One of the biggest myths about poverty in the U.S. is that poor people don’t want to work. In fact, most American adults living in poverty who can work do work. They are in poverty because they work in low paying, often part-time jobs. Of those in poverty who are not employed, a large percentage are people who are “justice involved”, which is a new term for ex-offenders who have been incarcerated.
Generally speaking, they are released from prison with little that would allow them to find work. They usually have meager amounts of money, they have to find a place to sleep, and with no access to a phone, they must find a way to communicate with prospective employers and others. As most have lived for years in either a khaki or an orange jump suit they have to find some clothes, and rarely do they have dependable transportation of their own. Transportation issues are huge for a reentrant.
Those of us who have always had a car forget the power we command to easily get where we need to be. But without transportation one must beg for a ride from friends even to apply at a job site that may not be on a bus route, or might require, as in landscaping and construction, the ability to come to different job sites on a regular basis. If it sounds like these folks could become dejected and downtrodden, believe me, they do. Often, they just give up.
People were created to work. Financially stable people either work or someone supplies them with money from work they do. Manna has not fallen from the sky for years, and anyone of us who wants to help people get back on their feet, enable them to support their families, renew marriage ties, and avoid recidivism must understand that work is the answer to most the problems they face.
After training parolees who are taking Jobs For Life classes with UNITE INDY, we can attest that these folks very much want to work. But, just like a young person starting out, no one starts at the top. With training and the assistance of our mentors and the employers on our site, SecondChanceIndy.com, who understand the issues faced by returnees, they can find a place where their talents and abilities take them up the same ladder to success as anyone else. With 12,000 reentrants coming home to Central Indiana every year from long term prison and jail sentences, these efforts are essential.
For an ex-offender a job equals income, income equals self reliance and promotes standing and value to the family. Most importantly, a stable income produces stability. Studies show that financial stability brings about better overall health for everyone in the familial circle, better educational opportunities for children in the family, lower rates of violence, and a drastically reduced recidivism rate.
It is no small point that Indiana and the U.S. need to maintain policies that provide an atmosphere that creates jobs and doesn’t stifle them. Often our reentering population is starting at the low point of the career spectrum. If these jobs go away, their very futures are in jeopardy. Finally, we believe a ground-breaking study we are involved with at Butler University will soon reveal the bottom-line benefits of hiring ex-offenders. This will be a door opener for many more employers to see the benefit in hiring people who have been incarcerated.
We have a shared opportunity to fight poverty at its root as we work to encourage and care for our neighbors.
Please join us,
Nancy
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