Work Responsibility And Reward Gregg Keesling, President Workforce, Inc.
WHO ARE WE? • We are a not-for-profit organization. • We recycle computers and other electronic waste. • We employ formerly incarcerated parents. • We are a “Social Enterprise” • We are “Remaking Our Resources” for the betterment of the community.
Who Are Our Funders • Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust • The Clowes Fund • The Fairbanks Foundation • The Anne E. Casey Foundation • Health & Human Services – (Job Opportunities for Low Income Individual grant) • Office of Child Support Enforcement (in partnership with the Sagamore) • Indianapolis Private Industry Council (USDOL Beneficiary Choice grant) • City of Indianapolis (Community Devlp. Block Grant and Crime Prevention Grant) • Indiana Community Corrections – (contract with Duvall Residential Facility) • KeyBank • CharterOne Bank • National City Bank • Rotary Club of Indianapolis • Indianapolis Archdiocese • Management 2000 • Family and Social Services (Access to Recovery Grant)
• 40 million computers are discarded in the U.S. annually. • 1.2 million computers are discarded by Hoosiers annually. • Computer monitors contain at least 4 pounds of lead . • Today’s electronic devices contain at least 5 toxic materials
Remaking Our Resources • Memorandum of Understanding with the State of Indiana to recycle all state electronic surplus • Contract with the City of Indianapolis and the eCycle program • Recycler for many Indiana colleges, businesses and hospitals • RecycleForce employees have demanufactured and safely disposed over 5M lbs of electronic waste in the last three years
BENEFITS Protecting our Environment By recycling your old electronics, you keep toxic material out of landfills and help grow an emerging employment sector
Ex-Offenders – Should you care?
Some Facts • In U.S., 2.2 million people currently incarcerated. 97% will eventually be released • Annually some 700,000 people are released from State and Federal Correctional facilities. • Seven million are released from local jails.
US Correctional Population
Indiana’s experience mirrors the national numbers • From 1997 to 2007, Indiana’s incarceration population increased 52%. In the past year and a half, it has increased another 5.6%. • While most have focused on incarceration rates, what has quietly remained un-noticed is that increasing admissions equal increased releases.
THE ISSUE OF REENTRY • Our community has never faced this type of challenge • Public safety should be paramount • Approximately 6,000 ex-offenders are released to Marion County annually from correctional facilities – most hoping to rebuild their lives • It costs Indiana taxpayers approximately $24,000/year to incarcerate one person. • Indiana DOC budget for this bi-annum: $1.4 Billion. The DOC is Indiana’s second largest agency.
Education Level and Recidivism* * Indiana Department of Correction Data – Dr. Susan Lockwood / Dr. John Nally Dec. 2008
Education and Work * * Indiana Department of Correction Data – Dr. Susan Lockwood / Dr. John Nally Dec. 2008
WHY WORK MATTERS Regardless of educational attainment those that earned at least $5,000 in the first six months after release had significantly lower recidivism rates
Work Organizes Life* * William Julius Wilson • A person with a stable job is regardless of educational attainments less likely to re-offend than a person who does not work after incarceration. • A person with a job is more likely to have children who stay in school • Children do better when their fathers are in their lives
Jobs for Ex-Offenders Are Difficult To Obtain • According to recent IUPUI study 70% of employers in Indianapolis will not hire a person with a felony record • Mandatory re-entry costs: • Monitoring devices - $85.00 per week • Work Release facilities ½ of earnings • Anger management - $50.00 per week • Drug classes - $50 - $80 per week • Average Probationer owes $900 – must be paid before participant can be released
Council of State Govt. Report • People released from prisons and jails typically make payments to a host of agencies, including probation departments, courts, attorney generals’ offices, and child support enforcement offices. • Coordinated collections efforts among these agencies could increase rates of repayment • There is rarely a single agency tracking all of an individual’s court-ordered debts and prioritizing payment.
Child Support and Work • In many states, incarceration is considered “voluntary unemployment” • Child support accrues to high levels during a non-custodial parent’s jail or prison term • 50-65% of wages may be garnished
Child Support and Work • Child support is a cost recovery mechanism for welfare • If mom is on welfare – states and federal governments keep the child support payment to repay welfare and sometimes Medicaid costs • Each year states retain millions of dollars to repay welfare through child support intercepts. This hurts families and children.
Improving Child Support Enforcement Some Questions Should Welfare, Child Support, and Prison Re-entry Programs Be Better Coordinated? Do We Understand How They are Related?
Indiana’s Progressive Project Resulting from the 2007 Indiana Supreme Court Opinion • “The child support system is not meant to serve a punitive purpose. Rather, the system is an economic one, designed to measure the relative contribution each parent should make – and is capable of making – to share fairly the economic burdens of child rearing”.
Indiana’s Progressive Project • Sagamore Institute Awarded a Special Improvement Project from the Office of Child Support Enforcement • Workforce, Inc. awarded a JOLI grant to employ fathers • The SIP/JOLI programs provide opportunity for those entering prison to seek a modification • The SIP/JOLI programs provide an opportunity for those leaving prison to earn arrearage modification by paying current order over extended period • Allow child support pass through to custodial parent regardless of TANF status
What Do We Do? • Should ex-offenders be given a free pass? • These men made mistakes, yet they have done their time. • How do we ensure public safety and adequately enforce child support collection, yet still provide opportunities for those wanting to rebuild their lives and reconnect with their children and families?
A Solution: Transitional Jobs • An incubator for people who need immediate earnings and meaningful work experience in order to enter the labor market and to participate in civil society, what we call — “re-building the work muscle” • A service-enriched environment offering work supports and related services to promote work attachment • A pipeline of able workers for local business
Facts (2006 – 2008) • 154 program participants (2006 – 2008) Many workers have never worked at a wage reporting job. Workers earn approx. $7,000 during the transitional period and many will have their first reported job earnings , helping them earn social security and unemployment quarters that will assist them in entering the mainstream society. • Only 17 have been arrested for a new crime
More Facts From Dec. 1, 2005 – Dec. 31, 2008, WFI workers have • Earned $891,471.95 in wages. • Paid $61,329.02 in child support. • Paid $350,000 [1] in re-entry user fees to Marion County agencies. • Paid $293,091.04 [2] in federal, state and local taxes . [ 1] Estimated • [2] Includes employer contribution; $13,059.28 is Marion County Option Income Tax.
Work Responsibility Transitional Jobs Advantage • Work attachment • Workplace mediation • Long-term retention management services (one year) • Emphasis on paying child support (responsibility) • Limited cash assistance with “work supports” (reward) – Rent & Utilities – Transportation – Vehicle Insurance – Advocacy – Legal Services – Probation Monitoring – Driver's License Re-instatement
BENEFITS Helping disadvantaged workers in our community. Fifty-five percent of men in state prison are fathers. Nearly half of these fathers lived with their children before incarceration.
BENEFITS Helping disadvantaged workers in our community. Supporting Transitional Jobs can strengthen families, and to help reduce crime. Supporting Recycling keeps toxins from our landfills!
BENEFITS BENEFITS Transitional Jobs give those who have been incarcerated a fighting chance to do the right thing!
QUESTIONS?
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