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From prison to paycheck: Lawmakers looking to ease transition for former offenders

Wisconsin State Journal - 1/11/2023

Jan. 11—After months of meetings, a bipartisan group of legislators is finalizing several measures designed to increase employment opportunities for people with criminal convictions.

Among the measures under consideration by the legislative study committee seeking to increase job access to criminally convicted people are bills to establish a job hotline for employers interested in hiring people with convictions and to expand early release programs for inmates who complete an employment readiness training program.

The committee, which includes lawmakers and offender advocates, began working last summer as its chair, Sen. Mary Felzkowski, R-Irma, highlighted the potential for hiring people with criminal convictions to help address statewide labor shortages.

In an interview, Felzkowski noted the employment barriers for criminally convicted people.

"You miss two weeks of high school when you're a kid and it seems like you don't even know what's going on in the world anymore," she said. "So now take me out of the world for a year, two years, five years, 10 years, 20 years. When (you) walk out that door ... you have generalizations, but it's very hard to know where to go and what to do."

A third preliminary measure would require the Department of Corrections to create a community reentry center program and contract organizations to operate at least one center, where people released from prison would have access to a broad array of services pertaining to health, finances, housing, employment and more.

Another measure would require the DOC to include rental readiness training in pre-release programming in prisons, including a certification for people who complete that training. It would authorize the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority to administer a bond program to fund repairs for property damages caused by the certificate holder. That measure would also include a provision providing landlords immunity from civil liability for death or injury caused by the certificate-holding tenant.

"What we're doing here is the tip of the iceberg," Felzkowski said, adding that Wisconsin has "very antiquated ways of how we handle our criminal justice system compared to other states."

The bills, which are not yet finalized, are being written by Legislative Reference Bureau staff at the direction of the legislators and other committee members. Felzkowski said the measures will probably not be introduced formally until around April or May.

"The governor supports the committee's efforts and looks forward to their continued work in close consultation and collaboration with the Department of Corrections to ensure any legislation offered by the committee provides the staffing and resources necessary to implement their recommendations," Gov. Tony Evers' spokesperson Britt Cudaback said in a statement.

Spokespeople for Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, did not respond to requests for comment on whether they would support the measures.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have pointed to the state's workforce shortage issue as one of the top priorities in the upcoming legislative session and biennial budget process.

Eighty-five percent of employers are struggling to hire workers, according to the Wisconsin Employer Survey conducted this summer by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. Among employers facing those challenges, 45% cited a lack of qualified applicants and 36% cited labor shortages for the ongoing hiring difficulties.

At the same time, there's a high percentage of people with criminal convictions who don't have jobs. The U.S. Department of Justice'sBureau of Justice Statistics found in 2021 that 33% of people released from prison in 2010 didn't become employed in the four years following their release.

But the stigma of having a criminal record combined with lower education levels typical among ex-offenders makes joining the labor force particularly difficult, a report by the Brookings Institution states.

Employing people with criminal convictions could not only address the state's labor shortage but also reduce recidivism. Researchers in the Netherlands found that about 26% of employed ex-prisoners committed a new crime within six months following their release, compared with 37% for unemployment ex-prisoners.

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(c)2023 The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wis.)

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