Please join us for the Grand Opening of our Dads Back! Academy, fatherhood services for re-entry fathers (and mothers) who are parents (or like parents) to a child under the age of 24. The event will take place on Friday, September 30, 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM (program at 11:15 A.M.), at 9702 Holmes Avenue, Los Angeles, 90002, at the Tree of Life Missionary Baptist Church.
Don’t forget to visit our website at www.friendsoutsidela.org where you can sign-up to receive future email alerts.
More than 5 million children in the U.S. have had a parent who lived with them go to jail or prison. That’s one in 28 kids, compared with one in 125 about 30 years ago. This proportion is higher among black, poor, and rural children and is more than likely an underestimate since it does not include children with a non-residential parent who is incarcerated. The majority of parents incarcerated are fathers, with 1.1 million serving time in 2010. Read the full report at First5la.org.
In case our followers are wondering what a “Risson,” is (see our last newsletter) . . . some of the letters on my computer keyboard are no longer visible. Hence, I typed “Risson” instead of “Ribbon.” And, the typo made it through our proofreading “department.” The headline should have read “Weaver Appointed to Blue Ribbon Committee by Mayor Garcetti.” Mea culpa.
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We are thrilled to learn that our partnership with the South Bay Workforce Investment Board and New Opportunities Charter School was just funded as one of 20 grants in the country that will receive funds to start a “One-Stop” employment center inside Los Angeles County Jails. According to its website, the U.S. Department of Labor explains the program in this way:
WASHINGTON — More than 9 million people are released from the nation’s more than 3,000 county and local jails every year, the U.S. Department of Justice reports. Many of these individuals have few job skills and face difficult barriers to stable employment. Without a strong support system or a steady job, many once incarcerated people are likely to commit new crimes and return to jail: a cycle of recidivism that recurs across the country.
To break the cycle, the U.S. Department of Labor is funding grants to provide comprehensive services to inmates before release and ongoing support as they regain their place in the community when their incarceration ends. The grants are funded by the “Linking to Employment Activities Pre-Release” or “LEAP” initiative.
“When someone leaves a county or local jail, very real barriers too often stand in their way as they try to find a good job and lead a successful life,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez. “We have to do more to help them land on their feet as they return to their communities.”
“We have to work together and use existing resources in new, innovative ways to break the cycle of incarceration. The LEAP initiative encourages greater coordination between local workforce programs, correctional systems and other critical services to prepare inmates for jobs before release, and to continue to assist them as they return home,” Perez added. “This is a commonsense approach that strengthens communities and improves public safety at the same time.”
The goal of the LEAP initiative is to break down silos and help integrate two services already offered by local governments — correctional facilities and workforce development programs. In nearly every county, municipal or regional area, jail or correctional facilities are located near the approximately 2,500 American Job Centers in the U.S., funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, but administered by local government or a non-profit organization through a local workforce investment board.
By providing a direct “hand-off” of transitioning offenders to their area’s Job Center upon release, the newly released individual will receive follow-up, support and other services at a critical time to help guide them on a path toward a productive career and away from the risks that often return them to jail.
LEAP aligns closely with the principles driving President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative which seeks to address persistent opportunity gaps facing boys and young men of color and to ensure that all young people can realize their full potential.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has appointed Mary Weaver, Executive Director, to his newly-formed Commission on Employment Equity. The Commission’s charge is to address the Citywide need to increase employment amongst Angelenos with criminal records. The Commission will begin meeting in June with a focus on persuading local employers to change their hiring practices to include the following: 1) Refrain from making criminal record inquiries until a conditional offer of employment is extended; 2) Refrain from making credit history inquiries unless the position involves public safety, financial fiduciary responsibilities or is an executive position; and, 3) Work to develop recruitment and “on-boarding” policies of communities who are historically, disproportionately unemployed and under-employed, including communities of color, youth, veterans, the unsheltered and people with criminal records.
FCLCA is a co-sponsor of Sen. Holly Mitchell’s Senate Bill 1157, Strengthening Family Connections: In-Person Visitation. This bill preserves in-person visitation for people who are incarcerated in local detention and correctional facilities, including those detained under immigration holds, awaiting trial or serving sentences,and minors held in juvenile facilities.
Research shows that family contact and in-person visits when a person is incarcerated have numerous benefits: they help to maintain family stability, reduce disciplinary problems, reduce recidivism, and facilitate successful re-entry.
Increasingly, California counties are eliminating in-person visitation and adopting video visits, in which families can only see each other over a video screen. Also increasingly new jails are being built that allow for video visitation only.
This is a very timely bill that can preserve important in-person visitation before it’s too late. Please let your senator know today that you support this bill and ask them to vote YES on Senate Bill 1157.
TAKE ACTION! Please let your senator know today that you support this bill and ask them to vote YES on Senate Bill 1157.