Anything that broadens the discussion of crime, criminals, and rehabilitation, is a good thing, and this effort profiled by the Washington Post, is a good example.
An excerpt.
“The federal agency tasked with supervising parolees as they reintegrate into the District has launched an aggressive media campaign that asks area business leaders to articulate what it will take for them to hire offenders.
“During a taped segment, which is posted on the agency's Web site and YouTube channel and will air on local television stations, officials from the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency discuss the incentives available to businesses that hire individuals who have spent time in the criminal justice system. The agency also asks for comment from employers. There are also six radio segments in the works that will include interviews with both employers and offenders.
"We don't know what the response is going to be; what we're trying to do is crowd source the issue of hiring offenders," said Leonard Sipes Jr., a public affairs specialist with the agency and host of the program. "This project is about tapping into the knowledge of the business community and finding out what their bottom line is ... they know better than anybody else what they need, what they want, who they'll hire and who they won't hire."
“At any given time there are roughly 16,000 people in the District under the agency's supervision and though the unemployment rate of the group has dropped from 50 to 47 percent over the past six months as the economy has improved, Sipes said reintegrating into the District presents some unique challenges.
"The District of Columbia is a very difficult market to operate in," Sipes said. "It has one of the highest per-capita rates for having a bachelor's degree and advanced degree, it's a city that attracts people from all over the United States and all over the world."
Lampstand Foundation website, http://www.lampstandfoundation.org/
"The sinner is at the very heart of Christianity. Nobody is so competent as the sinner in matters of Christianity. Nobody, except the saint." Charles Peguy (1873-1914)
About
- David H. Lukenbill
- I am a California native, married, we have one daughter and live close to the American River with two cats and all the wild critters we can feed. I am a management consultant to nonprofit organizations and have an Associates of Arts degree in Administration of Justice from Sacramento City College, a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Behavior from the University of San Francisco and a Master of Public Administration degree, also from the University of San Francisco.