Re-Entry and Good Jobs: Building the Second Chances We All Believe In
Description
Today approximately 77 million Americans, or 1 in 3 adults have a criminal record. While not everyone represented in this statistic has experienced incarceration, it serves to highlight that the barriers formerly incarcerated people face finding quality jobs are far more commonplace than we might think. Many returning citizens, who worked for little or no pay while incarcerated, will struggle to find quality jobs after release. Discrimination against those with a record, restrictions on what occupational licenses are available to those with a record, existing debts, punitive court supervision policies, and lack of support to meet basic needs in areas such as housing can force those leaving incarceration into dead-end, low-paying, and exploitative jobs. Some will find they are barred from doing the jobs they worked or were trained to do while incarcerated. And many more lacked opportunities to participate in education or training opportunities while incarcerated.
But across the country, innovative efforts are underway to revamp our re-entry system by opening up access to good jobs. New laws to wipe criminal records and address occupational licensing barriers, legal action aimed at discrimination, and a growing coalition of employers and union leaders are showing that providing a second chance is possible.
In this part two of our series “Work Behind and Beyond Bars: Improving Job Quality During and After Incarceration,” the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program will explore the opportunities and challenges accessing good jobs for people after incarceration.
Click here to watch our first event in this series, “A Hidden Workforce: Prison Labor, Human Rights, and the Legacy of Slavery.”
Speakers
Sappho Fulton (Opening Remarks)
– Executive Director, Womxn Beyond Borders; Women’s Way Fellow
Sappho Reynan Fulton MA, MSW, PhD (ABD) is a global expert in transformational life coaching and social justice advocacy. As the CEO of Womxn Beyond Borders, she is at the forefront of transforming psychological practices into wellness-based healing spaces. Her organization manages pre-entry services in county jails and reentry services in center city Philadelphia, demonstrating her commitment to supporting marginalized communities. Sappho’s extensive experience in social work, community organizing, and nonprofit management is complemented by her academic achievements, including master’s degrees in social work and organizational leadership and her ongoing pursuit of a PhD in International Psychology.
Sappho’s expertise extends to program development, event planning, public speaking, grant writing, fundraising, and volunteer management. Her passion for social justice and community empowerment is evident in her focus on equity and inclusion, particularly for LGBTQ+ individuals and cisgender women of color. Her global impact is underscored by her service in over seven African countries. Sappho’s personal journey, including over 20 years of involvement with the carceral system followed by nearly two decades of successful reintegration, adds depth to her professional expertise in reentry and second chances. Currently working towards her licensure, Sappho serves on several prestigious boards and advisory councils, including the Homeless Assistance Fund, Inc., CAB-UPenn’s Nursing Advisory Team, and Marc Arthur’s Advisory Council, further solidifying her position as a respected leader in her field.
Daryl V. Atkinson
– Co-Director and Co-Founder of Forward Justice
Daryl is the co-director and co-founder of Forward Justice. At Forward Justice, Atkinson serves in several critical roles, including leading movement building litigation, advancing public policies that address the needs of people with criminal records, and offering tremendous thought leadership through scholarship and public speaking on criminal justice, race, and democracy. For example, Atkinson was the lead attorney in the seminal felony disenfranchisement case, Community Success Initiative v. Moore, that challenged North Carolina’s felony disenfranchisement regime. Atkinson and Forward Justice were the central advocates that ushered in the passage of the Second Chance Act, which expanded eligibility and access to criminal record clearance for people with records. Atkinson was an editor of “What We Know”, a compilation of innovative policy proposals developed by currently and formerly incarcerated people; a contributing author to “Parsimony and Other Radicals Ideas”, a compendium of articles on creating transformational change in the criminal legal system.
Prior to joining Forward Justice, Atkinson was the first Second Chance Fellow for U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). At DOJ, Atkinson was an advisor to the Second Chance portfolio of the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), a member of the Federal Interagency Reentry Council, and a conduit to the broader justice-involved population to ensure that BJA heard from all stakeholders when developing reentry policy.
Most notably, in 2014, Atkinson was recognized by the White House as a “Reentry and Employment Champion of Change” for his extraordinary work to facilitate employment opportunities for people with criminal records.
Mr. Atkinson is a founding member of the North Carolina Second Chance Alliance and is on the Board of Directors for the Clean Slate Initiative. Atkinson has appeared in numerous media outlets including The Washington Post, CBS, NowThis, and MSNBC. He received a B.A. in Political Science from Benedict College, Columbia, South Carolina and a J.D. from the University of St. Thomas School of Law, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Beth Avery
– Fair Chance Program Director, National Employment Law Project
Avery is the Fair Chance Program director at the National Employment Law Project (NELP), a leading nonprofit advocacy organization with the mission to build a just and inclusive economy where all workers have expansive rights and thrive in good jobs. Beth leads NELP’s advocacy to advance the rights of workers with records. Since joining NELP as an attorney in 2015, Beth has provided legal and technical assistance focused on removing unfair barriers and expanding employment opportunities for people with arrest and conviction records. In partnership with allies across the country, Beth has advocated for “fair chance hiring” (“ban the box”) policies and “fair chance licensing” reforms for nearly a decade. For example, Beth worked with a statewide coalition of advocates and formerly incarcerated leaders to enact the California Fair Chance Act in 2017 and continues to co-lead a coalition seeking to build on the rights established by that law. As part of her advocacy, Beth has testified before state legislatures, advised lawmakers and local advocates on policy design and implementation, and authored amicus briefs to federal and state courts.
Sharon Dietrich
– Litigation Director, Community Legal Services
Ms.Dietrich has been an attorney with the Employment Unit of Community Legal Services (CLS), Philadelphia, since 1987. She became CLS’s managing attorney for Public Benefits and Employment in 1997, and its litigation director in 2014. A focus of Ms. Dietrich’s work has been issues involving the employment of people with criminal records.
Ms. Dietrich was one of the architects of Pennsylvania’s innovative Clean Slate law (Act 56 of 2018), which seals minor criminal records by automation. Almost 46 million cases have been sealed in Pennsylvania to date. She also was a leader in the campaign in Pennsylvania to expand Clean Slate to drug felonies. In addition to facilitating the legislation and implementation of Pennsylvania’s Clean Slate law, she speaks widely about automated sealing and provides technical assistance in other states looking to adopt and implement Clean Slate.
In addition, Ms. Dietrich has represented thousands of people who have been denied employment because of their criminal records. She founded CLS’s work in the National Record Clearing Project, to provide technical assistance nationwide for provision of expungement and sealing representation. She has litigated national class actions against background screeners and constitutional challenges of overbroad laws restricting work opportunities.
Ms.Dietrich received numerous awards for her work on Clean Slate, including from the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network. She also has received awards from the Pennsylvania Prison Society (2002), the Philadelphia Bar Association (2005), the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania (2011), and the University of Pennsylvania Law School (2016).
Minna Long
– Strategic Programs Manager, Washington State Building & Construction Trades Council; Journeyman Ironworker, Ironworkers Local 29
Minna has a diverse educational background, including holding two bachelor’s degrees from Ohio University, and is currently earning a master’s in Law, Justice, and Culture. She is also a member of Ironworkers Local 29, where she excelled in her craft and was the first woman to represent her local in the National Outstanding Apprentice Competition. Having facilitated anti-harassment and anti-discrimination classes for apprentices, receiving the Wanda Hall Legacy Award for mentorship in the trades, and now working for the Washington State Building & Construction, she is passionate about advocating for others. She has volunteered with organizations such as the Washington Defender Association and Incarcerated Mother’s Advocacy Project, where she played a pivotal role in passing legislation and providing mentorship. Today, Minna continues her work reducing barriers and advocating for folks both at work and in her personal life. Her greatest joy outside of work is being a mom to twin boys.
Gina Schaefer
– Former CEO, A Few Cool Hardware Stores; Author of “Recovery Hardware: A Nuts and Bolts About Building a Community, and Renovating Lives”
Gina Schaefer is the founder and CEO of 12 hardware stores in Washington DC, Baltimore, and the surrounding areas. As a member of the Ace Hardware Cooperative, Gina leads a multimillion-dollar business that employs more than 260 people. She is dedicated to maintaining a strong corporate culture and has begun a transfer of ownership through an employee stock ownership plan to her teammates. She is also the author of “Recovery Hardware: A Nuts and Bolts Story About Building a Business, Restoring a Community, and Renovating Lives,” which was published in September 2022.
Schaefer draws her inspiration from fellow entrepreneurs who strive to be creative, think differently, and help make a difference — people like Judy Wicks, founder of the White Dog Cafe in Philadelphia, from whom Schaefer learned innovative business strategies; Paul Saginaw and Ari Weinzweig, founders of gourmet food group Zingerman’s Community of Businesses in Michigan, who inspired her to use her voice as a force for good; and Father Gregory Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, who taught her that nonprofit organizations need to think beyond simple charity.
Schaefer has received numerous accolades for her many accomplishments. She is the recipient of the Women Who Mean Business award from the Washington Business Journal of 2009; she was recognized as an industry Top Gun in 2011 by the National Retail Hardware Association; she was honored by Profiles in Diversity Journal as one of its “Women Worth Watching” in 2013; and she was recognized by Hardware and Building Supply Dealer as one of 14 of the 2016 “People of the Year.” In 2020, she received a Top Women in Hardware & Building Supply award.
She serves on the corporate board of CCA Global and the nonprofit board of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.
Opportunity in America
Opportunity in America, an event series hosted by the Economic Opportunities Program, considers the changing landscape of economic opportunity in the US and implications for individuals, families, and communities across the country. The series highlights the ways in which issues of race, gender, and place exacerbate our economic divides, and ideas and innovations with potential to address these challenges and broaden access to quality opportunity.
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