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Improving Employment Outcomes for Justice-Involved VR Clients

John Rio, MA, CRC

Course Focus

1. Walking in Their Shoes

2. Facts & Myths

3. Job Seeking and Retention

4. Understanding the Criminal Justice System

5. Beyond Bonding & Tax Credits

6. Signaling Job Readiness

7. Overcoming Employment Barriers

8. Increasing Job Retention

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Work is part of recovery & reintegration…

A Healthy Life

A Home

A Purpose

A Community

Evidenced-Based Practices

• Transitional Jobs

• Housing Based Employment Services

• Supported Employment

• Social Purpose Ventures

• Entrepreneurship

• Mixed Approaches

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Job finding is based on

preferences, strengths, and work experiences… and informed by involvement in the criminal justice system

Who are we talking About?

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Veterans Court

Justice Involved?

People who have been arrested, fingerprinted and a record established – including veterans with a mental health disorder including those with a co-occurring substance use disorder

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Wesley Woodling will never forget the night he killed an innocent man, someone he mistakenly thought was trying to rob him. “I was using tactics when I did it. I did it from a tree line where nobody could see me,” he said. “Like I was trained to do.” He was trained in the National Guard and served in Iraq and Kuwait.

He was diagnosed with PTSD and bi-polar disorder and discharged in 2008. He said he was suicidal and hearing voices after he returned to his Charlotte home. “I was paranoid whenever I went somewhere. I thought everybody was talking about me; everybody was planning to hurt me,” he said. “I think if I would have gotten the help that I needed, then this wouldn’t have happened.”

He is about to complete his sentence at Alexander Correctional Institution and will be under the state community corrections supervision

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NC Currently Justice Involved

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Group Number

Inmates 37,459

Probationers 101,284

Post Release/Parole 41,172

Total 142,915

Men 34,958

Women 2,501

Questions? Please call the NC DPS Office of Research and Planning - 919-733-4080

“Without education, job skills, and other basic services, offenders are likely to repeat the same steps that brought them to jail in the first place…” Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R)

March 18, 2011

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What has been your experience helping justice

involved jobseekers?

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TRUTH OR MYTH

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Once a convicted person has completed his or her court

imposed sentence his debt to society has been paid in full.

What do you think?ITEM FACT OR MYTH

Ex-offenders are uneducated

Ex-offenders are untrustworthy

Ex-offenders are unreliable

Other employees will not want to work with ex-offenders

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a person’s criminal history should not keep them from

getting a job, having a place to live, or reconnecting with and

supporting their family

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Discussion Video

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1. What comments did the offenders make that stuck with you? Why? What surprised you in this documentary? Is there anything that made you angry? 

2. Several people in the documentary talked about it being easier to live in prison than on the outside.  From what you heard in the program, why do you think this is true? 

3. Jamie’s story reflects a vicious cycle, familiar to many ex-offenders. She says you can’t start over because your criminal past follows you. How do you think Jamie and others like her can break out of this cycle? Is it ever possible? 

4. Klaus said that institutionalization hardens you to things like seeing others die. How do you think this affects life on the outside after being incarcerated?

5. Klaus comments that “you’re your own worst enemy” when you’re behind bars. What do you think that means? 16

Behaviors that may be adaptive in jail and prison but that inhibit reentry

success

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Inmate Code 

Behaviors in a Helping Environment

Do your own time Lack of treatment involvement

Don’t be a snitch/rat Don’t talk to staffDon’t trust anyone Don’t engage with staff

or other clientsRespect Violent or threatening

behaviorsLack of privacy No eye contact, strict

demands regarding personal space

Criminal Records

• Behavioral Health challenges often result in justice involvement–Problems surrounding receipt of treatment –War on drugs

• 2012 study - 30% of Americans have been arrested by age 23

• Potential Impacts of a criminal record

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• Voting • Firearms

• Credit • Child Custody/Adoption

• Housing • Employment

• Government Benefits

When Records are Created

• Arrest– Fingerprint = a RAP Sheet – Pre-trial detention – local jail – State’s categorize differently – felonies, misdemeanor

• Adjudication – Plea Bargaining focuses on sentence

• Sentencing – Probation – usually means conditions / supervision instead of incarceration – Local Jai l or State Prison – Parole - usually means conditions / supervision after incarceration

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How Records Follow the Person

• Criminal Justice Agencies local criminal justice agencies state repositories - RAP Sheets FBI database

• Credit Reports 3 national agencies maintain them on each of us

• Error rates are widely recognized as high corrections are possible but take time

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Resources

• http://www.doleta.gov/reports/etjd.cfm

• http://www.nationalreentryresourcecenter.org/

• http://www.nicic.gov/owd

• http://www.va.gov/homeless/vjo.asp

• http://www.bu.edu/cpr/employment/home1.html

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For more information

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John Rio, MA, CRC

Fairfax, VA

jrio51@yahoo.com

Office: 703-323-4694

Mobile: 914-433-5192