WOULD YOU
EMPLOY AN
EX-OFFENDER?
Last month I was asked by the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce to take part in a Task Force Workshop for International Women’s Day at Gorton Monastery.
I was greeted by a room full of about 40 fellow women. The average age of the women was 25.6 with most ladies in their twenties, four in their thirties, 2 in their forties, and five under twenty. There was a diverse representation of delegates.
This was broken this down into the following groups that they associate themselves with:
• BME 20% • Disability 11% • Lone Parents 14% • Ex-Offenders 17% •LGBT
6%
In terms of employment:
35% currently in employment 32% currently not in employment 6% still in education 6% have gained employment recently
The rest are unknown at this stage
After providing the ladies with an overview of my role as Managing Director of my own businesses, and telling my story as to how I had got there, we then spoke with the delegates to find out what they aspired to and current barriers they felt they faced.
I was overwhelmed with a feeling of gratitude as I listened to stories and learnt of barriers that I myself have been fortunate to not have encountered. For example, drug abuse, lack of qualifications and criminal records. One story in particular, struck a chord as two very animated and ambitious sisters explained their journey as ex-offenders.
The sisters were sentenced to eight years in jail, for conspiring to import and supply cocaine. It was their first offence, they were aged 19 and 18, and came from a respectable family. They were not drug users. They openly admit that their crime was motivated by greed, but say in mitigation that they were seduced by the apparent lifestyle of the ‘successful’ role models of their area - the drug dealers.
The sisters spent the first two years of their sentence in London’s Holloway prison and witnessed scenes that aged them far beyond their years: women ‘cutting up’ on a daily basis; women having their babies taken from them; a friend who hanged herself and was brain dead for months before her life-support machine was switched off; and, of course, the drug-taking and bullying.
Shocked by what they saw, the sisters wanted “to show people the real consequences of crime”. They gained qualifications in English, Maths and Business Studies. And after their release in 2007, they embarked on their mission. Over the next 18 months, they worked with three organisations, all either funded by the government or involved with government agencies.
However, the sisters say the experience did little for their own rehabilitation. Their work, with vulnerable women and children and discharged prisoners, was unpaid, but they were promised places on the payroll, only to see staff with no criminal records constantly jumping over them in the promotion queue. Worse still, they say they were made to feel ‘different’ from the ‘clean’ staff. They say the organisations treated them as token ex- offenders, ticking the right boxes.
Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. The sisters are now involved with the Reclaim Project at Urbis exhibition centre in Manchester, which reaches out to young people through an intensive mentoring programme.
Even more interesting were the comments from the other ladies which expressed the view that it is even more difficult for female ex-offenders than male - that employers judge female ex-offenders in a much harsher way.
As I became gripped by their stories and even more impressed with their honesty and ability to engage the crowd, I couldn’t
help but wonder “would I employ an ex-offender”?
WorkLife would like to thank GMCC, all of the ladies that attended the workshop and all of the organisations that helped make it happen.
WORK - 13
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