By Matt Helms
Detroit Free Press
DETROIT — At 52, Edward Jackson of Detroit has what he says is his first real job.
Jackson has spent 20 years in prison on drug and weapons charges over his lifetime, and every time he was freed, he eventually fell back into trouble because he could never find gainful work. Like millions of Americans with criminal histories, whom advocates call returning citizens, he found himself turned away quickly by employers.
“Because of my felonies, it’s always the same message: ‘Oh, we’re not hiring. We don’t need you,’ ” Jackson said over coffee at American Coney Island downtown. “It kind of pushes you back to the streets, hustling. But when I came home this time, I just made my mind up: I wasn’t going back to the streets.”
His chance at his first real job came amid a national push to rethink blanket bans on hiring ex-offenders who’ve served their time but face enormous challenges in finding post-prison employment. Today, Jackson is a newly minted driver for the Detroit Department of Transportation, given a shot at a legitimate career by a city that’s working to address the issue of reducing recidivism — or repeated relapse into criminal behavior — among ex-offenders.
Detroit in 2010 joined cities and companies across the country that have “banned the box,” a national movement to not require job seekers to indicate on their employment applications that they have felony histories. That doesn’t mean they don’t have to disclose their backgrounds, but the disclosure comes later in the hiring process, which gives returning citizens a fair shot at not being dismissed outright.
The goal of banning the box is to make it easier for the estimated 70 million Americans with criminal histories to turn their lives around with a fair chance at finding a decent job.
“If you talk to most Americans, they say, ‘Yes, we want to give people second chances’ and ‘Yes, we want people to be able to have jobs,’ ” said Michelle Natividad Rodriguez, senior staff attorney for the National Employment Law Project (NELP), an advocacy group. “What these policies are about is: Look at the person, and not just toss out the application because I see that the box is checked.”
Opposition to banning the box has largely come from the private sector. Groups such as the National Federation of Independent Businesses argue that the bans pose significant risks for business owners, ranging from concerns about safety and loss of property to negligence lawsuits should something go wrong on the job. The federation also says the bans open up business owners to discrimination lawsuits by ex-offenders who don’t get hired.
The NELP says 19 states and 100 cities and counties, along with a number of major corporations, have banned the box. The companies include Koch Industries, Target, Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Starbucks.
The issue took on additional significance this year as President Barack Obama’s administration worked on eliminating disparities in prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenses and eliminating mandatory minimums that advocates say are too severe. Obama urged Congress to pass laws to ban the box for federal jobs for which those with felony convictions aren’t precluded by law as part of a wide-ranging rethinking of how to rehabilitate ex-offenders and reduce recidivism.
Gov. Rick Snyder, too, has called for more training and jobs programs for returning citizens, noting that recidivism rates mean 3 in 10 ex-offenders reoffend within three years, and a lack of employment opportunities is a chief reason. Snyder said recidivism costs the state corrections department $150 million a year.
Ban the box supporters include Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who has spoken publicly about the need for ex-offenders to find work so they have options besides resorting to crime.
“I think it’s going well, and I think we have the right balance,” Duggan said earlier this month. “People who have served their time deserve a fresh start, particularly non-violent offenders, and that’s something we believe strongly in.”
Duggan said the issue is critical in Detroit, the poorest big city in the nation.
“When people get out of prison and come back to the community, if we don’t create opportunities for them, they’re going to go back to the same kind of activities,” Duggan said. “Creating employment opportunities for returning citizens is an important strategy for rebuilding our city.”
Detroit in June won a $5-million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor aimed at getting returning citizens into the workforce. The program’s goal is to get 1,500 Detroiters trained and placed into full-time jobs.
The program is initially starting at Michigan Department of Corrections’ Detroit Reentry Center, formerly the Ryan Correctional Facility, where teams from the corrections department, Michigan Rehabilitation Services, the Detroit Employment Solutions Corp. (DESC) and others work with offenders who will be released within six to 12 months, providing mental health and substance-abuse treatment, violence prevention and job training, said Pamela Moore, president and CEO of the DESC, the city’s workforce development agency.
Moore said the issue is acute in Detroit. She said about 4,800 returning citizens come to Detroit each year. From 2012 to summer 2013, Moore’s agency helped more than 1,500 ex-offenders find jobs.
“We have to get them back into productive environments and productive careers,” Moore said. “They may have to start off at an entry-level position, but they can prove themselves and advance.”
In the Detroit area, Sakthi Automotive and Detroit Manufacturing Systems are among about 20 companies that actively hire returning citizens, Moore said. Some provide paid training so new employees have some money coming in immediately.
“People need income right away, but they need hope, and they need a career track,” she said.
Detroit hasn’t tracked the number of returning citizens it has hired since 2010, in part because the city’s policy is to allow ex-offenders to be treated as any other employee would.
Detroit’s human resources director, Denise Starr, said jobs such as police officer are off-limits because of state and federal laws, but many other city jobs are open to returning citizens, with some restrictions. For example, someone convicted of a financial crime may not be eligible for a job as a cashier, Starr said.
Detroit doesn’t require disclosure of criminal history on initial job applications, but as hiring and interviewing proceeds, job candidates are asked about their backgrounds, Starr said. Each candidate is assessed on a case-by-case basis, with factors such as the time since the last offense and the nature of the offense being considered.
If a tough call has to be made about whether an applicant is appropriate for a certain position, Starr said, a committee of representatives from the city’s human resources, law and labor departments meets to decide the matter.
Once a candidate is hired, only those involved in the hiring process know whether the worker has a felony background, Starr said. Coworkers and managers aren’t told, to ensure fair treatment.
“We don’t want any sort of stigma associated with it,” Starr said. “You’re treated like all other people hired by the city. They’re given a fair and equitable opportunity for success.”
Jackson, the new bus driver, said he’s grateful every day for his new job, even if it means working an early morning shift one day, and then the night shift the next.
When he put in his application to DDOT this summer, he assumed it would be rejected. But he made it through the hiring process and convinced managers that he had turned his life around. He has been out of prison more than three years and off parole since October.
He went through eight weeks of training and received his commercial driver’s license. He has been driving city buses since October and sometimes sees people from his former life who can’t believe he’s now a bus driver.
“I appreciate DDOT giving me a chance,” Jackson said. “That’s why I get up every day, and I don’t care how tired I’ll be or what shift I’ve got to work. I get up and I go to it.”
Pay is modest, ranging from $12.06 to $17.23 per hour in the drivers’ current contract. But it’s honest work, and that’s important to Jackson as he works to rebuild his life.
Jackson lives with his father and helps care for him. He’s hoping to save money so he can get an apartment and furnish it.
Jackson said his parents are proud of his progress, and other family and friends are encouraging him to keep it up. He got emotional when he described what he said is one of his biggest regrets: that he was in prison when his grandmother, with whom he was very close, died at age 102 a few years back. He said she was his rock.
“I wish she was here to see this,” Jackson said, his eyes welling with tears. “She would be proud.”
Copyright 2015 the Detroit Free Press