Workforce Re-entry for Formerly Incarcerated Individuals in Baton Rouge
For formerly incarcerated individuals in Baton Rouge, re-entering the workforce can feel like a significant challenge—but it’s also an opportunity for a fresh start. The city offers a variety of resources designed to help you rebuild your life and thrive in your career.
Programs such as those provided by the Louisiana Workforce Commission and Baton Rouge Community College (BRCC) offer specialized training, certifications, and job placement services tailored for individuals with a criminal record. These resources are crucial in building the skills needed to enter high-demand industries like construction, transportation, and hospitality, where employers are often more open to second-chance hiring.
Several local organizations and re-entry programs focus on résumé building, interview skills, and job readiness, helping you navigate the unique obstacles that come with a history of incarceration. Employers in Baton Rouge are increasingly recognizing the value of second-chance hiring, offering positions in growing industries with room for advancement.
Taking advantage of local job fairs and connecting with workforce development services can help you secure employment and build a stable future. With the right support, re-entering the workforce is a path to new opportunities, financial independence, and community reintegration.
Read on to learn from our guest speakers Rebekah Brumfield, Steven Mannear, and Verna Bradley-Jackson.
Notes
Tia Fields: Good morning, everybody. And welcome to the One Rouge Friday. Happy homecoming week, all our Jags on the call, as well as we're kicking off early voting. So make sure that if you have the time between today and the 29th, that you stop at your polls to cast your vote. Casey, how you feeling today?
Casey Phillips: I'm feeling great today. And, we, I think that we can all say that, telling people to go vote doesn't necessarily like really do anything right? If you're a person that goes and votes, then you do. If you don't. And I actually participated in the dialogue on race conversation this week on the history of voting rights, and Maxine and them produced a really fascinating documentary that you can find on the Dialogue on Race Louisiana website that talks about the connection between Falken and Louisiana and Tuskegee in the 50s, in the voting rights movement, and it really then opened up into a conversation of how to give people space if they don't vote, give them space to tell you why they don't. And to really talk through it. And if you are someone who's well versed on local policy what's on the ballot, whether it's voting for the restructuring of the city government the Brec tax renewal, the candidates, however, you want to have the conversation encourage people that in your life, your family and your friends who don't traditionally vote, give them space to tell you why they don't and see if that conversation can then open up to more people getting to the polls through a dialogue versus trying to shame someone into doing something that a grown adult doesn't feel like they need to do. Yes, early voting happens. If anybody needs to park at the walls project, we are 2 blocks from city hall. You can come on, roll on through and be done with voting within minutes. And yeah, go democracy. Yeah, go democracy. Is that democracy thing? Yeah GEAUX democracy. All right.
Tia: I have something to say about the not pressuring people to vote, but I'm gonna leave it there. I'll save that for a lunch conversation. Good morning, everybody. And happy Friday. This morning, we're going to be diving into how we can sustain an ecosystem that is inclusive to people reentering into society. We have some of our old vets on the call and some new faces. So I'm going to allow a space and opportunity for them to introduce themselves and then we'll jump right into our conversation. I'm going to start with you, Rebekah. You have five minutes to introduce yourself to the listeners. Tell us who you are and what it is that you do.
Rebekah Brumfield: Okay thank you for the invite to be on this platform. Good morning. Everyone. My name is Rebekah Brumfield. I am the community outreach and program director for Justice and Accountability Center of Louisiana. We specialize in expungements, free entry, clean slates. We work a lot with formerly incarcerated the impacted solitary survivors of Louisiana. And I am here to just put as much information and awareness and create additional awareness that we can share with our partners about re entry and the work that JAC does here in the state of Louisiana, we do travel throughout the state. A lot of people think we are only in New Orleans, but we are throughout the state. We have specialists that will come. To your events and talk about the services that we provide, as well as connect with resources that are available for those that may have some challenges with housing if it's employment, if it's driver's licenses. And Justice and Accountability Center of Louisiana, and my name is Rebekah.
Tia: Thank you so much, Rebekah. Next, we're going to start go ahead with One Touch Ministries. You guys can rock, paper, scissors on who goes first.
Steve Mannear: Good morning, everybody. My name is Steve. I am the deputy director at One Touch Ministry. I've been with the organization for a little over a year. Before that, I knew absolutely nothing about re-entry. I practiced law in Baton Rouge for many decades. And this is my retirement. So I've been spending the last year trying to learn the services that we can provide our organization provides just about everything that you can think of in small doses to as many people as we can assistance with housing, of course driver's license, Medicaid applications transportation to interviews, transportation to medical appointments job placement, financial education. We've just run a big twic card program and helped a bunch of people get their twic cards. I've been spending a lot of my time learning and essentially doing what Mrs. Jackson tells me to do. That's about it.
Verna Bradley Jackson: Thank you, Steve, for that. I'm Verna Bradley Jackson. I've been in this re-entry space now. Coming up on November the 1st will be 28 years. It's a space that when I first started, didn't even know I was in re-entry space. I'm doing re-entry work, but end up finding out that's what I was doing. But the connections that we have built along this journey of 28 years has been. Overwhelming because one organization cannot do this work alone. So our partners are very important to us in helping people coming out of prison on our main thing that we do here. One Touch is housing. We try our best to find housing. If it's not found, one touches will find a placement for them. And the majority of our folks are that we that have a greater barrier in founding, finding housing. So that's one of the areas that we definitely work with. But we also know that everyone that's coming out. Not everyone. Some need more help than others. So we have to do a warm handoff. We don't like to do okay, call this number and go over there. So we do a warm handoff. And the relationships were built with probation and parole deal. See Christian outreach the Wilson Foundation has been a very important part, support in this work that we do. And One Rouge, you have, you guys have done something too for us. So we think you put us in a space where we can. We haven't been mixing and mingling with other organizations, but the space has been valuable to us. So that shows how the collaboration and importance in relationship building and knowing what other organizations have to offer and how we can help them and they can help us. In this space of re-entry, but it's very important, especially when you're grassrooting. We are a grassroot organization. I don't know how long we have to be a grassroot be in the space of grassroot. We hope to get out of the grassroot one day, but that's our ultimate goal. But with your help, we can go to the next level. We feel that we are on the next level here at One Touch Ministry. We're open for any questions. I also invited some folks from their re-entry. Space. So I see a lot of them on a good many of them on that. I have invited. So here we go. I'm ready.
Tia: Thank you. Since we have friends on those that you have invited, I would like for you guys to just hop off a mute and just tell the people, Hey, how you doing? So that we can know who you are and be in connection with one another.
Verna: Sounds good. Yes.
Dreese Reese: Good morning. I was just about to say, I don't know how I got to this call, but Ms. Verna did invite me to the call, but I'm happy to see Tia because Tia and I have recently met and connected and we share a common space. So thanks for the invite. My name is Dreese Reese. I am a Workforce Development Consultant for Louisiana Workforce Commission. Commission, and I work through the re-entry space. I am new to the actual space of re-entry in workforce. I've only been here three years. However, I've come from the space of corrections, working for Department of Corrections inside the prison for seven. So this work is very important to me. I am a criminal justice major, and the impact of this work is more so important for me seeing it firsthand. I am here to provoke change, do whatever we can do. Of course, we're a workforce. Our goal is that we put people to work. However, our hands are tied through. We owe a dollar. So we don't get to do a whole lot unless it's connected to education and training. However, any other way that we can point our clients to resources. We do. I traveled throughout the state and to all the state prisons and jails and we do have re-entry case managers strategically placed in Baton Rouge, New Orleans Caddo Parish St. Tammany and Alexandria. Lake Charles, excuse me. And we're getting ready at some point to put someone in Alexandria. Anywhere I can assist, I'm open and available. I am very familiar with JAC, Cherie Thomas, and the work that they do. They do great work. Ms. Vernon and them do great work. So I'm already connected with these people and looking to do whatever we can to continue to change lives. Thank you.
Tia: Thank you so much and so grateful to see you again. We have anybody else Ms Verna that you invited to the call that may want to speak?
Verna: I see my friend, Rhett's name.
Rhett Covington: Hey, Miss Verna. How y'all doing? I'm Rhett Covington the former assistant secretary for re entry, education and chaplaincy. The Department of Corrections have been a probation officer supervisor. Now, I'm deputy director of probation and parole over re entry and programs. I've been with the department over 30 years. Me and Ms Verna started way back in the day before re-entry was a thing, putting on job fairs and doing things in the Baton Rouge area. Been in the space a long time and just anxious to partner with whoever we can to move things forward.
Tia: Such a blessing to have you on the call, Rhett. So I'm just gonna start off. What is re-entry? Is I get detained for a few days and I'm available for, I'm able to come to you guys for services or do I have to have spent a certain period of time in prison? Can anybody explain what re-entry is and the difference between, if any?
Dreese: Rhett, why don't you tackle that?
Verna: I was gonna let him go and then I tag team behind him.
Rhett: Yeah, I just say from best practices across the nation across the world re-entry begins at arrest. For the Department of Corrections. It begins at conviction because that's when we gain custody of the person either on supervision of the community or incarceration. And our goal is to create A continuum, a plan, a case plan, identifying what the person's needs are and continue to walk with them doing annual, if not more frequent updates to those to that plan going forward. Ideally, the plan needs to include the person that you're working with, so that they have buy in and that they are able to modify the plan. We don't know their needs. They know their needs. Many times they don't know how to achieve those to satisfy those needs in a positive way. So that's where we come in to help them, but. Walking with them through that is, is critically important. It's with turnover and changing administrations and changing all of their priorities that happened throughout all the space, not only Department of corrections, but in our community. It's we're constantly trying to rebuild the sandcastle as the tide keeps washing over it. We just don't need to give up. We need to continue to push and grow this space that we didn't have these meetings like this years ago. So it's phenomenal that we have more and more people coming to the table to talk about it. But again, it's not, we don't want to limit re-entry. I don't want to limit re-entry to just those who've been incarcerated and returning to the community, right? We may want to focus on a small population because we're interested in fixing a gap or fixing a problem, but that does not mean we're redefining it or limiting that role.
Tia: Thank you for that. Verna, did you have anything else that you wanted to add on to what re-entry is and any. Any other input?
Verna: What I would say is when they come out of prison and from day one to today, 120 is their main struggle. I thought with them coming out because that's when the resources that they're definitely going to need even coming back to their families. Or if they don't, some of them say they don't have any families. You can get some of them young what I call younger, In the thirties, say we don't have any family connections anymore because maybe because of what they did or because the length of time they've stayed incarcerated they like disconnect from the family. So you have to build that bridge back to reconnect them to the family because they're still going to need some type of support outside of the re-entry organizations or the services that's provided in the community. So those are crucial days, for me, when I say that re-entry back into the community, back into society in order for them not to return. It's a higher percentage of returning within that window of time that I've found on this journey of re-entry. But working together and having these meetings like Rhett said, is so important and vital for them to continue on the successful journey to become productive citizens within the community and our neighborhoods.
Tia: Okay. I have another question that may be a two prong for everyone on the call and then directly to Rebekah. So the nature of someone's conviction or probation sentence based off their crime what is the complexity on getting them what services depending on what they were convicted for? Like simple burglary to SO.
Rebekah: In the work that JAC is doing with that it's a case by case. Everything is case by case at this point. I don't believe that there is a level of what we can work with as far as what's gonna take more precedent over the other. I do believe that it is based off of the length of time as well as some of the other contributing factors. When it comes to expungements we do get a lot of questions about people with multiple things on their records. And it's hard to say one over the other. Because we can only handle so much and sometimes in some cases, and then we have fees associated with that. So that's also been a big thing as well, is having people to understand that, there is a time limit on most cases, as well as the fees involved with doing your IFP applications and working through that process of working with an attorney to see what we can help and what may need a little bit more time or another avenue of resources to help.
Tia: Remind me to ask you what an IFP application is later down on the call. OneTouch Ministries, how do you guys assess the if any level of precedence on who receives what services when based off the type of conviction that they're coming out of?
Verna: It's unique for us because we don't look so much at, we look at their past, but we don't get stuck there because if we get stuck on their past, a lot of things we see in their past, we wouldn't want. We wouldn't want to fool with in a sense, if that makes sense by me saying it that way, but we look at the right now moment because if you're ready for change and ready to be successful, ready for society as best as you can, that's how we base it on. It's a long process. Application is 12 pages. Everybody say, why so many page? Why is it so long? But we also asked for a life story because you guess what? We're standing with that person saying, okay. If you're ready to do X, Y, Z to get yourself together to be back in society, we need to know as much about you as we can. And then they have the opportunity to ask the same thing about us as well, because they're going to be around us. And then, first of all, I'm going all in their houses and I'm not packing a gun, I'm not with a taser or anything like that, I'm in their house, in their space, and if anybody knows me I can yell at them, but they cannot yell at me, but it's not yelling at them to discourage them or anything, it's just sometimes you got to shake them back to reality, because the world is real, and the world sometimes is not friendly to a lot of circumstances situation. So I try to be real with them. They almost call me grandma, mom, all this kind of thing. But I'm letting them know that we're here for them, but they have to have skin in the game because I'm not going to use all my skin on them. They got to have skin in the game and participate in and do what they're supposed to do. Because if it's time for us to step away from we have to step away but we do it gradually to best of our ability in order to making sure that we do the best that we can in doing their And we're creating their case plan because it's almost customized because it's not a cookie cutter, I can't have all of them looking like a little tree and they're not because everybody is different. Everybody has different trauma, tragedies in life or their road of life has, it may seem like it's the same, but it's not the same. So everything is different. And they're getting younger and younger, everybody. And I just think when I get ready, if I have to go to Oakville, so I'm guessing case if I have to go there that the ones that's pushing me we took care of them to make sure they have what they need in order to take care of us. And as we move along, But yeah, I also want Trish to charm in a little bit on working with in this re-entry space or with the re-entry providers. If she's I didn't look and see if her name's there, but she's normally here. If she can, or even Jane, I put him on the spot.
Tia: I know. I'm trying to search and see if I see Tristee. Okay. She had everybody says she had to drop off. That's okay. There is. And I guess when I was asking that question, I love the fact that you say that you guys don't stay in their past. You focus on the present. And I'm thinking more so like when we're thinking. to where at a part where we're ready for job placement. If I had a history of financial crime abuse or something dealing with money, would it be best fitted for you to put me in a position where I'm handling someone's funds? And so I'm thinking about an overall approach as to when we learn the history of the individual we know some of the challenges they may have faced are we setting up systems to make sure that we don't put them in a position to be tempted in a certain behavior?
Verna: We do because that's what I guess Part of that, I guess I would answer it when we do look at that part of their criminal history and we will not put them in something that we know would be detrimental to them because that's almost okay somebody may do alcohol and drugs and then we put them in as a bartender. No, we wouldn't do that. So we definitely make sure that we do line up with, make it line up as what?
Steve: And let me jump in here and say that our particular niche of client. Because we deal with a lot of S. O. S. have barriers that no other folks coming out have because by state law where they can live is restricted. They can have a family that will welcome them home and care for them and support them and they can't move into their family's home. Because of proximity to a park or a school and then they're homeless and that's where we jump in. They can't work at a location that has proximity to a park or a school and other similar locations. They must report and register within three days of getting released. And that costs a lot of money because they have to do community notification and an awful lot of folks come out without those resources, without a place to stay, with no transportation. And sadly, both from the state and the federal system, we find folks coming out who don't even have an ID, a birth certificate, a social security card, and cannot prove who they are under any circumstances. And so we're starting often from the ground up with them.
Verna: But we are working when we do come in contact with one of those, we can reach out to probation and parole and they'll help us in that arena to make sure that we're getting the information that we need to better serve them as well. Because in DLC, there is, and Rhett, please correct me if I'm wrong. There is a opportunity for them to get those documents before exiting out of DLC.
Rhett: Yes, ma'am. I was going to also mention the fact that we have at any one time or another, we have had between 3 and 400 sex offenders who we call unsorts. They don't have enough. They don't have an approved residence plan, so they stay in prison until their full term date. Many of them serving 10, 15, 20 years extra when they could have been out on parole because they just don't have a place to go. And then when they are released, they're released full term dumped out on the street and they have no place to go. So they end up living in a tent under a bridge somewhere. So it's a tragic situation. There's, to my knowledge, there's very little data supporting the fact that this actually helps public safety. There's probably more data showing it. It actually harms it. Our own data from about 10 years ago shows that. Three quarters of all sex offenders who returned to incarceration do so because of failure to register, not because of a new sex crime. So we're talking about a tremendous issue, particularly when it comes to women who fall into this category, because there's almost nothing available for them across the state. As far as IDs, driver's licenses, social security cards, birth certificates Louisiana has about half our population housed in local jails. 80 percent of our annual releases come out of local jails because that's our lower risk, lower offense category, less time served population. And so we try to catch as many of those as possible. But we miss a lot of them because they don't end up at a regional re-entry center or the transition specialist, or we can't get enough identifying documents to support. The fact that this person should get a birth certificate or what have you, but we make every effort to get those. We keep them in a transition document envelope. We provide that to them upon release or send it to the district if we're unsure where they went so that we can make sure we track them down and get it to him. We also offer from probation and parole, we have an agreement with office of motor vehicles that if we somehow got out and they can't get an idea, they can come to our office, pick up a voucher, take it down there and get 1 for free. We pay for it. So there's, we try and make it as easy as possible for them to get those identifying documents because I know they can't get a place to stay and they can't get a job unless they got them. And again, if we don't close the loop by y'all giving me feedback. About what's working and what's not working. We can't fix it. We're going to have people that are going to fall through the cracks that's going to happen on any great system. But I need feedback on what y'all on what's working and what's not working. If there's a problem in a particular area, we can look at fixing it and shoring up the holes as I keep saying, we keep building the sandcastle with tide coming in.
Rebekah: And that's where JC is working towards making more or creating more initiatives in some of our local facilities to start the re entry program, 90 days, 120 days out 2 years, 3 years, depending on what. The sentence may be just looking at a timeline or creating a timeline to say, at this point, this is where we need to make sure you've already began some type of trade certification, some type of educational certification. And then once we're getting closer to time of release. Like you said, making sure you have documents such as being able to get an I. D. Do you have housing or, where are you going to be able to not find yourself re incarcerated? And so that's a lot of what the word JC is moving into with the re-entry space, because we want to have an earlier catch. We don't want to wait until release date to have formally impacted citizens trying to figure out where they're going. And like Ms. Verna said, a lot of them don't have family. They have nowhere to go. So then they're just out and about or there is spaces where they could have been released, but because there's nowhere for them to go, or there's no identification for them, they have to continue to stay incarcerated, unfortunately. And so with JC that's something that we are strongly working on with our Louisiana stop solitary coalition about re-entry, because a lot of our they've been in a similar situations where they just didn't have the family support or community support to be able to transition out and fulfill the requirements of their release.
Tia: I love the fact that Rick spoke about the data and Verna mentioned. The age is getting younger and younger. So it's one thing to service adults in a re-entry space, but what about our juvenile youth? How are we making sure that there are services in place for them and their family? While you guys were speaking, we had Ms Fallon Ward hop on the, hop in the chat. And I wanted to hold space for her to introduce herself and just talk a little bit about her work and how she is her organization is helping bridge that gap for juveniles reentering back into education systems and regular life. Miss Ward.
Fallon Ward: Good morning. Thank you for giving me a short time to introduce myself. My name is Fallon Buckner Ward. I am new to the community. I was invited by Morgan. So thank you very much. I've been on the call the last two weeks and I've just listen the first two. But let me tell you a little bit about what I am. The executive director of a new industry, film and production high school that's going to be launching in 2026 in the city of Baton Rouge. It's called Louisiana Academy of Production, and we are dedicated to creating a more inclusive pipeline for underrepresented minorities and film in the film and production industry. Our plan is to equip our students with the skills and opportunities they need to succeed in high wage behind the scenes roles. And our goal is to foster a diverse and thriving workforce in the Louisiana film industry. How does this connect to juveniles? I currently work with the 40th Judicial Court here in Saint John the Baptist Parish. We have a program called Respect is Just a Minimum. We work with at risk youth and families who are on that cusp of entering the penal system. And so I do have a person who works in the district attorney's office for juvenile justice and my conversations with her are can we identify those students who are on that edge right of they may have been arrested, they may have been in trouble, they may be on probation, but I'm attending a high school that is strictly project based learning. They can earn a high school diploma. They can earn film and production certification skills and go directly into the workforce if they choose graduate with a top tech high school diploma, or even graduate with a top university diploma. Our school is scheduled to launch in fall of 2026, we are a type two charter high school that was approved last week by the Louisiana Department of Education. So we have a core four curriculum along with four industry pathways. They deal with technical skills, meaning camera, lighting, grip and all this may be foreign to you guys. Craft and design, which is film makeup. The person who does makeup, set design, building design. There's also the business. If they decide that they want to be a movie maker, how do I finance that movie? I actually just went on a learning. I cut back yesterday, which is why I'm off camera because this is how I really do look. But right now I'm in my natural state. I just came back from New York city yesterday. There are four high schools three currently operating high schools in the country. One is Roybal Film and Television Magnet High School in Los Angeles, California. There is Motion Picture Technical High School in Queens, New York, which I visited yesterday. And there is Robert Halmy Junior's Senior High School. Film and television high school, which we also visited on Wednesday. We also visited Great Point Studios and Lionsgate, and we also visited NBC Universal. There is a need for black and brown, indigenous people of color and women in the film and production industry. I myself am a television news professional, but I'm also an educator, 15 years in education as well. So the industry needs those individuals. And so we're again, we're launching in 2026 is slow growth. It's going to be for ninth graders in a year one, and then we're going to add 10, 11th and 12th with each year. So right now our target audiences are those kids that are currently in seventh grade, and then we'll move up, but we're going to offer film and industry based boot camps. Our school is slated to be located on Celtic studios properties. That's seven studios, soundstage, just direct access to industry professionals and careers for the students. We partner with the entertainment industry foundation, which partners with people like George Clooney. They are really all pushed behind us. Now we're looking for a Louisiana celebs. It's going to get behind this too. But if 50 cent just built a soundstage and studio up in Shreveport, Louisiana. He also is filming at Great Point Studios in Yonkers, New York, which we got to tour yesterday. They were filming Raisin Cain’s and we were not allowed to bring our cameras in, but we got to see Lou's house. So again, these kids get this hands on experience. And we'd like to see that work in action. I'm going to pop my email address and our website address in the chat. I will come in table at any event. I'm like Kamala Harris on the campaign trail. I'm all about the look. I'm all about kids. If you hear them, my boys I was the only four. I worked in four television news stations from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to Lafayette and in Dallas, many of the time. With the exception of maybe my camera crew I was the only black female sitting at the desk behind the production table. I'm a writer and speaker by trade. And it's what I do. I do love kids. I got into the education space because my lovely, now, then, now, then three year old no, he's one, yeah, now, 17 year old used to come to the newsroom with me while I was producing the morning news and I was like, Oh, no, bro, we got to figure out something else. But anyway. I work with those kids who are on that cusp of all of good and evil. And so they're trying to decide, so I'm done there.
Tia: But there is a question in the chat and then I want to open up space for our connect with the workforce development. Would you say that the film industry is a re-entry friendly employer?
Fallon: Yes, I would. I would. I would say they are re-entry free of friendly employees, especially if they come through the schools, right? Because we are a public high school. And we cannot deny entry into our high school for those students. So again, it's almost like it's a second chance opportunity, right? And the best way. To keep students in. And I know there's a space for re-entry for adults, but the best way to maybe not have that space for re-entry for adults is through education and catching them while they're young.
Tia: Okay. Thank you so much for that. Ms. Ward. So as we're talking about re-entry in workforce and making sure that we are aware of the industries and spaces, not only the organizations that are providing the services, but the employers that are willing to accept a person who has a back. Whether it's a juvenile or adult, I do want to hold space for the Louisiana workforce to just talk a little bit about their programming and how that works with education and training. Drees, are you still on?
Dreese: Thank you. Yes, I am still here. Unfortunately let me start by saying fortunately, we get to hold space and try to promote education and training. However what I find is that when our clients leave. Incarceration when they get out while education and training is important. It is not the primary thing that they need. They're dealing with the barriers of trying to find housing, trying to find employment, trying to sustain housing and all of those things, which is just not plentiful for them. While employers will say that they are felon friendly, what we typically find is they're not as open to hiring our clients. And what the biggest thing is that what we have to understand is that they're concerned about the culture of their businesses. And with the way crime is set up basically, people are petrified, crime is at an all time high. So if you have violent tendencies, or if you have a violent background then I'm leery about hiring you at my business. Now, we do offer programs, we offer fidelity bonding, we offer work opportunity tax credits, which are things that are incentives for the employers, but we have little to show where they take advantage of that. I'm gonna yield my time and I'm gonna let Mr. Bell talk more because of course he does work in the space where he deals more so with employers. I run the spaces as it relates to participants and he's been on boots on the ground recently and tag teaming and talking with the different employers in the industry. Mr. Bell?
Flitcher Bell: Good morning, everyone. Flitcher Bell I work, Louisiana Workforce Commission. Yes, as stated, there are some employers and that is a big thing to you where a lot of the employers dependent on the nature of the crime. The more Nonviolent offenders more or less get a lot of more opportunity than, as Ms. Reese said, those with violent tendencies. But the problem, a lot of the problem has to do with we know coming home, a lot of people have not only the housing, but transportation is also a big issue, which limits the, Person from the opportunities that are out there. Some of the employees are open. However, they go on a case by case basis. A lot of them do not like to advertise or be out front because they don't want to be in you dated with people bombarding their. Jobs the system expected to get high. So it is a, it is some jobs out there and we're trying to, we're now trying to build a connection for different people. We now are also trying to work. We're trying to get people more training incarcerated as you have some of your state sinners, people who are serving state sentence and local jails where they're not receiving some of the trainings and some of the things to take advantage of. So it's a it's a complex problem that we're trying to deal with what we are at least talking about it and trying to organize and to see where we can help all people re-entry because that state of re-entry starts from the time of arrest. We have a lot of people who go to the local parish jails, and sometimes they may sit a year or two and the case be dismissed because lack of evidence and things that are dangerous. So they didn't go into the system, but they are still criminally impacted and they still do need services. We have some people come home. After serving time, and they may take the first job which may be a waiter or a busboy or anything, but after 2 or 3 years, you're tired of earning minimum wage and trying to move and trying to do better but because of the time they've been out, there's some services they are not qualified for, so it's a complex a myriad of problems and complexities. We're trying to look at it. We're trying to work together and get more people to the same table so we could talk about helping people from the time of arrest to getting back to employment.
Tia: Earlier it was mentioned about there are some incentives for employers to employ people who are formerly incarcerated or justice impacted. Can you tell me what fidelity bonding is? What is that?
Flitcher: Yeah. Fidelity bonded is a bond that we, the state force commissioned give to employers who are willing to take a chance that bond is free of cost to the employer and a bond covers any acts which any acts which may cause the employer's loss is a free and a based on, it's based on. The amount of wages and amount of loss, but it covers anywhere from 5 to 25, 000. And it's a 6 month bond because we figure within 6 months, whether somebody is going to be a good employee or not.
Tia: Does that mean that if the employee. Employee causes the employer some type of loss that will be like some type of insurance.
Flitcher: Yes. Yes. That's exact. That's exactly what it is. And she also mentioned the tax the work opportunity tax credits, which comes into play. Once you hire a person after 28 days, that person has been on your job. Then you get it. You, the employer, you get a tax credit.
Tia: Okay. And is there a certain process that a company or organization needs to go through in order to be eligible for either one of those incentives?
Flitcher: Yes, there is. It's a simple process. They'll just contact us and we'll we basically welcome to it. It takes less than 15 minutes to do, but it's they have to meet their qualifications for that. All I have to do is contact us and we will definitely get them involved. The company, has to be here in Louisiana. I've been in business for at least three years and paying into the unemployment insurance.
Tia: Thank you so much for that. I know earlier on, Verna had, Miss Verna had asked for Tracy to speak to power on organizations and re entry. Tracy, are you able to come off of you and just speak a little bit?
Tristi Charpentier: Hey, everyone good to see you this morning. Tristi from the Wilson Foundation. I apologize that I was not on when Verna called on me earlier. I got a phone call and had to drop off the call. And y'all, if you have Teams and Zoom, like it tried to add the call to the Zoom and I was like, oh my God, no, we can't do that. So anyway like I said, good to be with y'all this morning. I don't know exactly what you were thinking I was going to add about nonprofits working in re-entry. But what I wanted to share is the power of a story. Some people come to Wilson and they see that we fund, healthcare and education and human services, and then they see prison re-entry. And they're like, Why prison re-entry? And so back in 2006, seven, eight, somewhere up in there Mr. Wilson had gone to a church service one evening and there was a guest speaker and the man was formerly incarcerated. And he talked about his experience while he had been incarcerated and how he came home. Wanted to turn his life around, wanted to do things, wanted to get stable housing, wanted to get employment, wanted to do all those things. And there were just so many barriers in his way. People had opinions about the fact that he had been incarcerated. He had that flag when he tried to get a job. And it was just really hard for him to be the person he wanted to be now. And the story affected Mr. Wilson so much that he literally came into the office the next day and said, We need to edit the trust. We need to add prison re-entry. This is really important for our people to be self sufficient and sustainable. And so I want you to think about that when you think about your work and the power of 1 story, and you never know who you're sharing the story with. That's going to change everything. We have funded since that time. Gosh, probably 6,000,000 dollars in grants to nonprofits working in this space. We know that there are multiple challenges. So we've all talked about housing and employment on here. There's also health care. There's the health care that folks receive while they're incarcerated, and then they come home, but there's not a connection to another provider. And so they start losing those health care options. Sometimes they run out of their medications and then have to try to find a pharmacy have to find, it spirals folks who have co occurring mental health and substance abuse challenges. They have lost contact with family and friends, people who were positive influences in their life. How do they rebuild those relationships? And so there's all of these pieces. And what we like to remind folks is you can't be all things to all people. Different organizations are strong in different ways, but then you all have to work together collaboratively to help this person receive all of the wraparound services that they need. We also fund collaborations and partnerships between organizations. The Criminal Justice Coordinating Council here in Baton Rouge is now housing Capri the capital area prisoner re-entry initiative and trying to do those work groups around these topic areas. If you maybe are not already working with returning citizens, but you're working in employment, and you want to learn about that piece, you can join that employment work group. There's a housing work group. There's a health care work group. There's plenty of work to go around and we'd love to have your brilliant minds at the table with us. And then lastly, the other piece we know is that direct service in many cases is a band aid when we really need surgery. To fix some of the systemic inequities and the systemic policy decisions that challenge our folks. And so we also do some work around systems change, helping nonprofits advocate for the needs of the formerly incarcerated. When they come back to the community, nonprofits can advocate. Period.
Tia: But I'm so glad that you brought up the word of advocacy because that was going to be my next question on not only as organizers and organizations, how do we advocate for those reentering into society, but how is it that we are providing space and opportunity for them to advocate for themselves? And the first thing that came to my mind was the ban the box initiative that was passed. And I'm just curious to see on all those who are on the call. Are there spaces created where those who are in re entry are getting the tools that they need to advocate for themselves?
Tristi: I would let the others folks speak as well, but I will say a couple of spaces would be vote voters organized to educate was founded by formerly incarcerated people. They're doing a lot of work around advocacy. They were a big part of the Louisiana's for prison alternatives way back when we did justice reinvestment the blue shirt people as they're known at the Capitol. And then I would also say that advocacy is a piece of what they do at the parole project as well. And when they bring their folks in, helping them to understand, and then advocate for those who are coming behind them, but I feel like that is really the ethos of a lot of re-entry organizations. Folks who have come out, who have been successful now want to reach back and help those who are coming behind them.
Tia: Thank you so much for that. Rebekah, I know that most people only know JAC for expungements, but you guys do have a role in advocacy. Can you speak to that a little bit?
Rebekah: Sure. We actually have our impacted solitary survivors. Where they are the leaders, or they're taking lead over the Louisiana Stop Solitary Coalition. These are formerly impacted solitary survivors that we have trained or have begun the training for. Leadership roles to do community advocacy. It's always best in first person point of view. And having these leaders that were formerly impacted, they're able to speak from a firsthand case. They know, the struggles, they know what is needed after release and so from there, they're able to help path make a pathway of, why we need to eradicate solitary confinement. Why is necessary to begin the re entry process before release even for myself learning as I got to this space, learning more about impacted survivors, I didn't realize that there was very little time from release to getting back into your family, getting back to your community. I was under the impression. It was like the military where you had a period of debriefing where you got your paperwork together. You were able to get with LWC and do some job searching and things like that. And I think you know, in conversation, they were like, no it's your time. It's your day. You go. That's that. And so from there, we just really started to get on the ball of getting more awareness going with the advocacy work that we're doing, making sure that we are working on what we're going to present in the next legislative session. And also training others to be able to be allies and share the news, the work, the awareness of what we're doing and why it's important to make sure that there are strong support teams and strong support communities for the People that are getting back into the workforce to just community. And I say community, meaning just the getting back to life after being incarcerated. And in addition to that, we are hosting a leadership retreat in New Orleans November 15th through the 18th. So if anyone's interested in coming out and participating with JC on that, I will put some, I'll put my information in the chat. I hope that answers your question.
Tia: I'm sorry I couldn't get off from you. Thank you so much. It did. And as we're pushing up on time I did before we hop into community announcements for this weekend I just also want to ask if you guys can leave one or two things for us to take with us as we move forward in this work and making sure that we create an inclusive and sustainable ecosystem for those re entering So if you got a word of wisdom piece of advice favorite quote now is the time.
Steve: I'd like to pick up on Tristi's metaphor about band aids and surgery. One of the things that requires some surgery are all of the Louisiana statutes embedded, which bar convicted felons from getting a license to practice barbering, cosmetology, plumbing, you name it, pretty much they can't do it. Now, it really doesn't make much sense for these prohibitions to exist. But as a 501c3, we can't go and lobby or pick a particular issue to support. We can educate, but those rules need to be changed. Not only do they keep people from getting a job with some employer, but they keep the entrepreneur who comes out from creating their own business in these fields. And those things really need some attention.
Rhett: Just to correct you on one thing, the barbering, you're correct, cosmetology, they've been extremely helpful. They've actually donated supplies that help us create two locations and have agreed to license everyone that graduates. We have them for our ladies and 2 facilities, and it continues to expand, but you're right about that. It's crazy that they can be a cosmetologist, but not a barber.
Flitcher: Interesting if I can, I just want to take time just to say, I want to re-entry realm. We know that it's going to take the whole wraparound services type to get the. The problem. I think groups like Tristi and the Wilson Foundation for helping to look, dig into the problem deeper hill more. And I was having a conversation a couple of months ago and he said, Fletcher, how's it going? re-entry? I said, we'll be going better. So many people are being arrested. But so we got to get to the nature of why people are being arrested. We got to get to and fix why people are being arrested, why people are coming to craft, why people are doing certain things that tried to at that level, but why they are incarcerated. I want to thank people like Rhett and his group for being open and to helping and to trying to get people trained and educated and there's some other educational and also trade skills. We're going to try to get into the system to help people to be gainfully employed to where they can have a where they can make a sustainable living and things of that nature. Just thank everybody for being here. Thank everybody for working. And as I tell people all the time, when people come home, they're going to affect your tax base. Either they're going to go on government service and take away from your tax base, or they gonna get a job and be able to pay taxes and contribute to the tax base. It's all up to us and how we make it.
Verna: I would just like to share also to thank One Rouge for the opportunity to even just talk about re-entry. That's, great moving forward. And thank you so much for that. And also thank the Wilson foundation. They have taking One Touch if I just shout and give one touch. We've been just a little tiny little dot on the wall for so many years, but they have helped us to do different things. And what I mean by for me personally, I was just a little box and I didn't want to open up that box or that window. Because I don't like anybody to say all kinds of things, but anyway, but the Wilson Foundation has taken one help one touch go from the ground level to we still in the grassroot now, but ground level to steps that has impacted. The well being of One Touch minister to continue to sustain through this journey and also the many folks that is actually touch because now in the office, we have people that have been in the system has been incorporated for years. 20 years, eight years, those types of things, but they're helping us to build better relationship with people coming out to make sure that we are making sure that they get what they need and they can better understand because they have seen where They have been, they have walked that walk and some of us haven't walked that walk. So it's a better input and a better blend of helping people. And DOC has been with me as well. Relationships with different organizations and agencies are so important. Workforce development as, as well has been a vital part of the journey for re-entry and for one touch. And I can just pick up the phone and call if I have a question that don't even say it's a dumb question. They just take that time and time in this space to help somebody makes a difference because you're helping families, somebody build their family continue to live successfully. And I think y'all offer this opportunity and thank you for your work and your time and your dedication and commitment to the work. Bless you.
Tristi: I feel like I have to respond and say, thank you, Ms Verna. We appreciate you and the work that all of our partners do. It's not about us. It's about you and the people you are serving and the work that you are doing. And I don't know if anyone saw the image that Reverend Anderson put into the chat, but if you didn't know, Louisiana incarcerates more people than anywhere else on the planet. Now, what that means, though, is that everyone in this state knows someone. Who has been incarcerated. There is no way that you don't know or have a relative or your black sheep uncle that hasn't been incarcerated. So you've been impacted and your family has been impacted and I think we have to start talking about that more. So there's that piece of it and there was something else, but I've already forgotten and I know we're getting on time and I know it wasn't a speaker. So I'm going to stop right now.
Verna: Second Chance Month is coming up in April 2025, so we can talk more. Okay.
Tia: Let's do something. Let's put together something. Let's put together a big Second Chance month awareness celebration. Okay. Very good.
Dreese: I see Miss Anderson's hand. I'm not sure, but I just wanted to say thank you for the opportunity to be on the call today. If there is any information or anything that I can help or be of assistance by all means, I'm going to put my email information and my phone number in the chat Tia, me and you we got a lot going on. We need to tackle a whole bunch of work, but reach out to me. Let's definitely finish and continue the conversation so we can get it done. Thank you.
Tia: Thank you. Reverend Anderson.
Reverend Anderson: Good morning to you. First of all excellent conversation and I would be remiss if I didn't point something out as interesting as this conversation was today is the first day of early voting and nothing is going to change until we start voting in people who actually care about addressing the issues. The reason that is such a big deal when it comes to re-entry is because as several of the speakers mentioned, they can do all the best programs in the world. And the legislature in one slide at hand can add new barriers, increase charges, take away parole, add additional easy ways for children to be expelled from school. So all the good work that these folk are doing can be eliminated. And I just couldn't leave this conversation without stressing that we've got to force all of our policy makers to address this issue at every level, whether it's the school board or at the presidential level, it matters. And the second thing is, Louisiana only had 17 percent of its registered voters vote last year in a gubernatorial election. Nothing's going to change until we actually get out and vote. And again, I wanted to thank all the speakers that spoke. I thought it was wonderful, but the reality is, it's the thing we do between now and November 5th. That's really going to move the need on re entry, and I just wanted to add that.
Tia: Thank you so much, Rev. I appreciate you. So now is the time for anyone who would like to drop their flyers or come off of mute to share their weekend events. I know it's as Reverend stated, today is the first day of early voting from today until October the 29th. And then we also have Southern's Homecoming, so if you guys have anything community wise you want to share, please feel free to do so now.
Marcela Hernandez: Hi, good morning, everyone. My name is Marcela Hernandez. I'm with LORI. And I wanted to remind you guys that we do citizenship classes for free. And also our ESL classes will start on October the 29th. They're also for free, both classes, ESL and citizenship. We offer them virtually, hybrid, and in person. So if you know anyone who is trying to learn English or Going through the citizenship process, please send them our way. I also wanted to let you know that we are currently seeking out volunteers to come and do canvassing and phone banking. We are very intentional with the work that we're doing in terms of elections. If you feel like coming and spending two hours with us doing that phone banking, please reach out to us as well. We would greatly appreciate it. And then also I wanted to let you know that on November the 8th from 7 to 11 p. m. We're going to be congregating celebrating the lives of our community. We're going to be doing an event for cancer awareness. This event is going to be really to address health, healthcare disparities among our community and survivor stories. And we are actually trying to do fundraising for this event. If you would like to come and participate, we are charging 50 per person or 400 per a table of eight people. So if you or your organization would like to support this, we would greatly appreciate it. We're trying, we will find we will allocate the funds for some of our community members who are not eligible for healthcare insurance or that are going through financial distress. So this is a very important event and we would really appreciate if you come and join us. Once again, this is going to be on November the 8th from 7 to 11 and I will share the flyer once I have it. Last but not least guys, you got to put on your calendar, December the 20th, we're going to be doing our Thank You Banquet This is a way that we say thank you to our partners. So I know we're two months in advance, but I'm making sure that I'm saying this before so you guys can put it on your calendar. Other than that, I hope that you guys have a wonderful day. Thank you so much.
Tia: Thank you so much, Marcela. Just a few updates for me tonight. There is Live After Five downtown, there is 11 amp live music series at the Scotlandville Plaza Park as well as the junior league of Baton Rouge. Holiday shopping experience at the Raisin Canes River Center. So if you're looking to engage in community and be a part of community please take free and all the fun things that are going on this weekend. Happy Friday. Happy One Rouge. And please go vote. We will see you guys next week.
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