More than 3,000 people arrived in downtown Houston, Texas, Wednesday for a job fair designed for convicted felons. Organizers of the Road to Re-entry Employment Fair was created to help those with criminal records find work and reintegrate into society. They had expected a few hundred job people. The line of job seekers ran for a few blocks and even tied up traffic. "These were not individuals trying to get concert tickets or a free dinner," said Jarvis Johnson, a Houston City Council member who helped sponsor the inaugural event. "They were individuals who were waiting in line because they want to be productive members of society." "I'm an ex-con, and that's the main thing that's holding me back," Lavell Byrd said to KHOU. "It's a very, very, very hard thing that people still look at what you did in the past and not what you can do in the future."Giving people like Byrd a chance to succeed and be a productive part of the work force is in the interest of all of us and will even help keep him out of prison. "They made a mistake, but they've paid their debt to society," he said. "At the end of the day, we are all going to pay if we don't open the doors of opportunity -- whether we become the victims [of future crimes] or we have to use our tax dollars to imprison them." After Wednesday's success, organizers said they are already planning a follow-up.
I really like this program. The way it has been designed seems to be of great help to this society. Ex-cons are able to find jobs to support both themselves or even their family. This is helpful to the society as a whole. With ex-cons in work, we then pay less taxs to have them in prison. Moreover, they have already payed their debt for making the mistakes they made. It wouldn't hurt anyone to give them a second chance. This program is extremely beneficial to all.
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1 comment:
This is indeed an interesting part of the recession. In a time where the average person has a hard time finding a job, it must be even worse than normal for criminals. I know that the government subsidizes some businesses for hiring certain types of people like the mentally handicapped. I am under the impression that ex-cons fall under that category of subsidized workers. If so, is the recession possibly helping them because when profit is down, maybe hiring an ex-con for less pay (when the government subsidy is added in) would be advantageous for a company
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