St. Louis on ‘leading edge’ in fighting recidivism
By Meliqueica Meadows
Of the St. Louis American
Each year, 650,000 people are released from prison in the U.S. Of those, 67.5 percent will be arrested within three years of release.
To counteract recidivism, more than 400 people participated in the three-day National Offender Workforce Development Conference held this week at the Adam’s Mark Hotel. The purpose of the second annual event is to focus on offender workforce issues and highlight successful programs designed to reduce recidivism and reconnect ex-offenders with families and communities.
“Once I got out, I started looking for jobs, but kept getting the typical, ‘Don’t call us, we’ll call you’ or ‘We don’t think you’d be a good fit for this company’,” said Muhammad Ghani, who was busted on drug charges just before his thirtieth birthday.
Released from prison in 2005 after serving four years and eight months, he was determined to take advantage of his second chance to become a productive citizen. He immediately began pounding the pavement in search of a job – with no success.
“I wanted to give up,” Ghani said.
Instead, he joined the Connections to Success program, which assists ex-offenders with all aspects of the reentry process. “They showed me how to build a life and treated me like a human being,” Ghani said.
The organization initially found employment for Ghani in a fast food restaurant. When he saw an advertisement for a sales position at the St. Louis Black Pages, he applied and was hired.
“I was impressed with his persistence,” Howard D. Denson, publisher and CEO of the St. Louis Black Pages, said of Ghani. “He made it clear that he was looking for an opportunity, and he showed initiative.”
Denson said he and his wife have been heavily involved in the ex-offender cause for nearly a decade. His wife, Vickie M. Denson, is vice-president of the board of COPE (Congregations and Offenders Partnership Enterprise), a faith-based ex-offender reentry program.
“I find that black businesses are very open to hiring ex-offenders because I think we realize how easy it is to get on the wrong side of the law,” Denson said. “And small minority business owners are in need of good people.”
Denson said, “To not be open (to hiring ex-offenders) is like throwing away our own brothers and sisters and putting them in desperate situations. And we all know that desperate people do desperate things.”
Newly hired, Ghani found himself in desperate need of reliable transportation. Just months after his hiring, he received a surprise call to appear in court.
“I was petrified,” he said. But his court appearance was scheduled to award him a 1995 Saturn from the Connections program to honor his hard work in rebuilding his life.
“When you’re in that world (prison), you’re isolated and alone,” Ghani explained. “I had spent so much time without human contact. If someone just placed their hand on my shoulder, it would make me jump.”
The conference was co-sponsored by ARCHS (Area Resources for Community and Human Services), Eastern District of Missouri Federal Probation Office, National Institute of Corrections (U.S. Department of Justice) and PWD (Productive Workforce Development, LLC).
ARCHS CEO Wendell Kimbrough said, “Hosting this conference shows that St. Louis in on the leading edge of discovering how to reengage ex-offenders back into society successfully.”
To learn more about ex-offender workforce development visit www.proworkdev.com or www.stlarchs.org. For more information about Connections to Success, call (314) 333-4490. For more information about COPE, call (314) 389-4804.