Review of Managing a Job Retention Program for Ex-Offenders

by Philip Lorish, FASTEN Staff, 2005

Author T.A. Ryan has been active in researching various facets of the criminal justice system for over 35 years. The basic premise of his short but dense Managing a Job Retention Program for Ex-Offenders is that there is a direct correlation between employment and recidivism in ex-offenders.  Written for experienced practitioners who are evaluating or creating employment programs for ex-offenders, this book asserts that if you are concerned about keeping ex-offenders out of jail, you must have a program committed to helping them find (and more importantly, keep) gainful employment.  Most simply put, Ryan argues that the great deal of energy given to helping ex-offenders get a job is of little importance if that person does not have the skills necessary to keep a job.  The Executive Director of the American Corrections Association makes it clear in the foreword that, “anyone who has seen offenders return to imprisonment because they were unable to hold a meaningful job will find some suggestions and strategies to stop this wasteful loss of human potential.”

The book is divided into four chapters.  The first chapter aims at helping practitioners understand the need (economic and otherwise) for effective employment retention programming.  Before providing a model for an effective job-retention program, Ryan first attempts to demonstrate the need for such a program.  Ryan describes the problem of recidivism as affecting four facets of society:

• the cost to correctional systems and the citizenry;
• the size of the offender population;
• the number of ex-offenders in correctional populations; and 
• the impact of unemployment on ex-offender crime.

In discussing the cost of correctional to correctional systems, Ryan makes the simple point that reducing recidivism is within the economic interests of both policy-makers and taxpayers.  Reemphasizing the research around the rising costs of the correctional system, Ryan states, “At the beginning of the 1990s for the first time in the nation’s history, state and local governments were spending more on criminal justice than on education.”  This rise in cost is related directly to growing numbers of citizens who are entering the criminal justice system.  According to research conducted throughout the 1990s, Ryan asserts, “From year end 1990 to midyear 1999, the rate of incarceration increased from 1 in every 218 residents to 1 in every 147.  While the raw numbers of individuals being served by correctional facilities has been steadily rising, all the current research indicates that a growing percentage of those who are incarcerated are not in prison for the first time.  On this point Ryan declares, “Recidivism research in the United States and Canada have provided incontrovertible evidence in the form of re-arrest, reconviction, and reincarceration rates that clearly show released offenders are not leading crime-free lives as members of society.” 

After demonstrating these things, Ryan then makes the connection between recidivism rates (and the implicit costs ensued) and the job retention programming available for ex-offenders.  In seeking to answer the question of what sorts of programs are available to support ex-offenders in their employment, Ryan makes four observations. First, that “programs to achieve job retention for ex-offenders are few in number.” Second, that existing programs addressed internal variables only (i.e., pre-release issues), external variables only (i.e., post-release issues), or combined internal/external variables, with achievement of job-retention goal almost entirely from combined internal and external variables. Third, that linkage between programs addressing only internal variables and programs addressing external variables was lacking. Fourth, that “information to aid planning and implementing programs to achieve job retention was lacking.” These four facts are the basis for Ryan’s own model of an effective program to support ex-offenders in job retention. He develops his model in chapters 2 and 3. 

Leaning heavily on the example of the Safer Foundation in Chicago, Ryan posits the key facets of effective program planning in his own model program.  The Safer Foundation is a Chicago-based program that comes alongside prisoners while they are still incarcerated and begins to offer them various services related to job retention, including job preparation, job placement, and job-retention support.  Upon release, the Safer Foundation provides a number of services that are intended to help ease the process of transition into the outside world.  The primary facet of the Safer Foundation’s approach that Ryan commends is its “Sheridan Program.”  This initiative is based on the idea that drug abuse is both the main cause of job loss and recidivism.  Throughout the work, Ryan uses the manner in which the Sheridan Program was created to highlight the importance of strategic planning for practitioners.  The necessary steps to create an effective program are:

• Justifying the need for the Plan; 
• Stating your Assumptions;
• Assessing Needs;
• Analyzing the Real Life Situation;
• Determining/Prioritizing Needs;
• Defining the Goal and Objectives (Ends);
• Describing the Means to Achieving Objectives.

While the details of any given program plan will differ depending on the population served and the capacity of a given organization, the advice Ryan gives seems to be of great value for those hoping to provide holistic services to ex-offenders.  Chapter 3 is aimed at assessing the feasibility and actuality of a given program for ex-offenders.  While the second chapter provides a framework for program creation, the third offer guidance for program implementation.  Topics covered in this chapter include designing organizational structure, making staffing decisions, determining what services to provide at what points, linking time between pre and post release, and establishing a time schedule for your program.

The final chapter of Managing a Job Retention Program for Ex-Offenders offers concluding remarks and highlights the need for more thought/research on this topic.  As Ryan readily admits, “at the very basis of the problem is the fact that job retention is a nebulous concept.”  This chapter serves to conclude the discussion of best practices for program creation and implementation and exposes a few gaps in the research of job retention.

As mentioned above, this resource is best utilized by those organizations with experience working with ex-offenders and professional sophistication in thinking through program design, that desire to establish a successful job placement/retention program for ex-offenders. The book is thorough and technical in orientation, directed to a fairly sophisticated and veteran practitioner audience. Ryan is convinced that a reduction in recidivism rates could be the byproduct of more and better programming in the sphere of job retention. Her analysis offers significant guidance to all who share her interest in reducing the amount of “wasteful loss of human potential” by reducing recidivism rates.