year-old black woman who applied for an overnight stocker position at a Target store in Connecticut in 2006. She was disqualified because of two misdemeanor convictions from 10 years earlier. The following year, she filed a discrimination charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which issued her a right to sue in 2015 after years of investigation.
Another plaintiff was Erving Smith, a 40-year-old black man who applied for a stocker position at a store in Pittsburgh in 2014. He was denied the job because of a drug-related felony conviction from 2004.
Jobs for Felons: The Facts about Companies that Hire Ex offenders and Felons (2018)
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