REENTRY PROGRAMS HELPED ME WHEN I NEEDED A HAND MOST
In June 2019, a South County Superior Court judge gave me a choice between accepting 12 years to life in prison or choosing the stringent conditions of a plea agreement and rebuilding my life after a burglary charge. I chose my life. After a year in the George Bailey Detention Facility, I was released with five years of probation. I completed a 90-day residential drug treatment program and attended a sober living program at Interfaith Community Services. I was determined to turn my life around, and I did.
I’m proud of my turnaround. My career path is a big part of that, and my turnaround isn’t just about me. It involves and affects my family and my community. My mother is a paraplegic, and I’m essentially her legs. Thanks to my career path, I can think about finding a home for the two of us.
Not everyone is so lucky. For most people released from prison or on probation, finding work is one of the hardest things. Over 60 percent of people are still jobless a year after getting out of prison, and it gets worse as time goes on.
In a way, I was fortunate (or so I thought). I found work as a mover pretty quickly after being released. I had been working in that field for about five years at that point, and because I was employed, I didn’t take my probation officer’s advice. He told me to go to the San Diego office of the Center for Employment Opportunities, an organization exclusively focused on providing immediate, effective and comprehensive employment services to people recently released from incarceration. My probation officer tried for a year to get me to go, but I thought I was OK.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and my boss said people didn’t want moving crews in their homes, so the moving work dried up. Losing work on short notice is common for justice-impacted people. If you can even find work, it’s often in a job that’s not reliable. Suddenly, I wasn’t making money to cover my rent, so I called my parole officer and said, “How about that Center for Employment Opportunities thing?”
I joined its program a year ago. The organization got me access to many valuable training opportunities: Occupational Safety and Health Administration, forklift, traffic flag and safety training, to name a few. I took as much help as I could, everything it offered.
I worked on “Crew Five,” one of the Center for Employment Opportunities’ transitional work crews, for two months. These crews offer participants a chance to start working right away. The program provides daily pay and helps people look for a more permanent job. Crews work four days a week, usually for a partner like a state or local government. Crew Five worked for CalTrans in North County.
Our crew would work at a CalTrans equipment yard in Kearny Mesa every once in a while. When I saw the heavyduty rigs such as the loaders and trucks used there, I thought, this is what I want to do. So when I heard people talking about sending people from the program for CalTrans hiring, I said, I’ll go. Sure enough, I went, and I got hired full-time.
Just nine months after I first started working with Center for Employment Opportunities, I’m now transporting and directing crews as a full-time employee of CalTrans. We work on maintaining and beautifying our state’s roads. Instead of being a state of California inmate, I’m now a state of California employee. I hope to get my Class A commercial license soon, and with that, I’ll be able to operate any heavy-duty equipment. My goal is to work on a tree crew eventually.
If I could say only one thing about reentry programs, it’s this: Take advantage of what is available. These programs are a good place to go for those who have recently been released from prison or are on probation and are serious about getting back into the workforce. They’ll help with preparing a resume, getting ready for interviews, and finding work.
And for anyone interested in making sure everyone has a fair chance, please support reentry programs and organizations like the Center for Employment Opportunities. I hope that these programs will be the first option, not a last resort like they were for me or have been for many people in reentry. I had the drive and the commitment to make the most of my second chance, but these resources provided opportunities that helped me get where I am today.