Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles to help residents with felonies find jobs

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ( WIAT ) — The Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles will help host a job fair in Perry County residents on parole.

The event will be held in Uniontown at 9 a.m. in the PREP Center on Thursday. It will be the first job fair of its kind for Perry County.

“We have a goal that every single participant that leaves the PREP facility is employed,” said ABPP Assistant Director for Reentry Rebecca Bensema.

For people with felonies on their record, finding employment can be difficult.

“Some days, I really wanted to give up,” Tuscaloosa resident Dallas Richey said.

Richey was incarcerated when he was 19 years old. While he was incarcerated, trying to prepare for life outside of prison was full of nuances.

“Would I be able to find a job? If I can’t find a job, will I turn back to what I used to do?” Richey said those were the thoughts that haunted him most.

A reality for some people who get out of prison is that if they can’t find a job, often times they find themselves back behind bars.

“Statistically, it has been proven that if someone has employment, they have a much better chance of not going back to prison,” Bensem said.

The odds of someone finding a job after prison might be stacked against them, according to a 2022 Prison Policy Institute Report . The report estimated nearly 60% of formerly incarcerated people in the U.S. were unemployed because lack of opportunity.

In 2005, Richey finished his prison sentence. He was 25 years old.

“It’s hard to change and easy to go back,” Richey said. “You have to ask yourself, ‘Do I want to go back to what I know, or do I want to embrace the change?'”

The first step was finding a job. He filled out job applications, and on each application, he had to check the box that said he was convicted of a felony.

“They said they’d give me a call,” Richey said. “They never gave me a call.”

When he did get call backs, it was not the response he was hoping for.

“When they found out I have felonies, they didn’t hire me,” Richey said.

Richey considers himself lucky in some respects. When job hunting became a dead end, he turned to his father for help. A couple years down the road, he applied with the Alabama Department of Transportation and was hired on.

“Who would have ever thought,” Richey said. “I was in the Alabama Department of Corrections. Now, I work for the Alabama Department of Transportation.”

A couple of days into his new job, he was working alongside other men who at one point were serving time in ADOC.

“[ALDOT] hires people with felonies,” Richey said. “Nobody told you that.”

The ABPP has been trying to get other industries and to partner with them to help give individuals with felonies employment opportunities.

“That connect has been a challenge in the past,” Bensema said.

The ABPP does have these employers onboard for Thursday’s job fair:

• Turner Construction
• Amazon
• Limestone Staffing
• SK Staffing Solutions

The job fair will also offer work in the areas of:

• Commercial truck driving
• Forklift operation
• Heavy equipment operation
• Skid steer operation
• Utility tree trimming
• Sheet metal workers
• Millwrights
• Electricians

According to the ABPP, this opportunity benefits those needing work when getting out of prison and creates assurance for those hiring them on.

“[It] allows employers to know that when they’re receiving an employee from the Alabama Bureau Board of Paroles, they can feel confident in knowing they are receiving an employee they can believe in and depend on,” Bensema said.

Richey believes if given the chance, employers will see that someone’s record does not always determine their value or work ethic.

“Some of the men and women who come home from prison are some of the most hard-working people you’ll ever see,” Richey said. “I just feel like they need a shot.”

Until that time comes, Richey continues to go back to prisons so he can help other inmates who are in a similar position and mindset he was in 21 years ago.

“You’re talking about a guy that didn’t have a high school education,” Richey said. “You’re talking about a guy that had a murder with two attempts, and the victim’s mother forgave me. I share my story with them and let them know, ‘Hey, if I can do it, you can do it.'”

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