Finding a job in tough times is hard enough for the qualified and law-abiding. But for those who carry with them the stigma of a criminal record, even for a minor offense or youthful mistake that trails them like a shadow, the task can be all but impossible.
Leonard (he didn’t want his real name used), a resident of the city’s Greenville section who once served jail time for petty theft in his early twenties, has looked for construction jobs for the past year, at the soon-to-open Bayonne Crossings Mall as well as in Jersey City. He previously worked at a chemical plant in Bayonne for 12 years until it closed in 2008, and has been out of work ever since. He has to provide for his wife and two children so he is not tempted to do something illegal to make ends meet.
“These men don’t want to go back to prison; they want to be men to their children,” – Robert Allen
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Leonard said he also looks for work at offices doing cleaning and maintenance work but his criminal background usually guarantees he is shut out.
One person who understands the plight of those with a criminal record who are trying to get their life in order is Rev. Robert Allen, a member of the Carpenter’s Local 6, based in North Bergen, and a longtime advocate for minorities working on construction projects in Jersey City and other parts of Hudson County.
Allen in September surprised State Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Hudson) at her office by bringing men out-of-work, some who had served jail time, when she was only expecting to have a one-on-one meeting with him about helping unemployed residents.
“These men don’t want to go back to prison, they want to be men to their children,” said Allen in a recent interview. “These males want to be men.”
Making them believe
Annette Joyner as executive director of the Friends of the Lifers Youth Corp., the Jersey City-based organization helping formerly incarcerated individuals and at-risk youth since 1992, can identify with the clients she’s being counseling on a daily basis since 2005.
Joyner, 46, sold drugs in Trenton until she was arrested at the age of 28 in 1992. The Jersey City resident served one year in jail and drew four years probation until she finished her time in 1997. Joyner said the year behind bars straightened her out.
She found work in the New York City parks department then moved on to running a café and a gift shop in her native Harlem before rents got too high and she had to discontinue.
Joyner said she tries to impart to her clients what she went through to “make them believe” that they can make a living without reverting back to their old habits.
“It’s usually the same story, they come back to us discouraged after looking for a job because a background check was done, which found they had a criminal record, and never called them back,” Joyner said. “What we do is talk to them every day, have our ears open.”
The frustration Joyner sees from the clients has led Friends of the Lifers to start their own businesses servicing the Jersey City area – one for catering and the other for cleaning commercial buildings.
And the work done by the Friends of the Lifers is not in vain.
Darryl Dixson, 50, has stopped using drugs because of their counseling. Dixson has served jail time for drug possession. Dixson said his training in different fields such as carpentry, electrical work and maintenance could have got him a steady job by now but his past work efforts were only a way to make enough money to score drugs for his habit. Now, he looks forward to start saving his money for by doing odd jobs doing cleanup work at buildings.
“I’m not going back to that life, I’m not putting myself in that position, and for that I thank the Friends for their help,” Dixson said.
Easier path to re-entry
Sen. Cunningham says she works every day to help those who have come to her, not only because she gets visits to her office from those recently incarcerated seeking her help to get work but because it continues the work of her late husband, former Jersey City Mayor Glenn Cunningham. He had started the Second Chance program at the Jersey City Incinerator Authority, enabling people who came out of jail to work there, until the program ended in September due to cuts in state funding.
“He always believed in second chances and that’s part of me as a legislator,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham has taken the second chance ethos further when legislation she sponsored in the State Legislature to facilitate re-entry of formerly imprisoned into society went to effect in May.
The legislation directs such initiatives as the Commissioners of Corrections and Labor and Workforce Development to establish a mandatory workforce skills training program in each State correctional facility that would be mandatory for any inmate who had 18 months remaining to be served.
Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.