NEWS

January 17, 2008
Hansen: Judge urges firms to employ ex-prisoners

Like most federal judges, Robert Pratt doesn't do many public service announcements. In fact, before Wednesday, he hadn't done any.

But he was eager to do this one. It's a television spot asking companies to participate in the I-80 Re-entry Job Expo on Feb. 28 at the Polk County Convention Complex.

From his bench in Des Moines, Pratt sees the numbers. He watches the new prisons sprout up around the state like Kum & Go shops.

Some quick facts from the Iowa Department of Corrections: Almost 9,000 prisoners are now in the system; almost 3,000 more are expected by 2016.

Then there's the cost -- $30,000 to house one inmate for one year in a federal penitentiary. More than room, board and tuition at a state college.

In comparison, the cost of a year's supervision by a probation officer comes in around $3,500.

Pratt believes a lot more of those inmates should be out on probation, working jobs. When he was in private practice, he said, he hired ex-offenders and never had a problem.

Another liberal judge who's soft on crime? Mitt Romney might say yes, but this judge makes a strong argument.

American prisons hold almost 2.2 million inmates, or 25 percent of the people incarcerated around the world.

When it was time to tape, Pratt looked into the camera and said he has it straight from the companies. Ex-offenders "can and do make excellent employees." Jobs give them the emotional and financial support they need.

In closing, he said employers interested in participating in the job fair could call (515) 281-9624. The script also said something about tax credits and free security bonding to reduce employers' risks, but he left it out.

That wasn't the main point of his message. The main point was how everyone is better off when people fresh out of prison find work.

"There's so much to be gained," Pratt said later, when the camera was off. "Making them employees is the key. They really do get their lives back."

A woman who works with prisoners recently told me that an employer looking for employees could do much worse than hire someone who committed second-degree murder.

OK, that isn't exactly what she said. She said most people miscalculate the risk. She personally has had good luck with second-degree murderers.

Unlike first-degree murder, second-degree happens quickly, spontaneously and without forethought. Although it's a terrible thing, it's usually a one-time thing.

The woman said she isn't alone. Probation officers and other corrections officials have had good luck with prisoners of any kind who stay off drugs and find jobs.

Almost everyone in the business agrees: We can't keep building more prisons and warehousing more prisoners.

Mike Elbert, the chief U.S. probation officer in Iowa's southern district, is just as excited about the job fair as Pratt.

He's done the research. Unemployed former prisoners are five times more likely to return to prison.

After a period of supervision, offenders who stay away from drugs and hold down jobs do not present "an undue risk to society."

Budgets are shrinking, caseloads are growing. Something has to give, which is why Pratt had no trouble donning his robe, clearing his desk and telling a video camera why it's so important for companies to hire these men and women.

He probably wasn't used to visitors fiddling with his window blinds and moving his gavel to a more prominent position in his chambers, but he didn't let it show.

He barely blinked when somebody accidentally knocked a photo of Franklin Roosevelt off a window ledge, cracking the glass in the picture frame.

When the visitors apologized and promised to replace the glass, Pratt waved it off with a joke. Not to worry. FDR has seen worse.

Then somebody handed Pratt a script and he delivered the understatement of the week: "It's hard to compress this idea into 30 seconds."

But he did, without using the script. Or the gavel.

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