Set
a man up for a modicum of success, and he might just make a better life for
himself.
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As many as two-thirds of the 650,000
inmates released from prisons and jails in the United States each year will be
re-arrested within three years. America Works is trying to change that.
A new report from the Manhattan
Institute looks at AW’s successful approach, which centers around providing
more “enhanced job-readiness training and job-search assistance” to nonviolent
offenders than the typical re-entry program does. If the welfare-reform
successes of the ’90s taught us anything, it’s that the best welfare program is
a job. By rapidly attaching such offenders to work, AW aims to minimize the
chance that they’ll re-offend later.
As the report puts it: America
Works is condensed into an intense one- or two-week period. It uses a
tough-love approach, stressing interpersonal communication and such “soft”
skills as time and anger management. It places special attention on teaching
practical skills that many former inmates never acquired, such as résumé
preparation, search strategies, and interview techniques. And it uses a network
of employers, who are open to hiring ex-offenders and with whom it has
long-term relationships, to place clients. Its goal is not only to help former
inmates find jobs but also to keep jobs, and it provides follow-up services for
six months. In 2005, the program provided job-readiness classes to 1,000
ex-offenders, placing 700 in jobs.
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— Kathryn Jean Lopez - senior
fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large of National Review
Online, and founding director of Catholic Voices USA.
