Offender Employment : News

2009 Defendant/Offender Workforce Development Conference

Scott — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:21:00 GMT

Go here for information about the 2009 Defendant/Offender Workforce Development Conference which will occur on April 5-8, 2009 in Pittsburgh, PA. See you there!

DOWD Conference Now Accepting Presentation Proposals

Scott — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:38:00 GMT

The National Planning Committee for the 2009 Defendant / Offender Workforce Development (DOWD) Conference is seeking proposals for the various presentations. The conference is scheduled April 5-8, 2009 in Pittsburgh, PA. All are welcome to apply. The deadline is Monday, September 15^th. Details about the conference and submitting a proposal can be found here.

Federal, local governments offering tax incentives to hire parolees

Scott — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:12:00 GMT

Getting Out of Prison and Into a Job: Federal, local governments offering tax incentives to hire parolees

This article discusses the growing desire to employ ex-offenders and the various tax incentives that are available through Federal and local governments.

Albany, NY class completes Offender Workforce Development Specialist (OWDS) training

Scott — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:10:00 GMT

On June 19, 2008 at the headquarters of the New York State Department of Labor in Albany, New York, 24 participants received certificates for completing the Offender Workforce Development Specialist Partnership Training. The participants included representatives for community-based agencies along probation officers from counties throughout the state. We extend our congratulations to the class graduates!

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Capitol Hill lawmakers discuss ex-offenders in the federal workforce

Scott — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:19:00 GMT

According to governmentexecutive.com:

"The government should do more to assure individuals with criminal records that they are not barred from certain types of federal employment, lawmakers said on Tuesday.

At a hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, members of Congress said hiring ex-offenders could help many of them as they re-enter communities and also help government as it addresses impending staff shortages."

Read the full article right here.

Download and read each testimony by going here.

FBI: Violent crime decreases

Scott — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:02:00 GMT

According to the FBI:

Violent crime dropped 1.4 percent overall compared to 2006, reversing a two-year up tick. That includes decreases in all four offense categories-forcible rape (down 4.3 percent), murder/non-negligent manslaughter (down 2.7 percent), and robbery and aggravated assault (each down 1.2 percent).

Property crime declined 2.1 percent from 2006, with decreases in each city grouping. Arson-tracked separately from other property crimes-also fell 7.0 percent from 2006.

Read the full article here.

You can download excel data sets and view how your region/state/city did on this page.

Penn Researcher Finds High Recidivism Rate Is Due to Few Transitional Services for Ex-Offenders

Scott — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:39:00 GMT

According to www.upenn.edu, "Penn researchers found that the existing human-service organizations all had the capacity to serve more clients, and were willing to do so, but more coordination between the re-entry services needs to be established in order to better serve the ex-prisoner population."

To read the full article, click here.

OWDS National Partnership Training Update

Scott — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:10:00 GMT

This information was contributed by guest blogger Patricia Doherty who is a Supervising U.S. Probation Officer with the Eastern District of Missouri.

On March 14, 2008, Offender Workforce Development Specialist (OWDS) training was completed in Dublin, California. This training was a national partnership training hosted by the Northern District of California and FCI, Dublin. The 22 participants included staff from the Northern District of California - probation; Central District of California - pretrial; District of Hawaii - pretrial; District of Nevada - pretrial; local residential reentry centers; local one stops; Bureau of Prisons staff from the Western Regional Office, FCI, Dublin and FCI, Atwater; and Santa Clara County Probation Officers. Trainers included Pat Doherty, Scott Anders, and Dean Miller who are all from the ED/MO; Melinda Clark and Matt Elvin form the Bureau of Prisons and John Rakis from the National Institute of Corrections. Congratulations to all of the participants.

On April 18, 2008, Master Trainers Pat Doherty and Dean Miller provided OWDS Instructor Training to the following participants:

Elaine Kost, N.Y.S. Department of Labor; Cynthia O. Mendiola, U. S. Probation, Western District of Texas; Janis R. Lasswell, U.S. Probation, Eastern District of Missouri ; Belinda Marie Ashley, U.S. Probation, Eastern District of Missouri; Zaneta Carol Vaughn, Federal Bureau of Prisons - Federal Medical Center, Butner, North Carolina; Evey Wooten, U. S. Probation Office, Middle District of North Carolina; Benjie Pittman, Federal Bureau of Prisons/ Federal Correctional Center, Yazoo City, Mississippi; Mona Horton, Federal Bureau of Prisons/ Mid-Atlantic Regional Office, Federal Correctional Center, Butner, North Carolina; Tracy Longacre, Federal Bureau of Prisons/ Federal Correctional Institution, Otisville, New York. Congratulations to these new instructors who will now join the national training team.

On May 9, 2008, OWDS training was completed in New York, New York. This training was hosted by the New York Southern District probation and pretrial offices and the Eastern District pretrial office. The 19 participants included staff from the Southern District of New York's probation and pretrial offices, the Eastern District of New York's pretrial office, Western District of New York, District of New Jersey - pretrial, Bureau of Prisons - MCC New York; and the CASH and Hope programs. Trainers included Pat Doherty, Ryan Wilke, Quincy Fountain, all from the Eastern District of Missouri; Scott Albert from Western District of Pennsylvania; Kathy Oakar from the Northern District of Ohio and Pamella Harris and Robert Walsh from the Southern District of New York. Congratulations to all of the participants.

To date, Federal Probation's Eastern District of Missouri has completed 13 OWDS trainings. 214 participants have completed the training and 134 of those were federal probation officers, probation officer assistants, or pretrial officers. The 14th training will be held in St. Louis in June and September.

Hire ex-con in Philly, get $10K annual tax credit

Scott — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:35:00 GMT

From the Associated Press:

"Philadelphia averaged a murder a day the past two years and has been sued to reduce its overcrowded, record-high jail population.

So on his 100th day in office last month, Mayor Michael Nutter announced a program, being headed by an ex-offender, that gives $10,000 a year in municipal tax credits to companies that hire former prisoners and provide them tuition support or vocational training."

Read the full article here.

Read a related article here.

Governor Schwarzenegger speaks about importance of work skills

Scott — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:55:00 GMT

Governor Schwarzenegger attended the graduation ceremony of female inmates from the Career Technical Education-Carpentry program at the California Institution for Women in Corona. Click here to watch Gov. Schwarzenneger talk about the important work of the California PI Authority in teaching inmates work skills to turn their lives around.

Interview with Diana Bailey from inside the MDSE Mobile Unit

Scott — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:39:00 GMT

Maryland's Correctional Education Transition Mobile Unit was recently featured at the National Defender/Workforce Conference in Cleveland, Ohio. The Mobile Unit provides transitional information and library services for inmates in the pre-release system in Maryland. The unit, which was designed and is operated by the Maryland State Department of Education, travels across the Maryland to prepare men and women for release from incarceration into the community and employment.

The video below is an interview with Diana Bailey, Workforce Development/Transition Coordinator with the Maryland State Department of Education, from inside the Mobile Unit.

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Duration: 4:36

Offender Workforce Development Announcements: Conferences, Grants

Scott — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:43:00 GMT

NCDA Global Conference: July 9-11, 2008
The National Career Development Association is excited to announce the 2008 NCDA Global Conference. The conference will be held at the wonderful Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill, Washington D.C., July 9-11, 2008. You won't want to miss this great opportunity to attend this conference! NCDA is expecting 1,000+ attendees at the premiere conference for career development professionals across all areas of career development and in all settings. For more information, click here.

White House To Host Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Conferences

The White House is hosting a series of 2008 conferences designed to connect effective social service organizations with resources that can strengthen and expand the services they offer. The conferences will provide an understanding of the President's Faith-Based and Community Initiative and information about the Federal grants process, funding opportunities, and the responsibilities that come with Federal funding.

The conferences are scheduled as follows:

May 29-30, in New Orleans, LA
June 26-27, in Washington, DC
August 5, in Sacramento, CA
August 29, in Dallas, TX.

Go to http://www.dtiassociates.com/fbci/index.cfm for more informatino.

U.S. Department of Labor awards nearly $3 million to advance President's Prisoner Re-entry Initiative

The U.S. Department of Labor has announced grants totaling almost $3 million to advance the President's Prisoner Re-entry Initiative. Through a partnership operated with the U.S. Department of Justice, grants of $130,434 each will go to 23 criminal justice agencies across the country. They, in turn, will fund faith-based and community organizations to deliver employment services to prisoners returning to civilian life. For more information, click here.

The Performance Benchmarking Project

The Performance Benchmarking Project is seeking prisoner reentry/employment organizations to participate in the next round of data collection. P/PV is developing a tool that allows similar organizations to anonymously compare their job placement and retention outcomes. A long-term goal of the project is to identify meaningful outcome benchmarks for the workforce development field, so that practitioners, funders and policymakers can be better informed about what constitutes "good" performance when working with diverse populations and service delivery strategies.

To be eligible, organizations must directly provide workforce development services to individuals 18 or older and be able to submit aggregate data on job placement and retention results, services and participant characteristics for a recent one-year cohort of enrollees. For a summary of the requested data, please click here.

Presidents 2008 Community Based Job Training Grant Awardees

Click here for the list of awardees.

Travis County to Remove the Felony Conviction Question?

Scott — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:04:00 GMT

From the Austin American Statesman:

"Sometime in the coming weeks, Travis County commissioners will likely remove the question on county job applications that asks, "have you ever been convicted of any crime?"

That question would be asked later in the interview process. The commissioners say they hope the change, intended as much for its symbolism as its practical effect, will remove a red flag that can cause managers to immediately toss an application in the trash.

"We're weeding them out before they have a chance to show their skills," said County Judge Sam Biscoe, chairman of the Commissioners Court and chief proponent of a new county policy. "It's my guess we're losing a lot of good applicants."

President Signs Second Chance Act

Scott — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 12:11:00 GMT

The President signed H.R. 1593, the Second Chance Act, on April 9th at 10:30 a.m. Read the transcript of his comments here and the White House fact sheet here.

Click here to read the full text of the Second Chance Act.

Click here for an overview of the Second Chance Act.

Click here, here, and here to read NY Times articles about the Second Chance Act.

Read Chris Uggen's blog entry about the Second Chance Act here.

U.S. Senate Passes Second Chance Act

Scott — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:21:00 GMT

The Council of State Governments (CSG) reports that the U.S. Senate has passed the Second Chance Act. According to the CSG, "the legislation passed the Senate by unanimous consent and now proceeds to the President's desk for signature." Information on the Second Chance Act can be found here.

Additionally, the Consensus Project reports that the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Reauthorization of the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act. The bill would "help provide states and counties with the resources needed to design and implement collaborative efforts between the criminal justice and mental health systems."

3/17/08 Second Chance Act update: According to Yahoo News, "The President is expected to sign the bill soon."

Additional information about the Second Chance Act can be found in the articles below.

PR Newswire: Tubbs Jones Applauds Passage of Second Chance Act in Senate

Wall Street Journal: Senate Clears Prisoner Bill

Standard Newswire: Brownback Applauds Senate Passage of Second Chance Act

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Senate passes bill to help ex-prisoners