Us & Them: Can Former Prisoners Help Fill Our Workforce Gaps?

Updated: August 9, 2024 at 12:00 p.m.

There’s a serious labor shortage in the U.S. right now with millions of jobs going unfilled. Each year, West Virginia releases 50,000 people from state prisons and local jails and all those people need jobs. 

On this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay spotlights a recent event in Charleston, West Virginia called “Second Chances for a Stronger Workforce.” It brought together workforce and criminal justice leaders to make a case that ex-offenders can be part of the state’s economic growth strategy, if they’re given the support needed to overcome barriers like stigma, mental health and substance use disorders, and a lack of transportation and housing. Organizers sought to address employers’ concerns about hiring the formerly incarcerated, advocate for expanded reentry programs, and offer hope to those recently released that they can find stable jobs. 

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council, the CRC Foundation and The Just Trust.

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“Second Chances for a Stronger Workforce” featured people who work or have worked in West Virginia’s prison system, including those who’ve been incarcerated. The goal was to highlight how job training programs in prison can help the formerly incarcerated find meaningful work and how employers’ fears of recidivism can limit those opportunities. 

Hon. Michael Aloi, a federal magistrate judge in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of West Virginia was the keynote speaker at the event, which took place in Charleston, West Virginia. 

Judge Aloi told the audience he believes in second chances. He presides over the Northern District’s Drug Court Program. 

Drug courts are set up to help nonviolent offenders whose criminal behavior is directly tied to their alcohol or drug use. Participants can get their charges dismissed if they successfully complete a treatment program.

“Tell me, why is it that we should be doing anything in  government, anything that, courts or anywhere else that makes it harder to get a job? Why is that good for us?” Aloi said. “I understand why people convicted of child molestation should not be working in daycare. I understand why people who embezzled money maybe shouldn’t be working in banks. Okay. But sometimes there’s just no connection.”

Aloi said 90 percent of those in the criminal justice system have experienced trauma. In West Virginia, about 60% of people sentenced to state prisons and local jails have substance use disorder. 

Aloi said the criminal justice system has improved the counseling and treatment programs offered to inmates. 

But he said recovering from trauma and addiction wasn’t enough to ensure an inmate’s successful reentry once they’re released.  

“Because you can recover, but unless you replace one life with another life, then you don’t have a complete recovery,” he told the audience. “That means in economic recovery it means that you need a GED. It means that you need a driver’s license. It means that you need a bank account. It means that you need a job.” 

Charlotte Webb and her husband are both in recovery from substance use disorder. They are the founders of Charleston Property Restoration, a home construction company that hires the formerly incarcerated. Many are also in recovery from substance use disorder.

Webb said other employers tell her the biggest concern they have in hiring former prisoners is that they’ll return to criminal behaviors. 

“‘What  will they do? If something happens, I’m going to be responsible. It’s a risk.’” I tell them the truth. Anybody you hire, there is a risk involved. You don’t know them. You don’t know what kind of job they’ll do,” said Webb. 

She said she’s had good experiences with those reentering the workforce after rehab or prison.

“They are so humble. They’re just, you know, so grateful for the opportunity and that they know that we’re trying to help them ameliorate the barriers,” said Webb.

Deb Harris is the lead transition agent for Jobs & Hope – WV, a state initiative to help inmates with substance use disorder gain work skills and find jobs once they’re released.  She says addiction recovery creates additional challenges.

“I mean, I think it’s hard enough to reenter from a facility, but when you pair that with having a substance use disorder, now you have to not only worry about housing, but you have to worry about your treatment and your mental health and getting connected to the recovery community and going to parole or probation and it just really adds to the list of troubles that you have when you already get out,” Harris said.

Amber Blankenship is a Peer Reentry Coordinator with REACH Initiative, a reentry program.  She was formerly incarcerated herself.  

“I was released from prison with a trash bag of clothes on my back that was filled with more than just clothes. It was like judgment, shame, all that stuff. It was very heavy,” she said. 

Blankenship was helped by Jobs & Hope, which was in its infancy when she was released.

“Barrier after barrier was met with a solution. You know, who would have known I’d be sitting up here five years ago? I would have never thought that,” she said. 

Members of the panel echoed Judge Aloi’s belief that West Virginia should be developing more policies to promote a second-chance workforce. 

“I think the state is starting to realize the only way out of this is through it,” said Harris. “So, we have to start putting some things in place that will be solutions, first of all, not create more consequences or setbacks for folks.” 

Harris’ suggestion may be a tough sell for West Virginia’s legislature.

The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, an independent policy research group, says that during the 2023 regular session, lawmakers introduced nearly 150 bills that create new criminal offenses or increased penalties for existing crimes. 

One that passed the Senate but failed in the House would have changed simple possession of some drugs from a misdemeanor to a felony offense. 

In its report, the Center on Budget and Policy noted that increased drug penalties have given West Virginia the highest incarceration rate in the nation.

The legislature also failed to expand transitional housing and did not take up bills that would have restored voting rights to people with felony convictions who are on probation or parole. 

Betsy Jividen is a former federal prosecutor and the ex-commissioner of West Virginia’s Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation. She served for four years before stepping down in 2022. 

She said she tells skeptical employers, citizens and lawmakers that helping people with past convictions find and keep a job is good for public safety. 

“If we’re bringing people home from prison and not helping them to become gainfully employed, there is probably one thing that is going to happen,” she said. “Do it for that reason, for public safety and for helping your community. It seems it should be a no-brainer that we all should want that for whatever reason, for whatever is motivating us in this journey.”

Asked to describe a successful second chance workforce program, Jividen said, “Getting employers talking about what these guys have been talking about. These are good employees.”

Charlotte Webb said successful reentry starts with building relationships.

“And so really having a relationship with someone who will be like, if you have trouble, call me. Because typically when I ask them, ‘Do you feel like you’ve got some system of support?’ nine times out of ten, they’ll say, ‘I have no one,’” Webb said.

Deb Harris, who is in recovery from substance abuse disorder, spent over a year with her children in supportive housing before striking out on her own. She said her transition back into the workforce began when a counselor who was signing her up for welfare benefits noticed she had scored high on an assessment test and asked her why she hadn’t gone to college.

“I am where I am today because somebody asked me that. ‘How come you haven’t gone to school? You’re smart. What do you want to do with your life?’ ‘I don’t know.’ And so, you know, I had people help me figure it out,” she said. “But I think, yes, I think we need to allow people to dream and have a vision.”

Amber Blankenship agreed. She said a second chance workforce begins with “a relationship and a dream.”

Related Us & Them episodes:

Re-Entry

Locked Out of Voting

Expungement — Between Hope and Danger

Court of Second Chances

Who Gets Stuck Behind Bars in West Virginia?

The Stigma of Recovery

Editor’s note: This post was updated to clarify background information about a source and add detail about legislation.