-isms abounding

I’ve been participating in a nine-week workshop on anti-racism, the main goals of which are:

• Work with other white European Americans to take responsibility for challenging racism and white privilege
• Respect the leadership of people of color in the community
• Work to end all oppression
• Practice and model respectful and accountable behavior in all our anti-racist work, especially in our families and circles of influence

The workshop sessions have included weekly readings, critical questions, individual, small and large group participatory exercises; videos, guest speakers and volunteer experiences as a part of the learning process.
Hard stuff, and worthwhile.

For my volunteer experience I chose the MEP (Money – Education – Prisons) Taskforce. Project Reentry, a MEP project, assists returned prisoners who are reentering the community who find themselves blocked from meaningful employment by lack of training, lack of experience or prejudice. There is a disproportionate number of persons of color in the penal system (Madison, embarrassingly, has the highest percentage in the entire UNITED STATES) and, according to MEP board member and professor Pamela Oliver’s website, within the first 21 months of release 50% of blacks and 37% of whites return to prison in Wisconsin. Yikes.

Project Reentry assists returning prisoners in developing their resumes and connects the returning prisoner with a developed list of available jobs. Project Reentry also calls each employer to ensure that they will hire felons, which doesn’t eliminate the personal accountability of the returning prisoner but it does help to reduce the number of added/unnecessary hassles for the person (who is likely already filled to capacity with dread, fear, anger, and mistrust). The anticipated outcomes of Project Reentry, according to an informational pamphlet, include “reduction of recidivism, lower numbers of people in both the Dane County Jail and the Wisconsin Prison System, and a healthier community where people are employed, sheltered and fed”.

My MEP work this week was to take the Job Services bulletin (20 pages with approx. seven job postings per page), call each telephone number listed and ask if each employer was willing to work with ex-offenders. Given that I was calling on the final afternoon of an unseasonably warm week as well as the Friday before Halloween when everyone seems to have an itch in their undies to bust outta work early, it was not exactly surprising that I had little success reaching many live people actually doing work at work.

One of the places at which I was able to reach a real live person – a company I hesitate to specifically name – was a transportation company (*two-syllable word that begins with the past tense of ‘lay’ and ends with the work that lawyers practice). The gentleman I spoke with had a brusque, purposefully harried tone to his voice once I identified myself and my purpose for calling. When I asked the gentleman if his organization was willing to work with returned prisoners his response was direct: “Oh, no no, we can’t be hiring felons. We transport children and other sensitive and at-risk populations”. I thanked him for the information and his time, and put the receiver back onto the telephone base. Then I flipped through some of the materials I’d been given until I hit on what I’d been looking for: ‘EMPLOYMENT RESTRICTIONS FOR EX-OFFENDERS’.

First of all, there are federal laws and there are state laws. Not all state laws are alike, but all state-led restrictions must comply with federal rules.

Some day when I’m really up for a rousing good time, I’ll try to list all the Federal no-no’s. There is a bunch. Specifically in Wisconsin an ex-felon maybe be denied, revoked or refused renewal of license for: private investigator, security guard, private detective, security alarm installer, and their liquor license (if convicted of certain drug-related offenses). Additionally there’s something called the Wisconsin Caregiver Law that identifies specific offenses that affect caregiver eligibility. But there’s also a provision for rehabilitation review of these offenders. (All that stuff can be found here).

So really, the gentleman who was having his horizontal corncob moment really was conducting business illegally: ex-felons who have not been convicted of crimes against life and bodily security or crimes against children have EVERY SINGLE RIGHT to apply for jobs, even at transportation companies who work with children and other ‘sensitive’ populations.

I can understand the reticence of an employer to take what probably feels like an impossible leap of faith with a potential new employee. The thing is, they’re making the same leap with me, or with my law-abiding brother, or with my law-abiding neighbor as they’re making with someone who has been released from prison after a felony conviction (because let’s face it, we have a whole lotta shit that qualifies for felony arrest/trial/conviction anymore). What this employer is doing is wrong. It’s illegal.

At one point I’d turned around in my chair to ask for clarification from one of the MEP staffers. I told her about my telephone exchange and asked her if she could clarify the law and if the guy had legal backing to say ‘no’. She handled it coolly, shrugging her shoulders and saying only "Yep. Some people are going to respond that way. All you can do is move on to the next one".

I can only imagine the levels of frustration and anger returned prisoners must feel upon their release. They have a community who has alienated and fears them, a dismal job prospective and few housing options without solid job leads. My coworker, an ex-offender herself, demonstrated the calm so many other returned prisoners probably lack. Calm they desperately could use - the calm I suspect the rest of us have had the great privilege to never have been concerned about.

Imagine that.