When it comes to our prison system, we need to push toward rehabilitation, not reincarceration. The lack of employment opportunities for ex-convicts raises a question that Colorado Attorney Phil Weiser seeks to address with a $1.1million initiative with the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) and other community organizations.
When it comes to our prison system, we need to push toward rehabilitation, not reincarceration. The lack of employment opportunities for ex-convicts raises a question that Colorado Attorney Phil Weiser seeks to address with a $1.1million initiative with the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) and other community organizations. After all, if the true goal of our prison system is justice and rehabilitation, why are we seeing such high rates of reincarceration?
Colorado's rate of recidivism, or the tendency for a formerly incarcerated individual to re-offend, has reached an alarming level of nearly half of all released offenders. Formerly incarcerated individuals face a variety of obstacles that make finding a job extremely difficult, which ultimately keeps them in a cycle of poverty and homelessness. Without making money, these individuals are left with very few options and often end up back behind bars.
So, with hopes of providing a more promising future for deserving ex-convicts, the Colorado initiative will invest financial resources to "expand the impact of proven and promising reentry service providers," develop a network of employers willing to hire former prisoners, and expand community organizations that work with ex-convicts to improve their job skills, find stable housing, and assist them with mental health support. Cory Miskell, the director of Colorado's Latino Coalition for Community Leadership, announces their involvement in Colorado's initiative with a moving statement:
"We hope to create a workplace where you can showcase your full story. One in which self-doubt, abuse, unemployment, and addiction are not the end of the story but only part of the telling. A story not of a single issue or regrettable circumstance, but one of the complex and dynamic intersection of restoration, purpose and triumph."
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