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CAREERS NOW: NEW BOOK REALLY WORKS FOR EX-OFFENDERS
By Joyce Lain Kennedy
Tribune Media Services
DEAR JOYCE: I am still having trouble finding work from a drug arrest when I was 19. I am now 28. What advice? -- D.Y.
Readers, I get the gist of this letter over and over again, a topic generated by the sheer numbers of people whose actions land them on the wrong side of the law and who, for a variety of reasons, are not able to overcome those errors and succeed in the job market.
I will recommend a new book providing essential job search moves for ex-offenders but first I want you to know why I consider this work one of the most significant books of the decade and why you as a taxpayer should care.
The offender release and recidivism numbers are staggering, as these facts illustrate:
-- New Justice Department figures report that 630,000 federal and state ex-offenders are released in communities across America each year.
-- About 70 percent of ex-offenders will return to federal and state prisons within three years. (These figures don't include the seven million people circulating through the nation's jails and detention centers; about 500,000 are sitting in lock-up on an average day.)
-- The majority of people behind bars are there for drug reasons and can be rehabilitated.
Prisons are ostensibly designed to both punish and rehabilitate criminals, but at best they keep criminal elements briefly off the streets before dumping them back into volatile neighborhoods. In truth, few institutions rehabilitate.
STRIKING OUT.Ex-offenders typically leave prison gates with little or nothing beyond $40 gate money -- no job, no credit, no housing, no transportation, no health care and no support in a marketplace not inclined to hire, rent to or extend credit to an ex-offender.
Is it really so surprising that so many see the slammer sooner rather than later? The costs in human lives and taxpayer funding is breathtaking. While it's true that many factors -- from drugs and indolence to low education and mental health deficits -- are responsible for the cycle of reincarceration plaguing the nation, I think that most observers will agree that a root cause of the dysfunctional prison system is joblessness.
NEW BOOK.Over the years, I've wished that I had more detailed but broad-based resources to recommend to all the ex-offenders, as well as their mothers and spouses, who write to me asking what to do next. Many of the books in the ex-offender niche are centered on one locale, or display a superb grasp of prison conditions but lack deep understanding of the nuances of the civilian job market. A rich, comprehensive book hasn't been available -- until now.
Drs. Ron and Caryl Krannich are the authors of the newly releasedThe Ex-Offender's Job Hunting Guide: 10 Steps to a New Life in the Work World, $17.95. It's available now at Impact Publications and soon in bookstores.
The Ex-Offender's Job Hunting Guide is simply the best employment guide ever for those with a criminal record -- I am so impressed with its importance and societal value that I was glad to write the book's foreword.
The Krannichs are two of America's leading career writers who have produced dozens of job-related books, all the while operating one of the world's largest career resource centers. They know what works and what doesn't work in the maze of job search. (Disclosure: The Krannichs and I see the majority of career books published and each December select the year's 10 best.)
NEW ONLINE RESOURCE.In concert with their new book, the Krannichs have launched a companion website: Resource Center for Ex-Offenders (www.exoffenderreentry.com).
The site begins with helpful job search tips, links to other organizations of interest and a catalog of targeted materials. Other features will be added later to complete what the Krannichs hope will become a primary online help destination for job hunting ex-offenders.
The book and the website together can make a big difference in the lives of people who are trying to make it in the free world on their own.
I believe that these new tools can not only change lives, but help to conserve public resources. Think about it: Locking up prisoners costs billions and billions of dollars that could go for other public expenditures, such as health and education. A solution is rehabilitation and re-entry to productive, tax-paying citizenship on the outside.
It's much cheaper to rehab than to rehouse.
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