Thread by @jessicamckellar

A Twitter summary of my Foo Camp lightning talk “Mass decarceration: if you don’t hire people with felony convictions, who will?”:

It was a 5-minute talk, so no time to review why the system needs to be dismantled beyond: it is racist, causes huge amounts of trauma, does a bad job of preventing violence, and prioritizes punishment over healing and restitution for people who have been harmed.

I hear (from tech people in particular) all the time: “I know our prison system is broken. I want to do something about it. But I’m just a programmer, not a lawyer or politician. What am I supposed to do?"

It's time to get over that mindset. Don't pretend you are that helpless.

We can’t cover all of the ways that each of us can engage with and dismantle this system in 5 minutes, so we’re going to focus on one: employment.

We need to hire people with records.

Especially felonies, and especially felonies for violent crimes, which is the majority of people in prison. If you support large-scale prison reform and decarceration, by the numbers you have to support this.

Concrete actions to take:

1. Background checks.

Does your company conduct background checks? What does it do with the results? Do you disqualify people with felony convictions? Find out the answers to these questions and organize to make sure felony convictions don’t automatically disqualify candidates.

2. Entry-level roles.

People with records may have resumes that look different from the candidate pools on which you typically focus, and their academic and professional careers have been affected by serving time.

If you are blanket disqualifying people based on needing a degree or specific GPA, attendance at specific colleges, or experience with specific prior employers, you are throwing away resumes from qualified candidates, including candidates coming out of prison.

We need to take a hard look at what the true requirements are for our entry-level roles. Does every entry-level person on your customer support, sales, or recruiting team actually need a 3.8 GPA or higher from a top-tier university plus a Facebook internship?

No. They need to be reliable, sharp problem solvers with good communication skills, and we in turn need to have training and mentorship programs that support entry-level employees in their on-the-job skill development.

3. Active outreach.

If you want to hire people with records, you need to spend time with people with records who are looking for jobs. I recommend volunteering with job training and re-entry programs, inside or outside of prisons.

That’s a great way to meet and build relationships with currently or formerly incarcerated people who have the interest and the skills your company needs.

Do an internet search for re-entry programs in your city or nearby prisons. You will find academic classes, resume building workshops, interview practice, tech literacy training. These programs are trying to get people out and into good jobs, and they need volunteers like you.

If you are currently employed, will you do these 3 things with me? If you aren't, volunteer in a prison or re-entry program anyway—good things will happen.