Let’s face it stigma for ex-offenders is a hot topic right now. It is one of the biggest areas of concern. While there are charities out there like Clean Sheet, Nacro, etc doing great work with good results in this area. The one thing we’re lacking is the fact that the current situation doesn’t work for anyone not the ex-offender and not the prisons many of which are putting alot of resources into retraining and making partnerships with companies to try and help the clients they serve. We need a system that provides education all around because, with so many trying to tackle this issue, you have to question we is it still such a large issue.
There is no combined approach to this everyone is off working in their little corner trying like crazy to solve the issue. Now obviously we’re all for second chances and new beginnings but ranting on social media isn’t going to get this sorted, the landscape is too impractical. Think about it when is the last time you heard someone paint a positive image of an ex-offender next to never right? The problem is multi-faceted, it’s not just about writing the right thing on your CV, it’s about societal conditioning, and beliefs, addressing the stigma at its root cause means a highly focused, combined, and educational approach. It also means representing all sides involved ex-offenders, employers, and the prison service as well as including the charities that have been doing so much groundwork to address the issue.
The problem is when we talk about the issue publicly it’s from an ex-offender point of view the stigma and the horror stories of employers tearing up applications or terminating interviews the second they find out what the criminal record is. We forget how much risk there is for a business owner to employ a new team member, it’s very expensive and the government just made it more so. The fact that society tells us this is a person (the ex-offender) that already broke rules, so there’s the can I trust the can now follow instructions. Then there’s the unknowing of the individual’s intentions. It requires a super leap in trust and belief in the ex-offender to feel confident about employing someone society tells us is untrustworthy and lacking morals in the first place, Then there’s the risk that this one hire could ruin the business you spent so long building. The following story demonstrates this point.
Back in the late Nineties, there was a case (true story) where an employment agency hired an ex-offender who was a registered child sex offender with a substantial history of offending he befriended another worker at the agency who ended up letting him rent a room in his home: where his four children lived and they were abused and finally months later kidnapped. The police luckily tracked him down in a few hours and he was arrested. The company sat back and watched the whole thing play out and did not try to alert authorities or discourage the worker from giving this child sex offender access to their home, their workers turned on them, and their brand and reputation were in tatters they couldn’t attract new workers and they went out of business. Their reasoning was the confidently laws forbid them from disclosing anything but no one, not their contracts, not their employees, not the public accepted that as a viable excuse. The only connection the two men had was work without that they would never have met. For anyone who thinks this is an extreme story or not factual it couldn’t happened I was there.
The point is there has to be a better way for employers to protect their businesses so that the risks associated with hiring ex-offenders are minimized, if you reduce the risks you could reduce the stigma especially as the statistics point towards less chance of re-offending for an ex-offender in employment than the other way round but there’s always going be a bad apple that gives the community of ex-offender a bad name and propels stigma. Business on a practical level is about reducing the risks and enhancing the benefits and we need to have that at the heart of any campaign or reeducation around stigma, employment, and ex-offenders.
Reeducating to constantly readdress beliefs, stigma, and societal conditioning news to be a main focus with a structured approach across all involved, if everyone is putting things differently it just doesn’t work. We need to start with this concept society has of:
Oh bad person – did a bad thing – went to a bad place (prison) – for punishment – Now they’re back
It needs rewriting, and not just with a family member or friend explaining how there were circumstances or how much they’ve suffered and learned their lesson, all that does is create an exception. We don’t need an exception we need the world to see accept and believe that the bad apples their the exception. Remember a belief is just a thought you or someone told you over and over again that your brain finds evidence to support.
There’s nothing in life you can’t excuse if you try hard enough, the problem is the world doesn’t have to believe or even accept those excuses. There’s never going to be a better substitute for the demonstration of your intentions, values, and behavior. But we can aid things along with a united approach to changing our speech and reactions in terms of how we explain ex-offenders to society.
Campaigns like Ban the Box and directories of ex-offender-friendly companies are all great but there’s no guarantee that those companies will have an opening when it’s needed. We need a much wider approach. We don’t believe that convictions should need to be disclosed unless the role calls for a DBS Check and this can be done after the CV or application phase.
Then there’s the much more obvious question of does the ex-offenders want a job or simply just trying to do what conditioning tells them they should. Statistics tell us the most popular courses in prison are start-up business courses and author courses. Human behavior tells us that if you ask anyone what they want they will answer with the things they think they should want, a large bank balance, a nice car/bike, a nice home, and family. The things that for generations society has conditioned us to believe we want. No one looks at removing the barriers to self-employment or start-up business even though we know prisoners are learning such things (being an author is essentially self-employment). Just start-up loans require you to have a 3-year credit file which no ex-offender could get due to lack of address while they were inside.
A lot of prisons are doing great work to try and prepare their clients for work on the outside, but vocational training is pointless if employers can’t see past your conviction and it doesn’t matter what you put on your CV if it ends up crumpled in a waste bin.
Until we realize that a combined approach needs to be developed, one that can address the problems from all sides we’re stuck with limited progress. The world needs practical solutions now, new solutions.
We have to start talking about the positive side of ex-offenders the strength the resilience, and the desire to start again. Because you best believe the victims of their crimes are still talking about the negative aspects of the trauma, the suffering that they endured.
Theirs enough negatives out there without adding more. Prison once seen as rehabilitation now is seen purely as a punishment which propels the stigma. We put so much effort into employment for ex-offenders but completely ignore the options like e-commerce, self-employment, and owning a business which would allow them to sidestep at least some of the stigma.
We need a new perspective on how best to help ex-offenders with stigma and employment and everyone needs to get on board to give it the best chance of success.
That’s my view what’s yours?
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About Biker Rebuild CIC
We have a unique perspective on lots of issues at Biker Rebuild CIC. This is in part due to our founder Belinda’s extensive life experience, from direct interactions with ex-offenders, and bikers for most of her life, to being the relative of a murder victim to being a business owner and so much more, she can view things from a more more rounded perspective, leading to better insights and innovative solutions.