Life after lockup

Orville Clouse has hired dozens of felons to work at Greenwood Memorial Terrace cemetery on Spokane’s west side. They take jobs that start at minimum wage and involve long hours and heavy lifting. He appreciates that the former prison inmates take jobs others in town tend to disdain.

“We’ve been hiring them for years,” said Clouse, a supervisor of grounds crews at the cemetery. “We can’t get enough good people off the street.”

The cemetery — run by the Fairwood Memorial Association, a Spokane nonprofit — rewards those ex-prisoners who stick with the job.

Steve Pratt, for example, took a basic groundskeeper’s job at Greenwood in 2002 after finishing an 18-month stint for possession of methamphetamine. The 45-year-old Pratt did so well he was promoted and is now the cemetery’s backhoe operator, earning $12 an hour.

Pratt knows plenty of former prison inmates who, like him, took a low-paying job to start. Many stayed in low-end jobs; many others left town. A large number eventually got busted for violations and are serving time again.

“I was lucky,” he said. But, “I had also been a good worker before I went to prison. Some guys just don’t form a good work record, and when they get out they struggle to keep a job,” said Pratt.As the area’s economy hums along, men and women leaving prison or other detention programs are finding more jobs to choose from. Despite more job choices, however, offenders mostly are landing jobs in low-wage industries, and then having to work hard to overcome the prison stigma that often keeps them from promotions and pay raises.

Each year between 600 and 800 inmates who are released from the Airway Heights Corrections Center choose to remain in Spokane County; most of them quickly begin a job search, competing with others released from the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Geiger Work Release and the Pine Lodge Corrections Center for Women in Medical Lake.

Washington officials don’t have any solid data on how many ex-prisoners end up getting jobs in the area within two years. Neither have they done studies on how many of those quit their jobs within the first 12 months.

But anecdotal evidence suggests that the number of people switching jobs within the first year is large.

“I’d say most of the people we handle (in Spokane County) go through two to three jobs in their first 12 months,” said Kevin House, a community corrections supervisor with the state Department of Corrections.

“There’s plenty of jobs out there. The challenge is finding the job that matches their skills, expectations and the conditions they face (on supervision),” House said.

Most prisoners released into the community are under court-ordered supervision, which includes the requirement to submit regular urine samples and maintain contact with parole officers.

Greenwood Cemetery, HearthBread BakeHouse and several other Spokane businesses are among the employers frequently turned to by people completing work-release conditions, said Debbie Conner, the community corrections supervisor at Brownstone Work Release Center, the largest halfway house for men in Spokane.

Good entry-level jobs also are usually available in construction, roofing, maintenance and food service, she added.

Some employers prefer hiring ex-prisoners who are on work release. Those workers are likely to take minimum-wage jobs, plus they are closely monitored by corrections supervisors who ensure they report to work regularly.

“In effect, those guys are a captive work force for us,” said one employer who didn’t want his name used. “They have to show up to work and stay drug-free for their entire (release period). That’s better than we can find just hiring off the street.”

After the period of supervision is finished, though, problems sometimes occur, say corrections officials. Lorenzo Boe, who spent nine months on a drug charge at Geiger before going to work at HearthBread BakeHouse, said he’s seen lots of offenders “bust loose” once they finish supervision.

“They go out and splurge. They go get a place and spend their money on clothes. Then they get discouraged because they haven’t saved any money,” said Boe, who recently turned in his baker’s apron to become a union electrician, a skill he’d learned prior to his drug conviction.

Data on the number of released offenders who end up back in prison vary by education, age, gender and other factors. But generally, corrections officials say, about four of every 10 offenders are sent back to prison within eight years of release.

A 2003 study prepared by the Washington Department of Corrections found that a key factor in the ability of ex-prisoners to stay out of prison is how much money they earn. That study, which compared two groups of offenders — those who had jobs inside prison before release and those who did not — found offenders who earned less than $5,000 a year after release were twice as likely to re-offend as those who earned more.

State officials try to make sure offenders don’t walk onto the street unprepared for the working world. Both inside and outside state prisons, programs focus on helping people prepare for the working world. There are crash courses in how to write a resume, conduct an interview, regain a Social Security card (which is typically shredded when a person is first confined) and what to say about their criminal record to prospective bosses.

Jennifer Rodney, who provides career-counseling and job-search classes at the Airway Heights Corrections Center, spends three hours in one class discussing how inmates should talk about their history.

“We don’t sugarcoat what happened. We make sure they are accountable and acknowledge what they did,” Rodney said. In interviews, ex-prisoners are urged to admit their errors, but should also emphasize the personal gains they made while in prison, she said.

“The main thing is, employers don’t want to be lied to.”

Washington state officials are also working to refine the kinds of jobs and training programs currently offered to prisoners. The goal is to develop programs that help inmates land better jobs once released, said Howard Yarbrough, an administrator of correctional industries, a part of the state Department of Corrections.

The state now has certificate training programs for information technology, welding and building maintenance. The goal is to add other trades to that list, including carpentry and electrical work, said Yarbrough.

Some companies hire ex-prisoners to support them in their rehabilitation. Frank Pigott, president of HearthBread BakeHouse, started hiring former prisoners on a regular basis four years ago, at the same time he decided to make his privately owned bakery a drug-free company.

“Everyone deserves a second chance,” said Pigott, noting that five of his 58 employees are ex-prisoners.

He’s seen more failures than successes in those four years. “I’d say about 85 percent of the people who came in (from either Geiger or from Airway Heights) fall back into the system,” he said.

“But we’ve also had very good successes,” including Boe and HearthBread’s current wrapping supervisor, who came through the women’s release program at Pine Lodge, said Pigott.

Spokane business owner Walt Worthy hires ex-prisoners to work for his construction and property management firm, Worthy Enterprises. But he won’t allow his staff to hire ex-prisoners to work at the Davenport Hotel.

“We just don’t want to take the risk,” Worthy said.

Most employers routinely ask about a job applicant’s criminal history. State and federal law prevent a person from not being hired due to a conviction; employers are free, though, to not hire someone for a particular job due to the specific crime a person committed.

For instance, anyone convicted of selling or using illegal drugs is prevented by law from working at a pharmacy. People with a history of property crime or identity theft would not land jobs in financial services.

The state and corrections officials work with employers, making sure they know they can take advantage of tax credits and a federal bonding program to cover any losses incurred due to hiring an ex-prisoner. The tax credit program provides up to $2,400 in credits for each qualified offender hired. The bonding program gives an employer financial protection to cover losses or indebtedness caused by an employee who can’t get a bond. Janitorial companies, for example, often use the employee bonding option to insure against possible claims that might result from theft or vandalism.

Employers in Spokane County are getting the word; in 2002 Spokane companies sought 45 tax credits for workers who qualified under that program. Last year that total from Spokane County had grown to 119.

Spokane County’s job growth has made it easier for people such as Cathie Green to call on employers and persuade them to hire released offenders.

Green is an employment specialist with Spokane’s Goodwill Industries Community Gateways project. The program coaches released prisoners as they work their way into the community.

She’s discovered that employment is the cornerstone of rebuilding self-esteem for nearly every man and woman put back into the community after incarceration. Last year the Goodwill Industries program, which serves eight Eastern Washington counties, handled more than 300 job placements.

Green has seen people come out and be delighted to make minimum wage, after having done nothing in prison for 10 years. She’s also seen people with good skills come out and find jobs paying $25 an hour, in some rare cases. “It all depends on the skills you have and what job you’re willing to take,” she said.

Family or a close support network in the community is another key ingredient in keeping people from sliding backward, she said.

“One of the worst times for them is the 48 hours after release,” Green said. At that point, after having lived for years under ironclad routines inside prison, the offender is dropped outside the prison walls with $40 in spending money.

“That’s when they’re the most vulnerable” and need friends and family, she said.

“Those are the people who believe in the person, who know they can change and help them set goals, so that in six months, they can see themselves better off than they are today.”