Getting Back to Work: Employment Program for Ex-Offenders

摘要

Nearly six million people are currently in the criminal justice system - 1.8 million inmates, 700,000 parolees and 3.4 million probationers. For subsets of the population, the numbers are even more alarming. It is estimated that in 1999 one of every nine black non-Hispanic men aged 25 to 29 was in prison. In addition, 500,000 people are released from prison every year (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1996). Given these extraordinary numbers, addressing the employment needs of ex-offenders presents a major challenge for the workforce development field. There are four major reasons for the increased attention to getting ex-offenders back to work: the strong economy, increasing incarceration rates, increasing incarceration costs and the success of welfare reform.