Construction provides post-prison jobs

If we’re going to solve the problem of crime, somebody has to offer alternatives so felons have a chance to do something better with their lives.

While the Legislature is debating issues like pretrial detention and sentencing, promising developments are happening out of the public spotlight: training with a real potential for jobs.

A prison record makes it hard for an inmate to live a crime-free life after the sentence is over, for a simple and obvious reason: Who wants to hire someone with a criminal past?

New Mexico took a positive step in 2019, passing a law called Ban the Box. Several other states have done the same. The law says if you are an employer who is hiring, you may not ask on an initial application form whether the applicant has a criminal history. Only after you have gotten past that first step and are considering the applicant may you ask. The objective is to force employers to look at every applicant’s qualifications before making an automatic decision to rule out any former inmate.

But Ban the Box is not helpful for jobs where felons will be ruled out at the next step because they would create too much risk for the employer. Former felons will likely be excluded from any job that involves government security, children, schools, going into people’s homes, handling money and so on.

There is a category where none of these concerns apply. That category is wide open for new employees right now in New Mexico.

Construction.

According to Courtenay Eichhorst, business manager of the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 412, his union is looking to recruit trainees everywhere, including the corrections system. Large-scale construction is booming throughout New Mexico, he said, and labor organizations can barely keep up with providing trained, skilled workers – including inmates near release who qualify.

Construction work is a good match for inmates about to leave prison, hoping to get a fresh start and in need of a job.

Los Alamos National Laboratory will need 1,500 new construction workers next year, Eichhorst said. Sandia National Laboratories will need 500. Facebook, Amazon, and the movie industry are all building here.

Eichhorst’s union has an “apprenticeship readiness” training program which, he said, is going into corrections facilities around the state. The program takes 120 hours and can be done online while still incarcerated. Trainees who have graduated can earn $19 an hour to start.

The union is constructing a 14,000-square-foot training center and will be bringing in 125 new apprentices every year. They are training women who are former inmates through the nonprofit program Barrett House.

They’re not alone. According to Carmelina Hart, Corrections Department public relations manager, the department has purchased curriculum from the National Center of Construction Education and Research, leading to certification in commercial or residential electrical wiring, building trades and heavy equipment, plus programs in heating and air conditioning, fiber optics and other skills. The programs are scattered throughout the department’s facilities.

The numbers of inmates enrolled in these programs are small. What makes this noteworthy is that there are real jobs available when the inmates complete the training and qualify for release.

A legislative report in FY20 showed recidivism rates at a shocking 57% – meaning 57% of released inmates offended again. The latest number for New Mexico from World Population Review is 49.1%, still unacceptable. Those numbers tell us that if our prison system is supposed to provide rehabilitation, it’s not doing the job – though the disruption of the pandemic and severe staff shortages surely contributed to the problem.

These training programs linked with job opportunities create a new reason to hope for better results.

Contact Merilee Dannemann throughwww.triplespacedagain.com.