Employers and applicants got together Tuesday at an unusual job fair at the North Florida Fairgrounds. This one was sponsored by the U.-S. Probation Office and the Florida Department of Corrections.
Nobody keeps official records but academic studies confirm unemployment is sky high for ex-felons. And prison officials and social workers say a steady job is key to keeping ex-offenders from returning to a life of crime.
But that’s not the main reason human resource manager Michelle Schaefer came from tiny Graceville to set up an employment booth for her company, Rex Lumber.
“We’re here because some of our jobs, our vacancies, are really hard to fill. So we’re looking for that skill set, forklift jobbers, the industrial maintenance side of the coin, and, finding individuals with those skill sets is sometimes difficult.”
Schaefer says one of the company’s factories is across the street from an elementary school, so Rex can’t employ sex offenders there. But she says ex-felons can make good employees.
Forty-seven-year-old Chris wouldn’t give his last name for obvious reasons, but he wishes more employers were as enlightened as Rex.
Chris says he was a computer technician for the state before a single mistake landed him with burglary and grand theft auto convictions.
“I was going through alcohol and depression problems and I, uh, one night, while drunk, I decided to go into a house I didn’t belong in and take a car that didn’t belong to me, and it all just went downward from there.”
Chris wants to get back into his chosen field, but he says he’s only been able to find work as a day laborer. James Perdue, a community corrections deputy director for the Florida Department of Corrections, says employers may be overlooking valuable workers because of a felony conviction. The Big Bend After R-entry Coalition estimates 1,600 inmates will be released into the region this year.
“A lot of times, these offenders are first-time offenders and they may have just made a mistake and acted impulsively and this may be the lesson they’ve learned to get back on the straight and narrow.”
Organizers set up the event as part of National Re-entry Week.
