Freckles' HWH & Employment

Your HH should be there to help you with your transition. They should be supportive and try to make your job hunting as easy as possible - but from my experience, they truly do the opposite. The first problem is that along with being a job counselor, they are also expected to play police. I understand the accountability issue of knowing where you are, but there are certain things that seem a bit overboard. And one would think they would embrace felon friendly companies, but again, not true.

I'll start off with the "police" function of their job. Things changed dramatically since I first got there - the original employment coordinator was a bit more understanding, however, the new one is 99% police and 1% employment coordinator. Before you could go to a prospective employer to fill out an application by putting in a pass and while you were there you would need to obtain some "proof" that you were there. Easy enough, and not a huge red flag to the employer that you are a felon and living in the half way house. Now the employment coordinator calls the place where you are putting in your application and verifies that you are going there and what time - so basically you need to make an appointment. And then she follows up to make sure you were there when you said you were (even after bringing proof back). I know it's all about full disclosure of you being a felon - but it's also all about the timing of this disclosure. I don't think that the employer being notified before they even meet me helps my chances of getting the job at all and then having someone follow up to make sure that I was there - right there I'd be second guessing their integrity and reliability if someone has to call twice. I believe one should be able to sell themselves, including the positives obtained from their incarceration and be allowed to explain the situation and let the employer decide after meeting you and either wanting to hire you or not. People are close minded - and I would probably say that even I would be a bit "turned off" by a potential employee that was coming in living at a half way house as a felon with the hassles of the phone calls. My employer gets two phone calls a week. One to verify my work schedule for the following week and then another to verify the hours I worked the previous week - never done in the same phone call mind you. It's never easy for my employer to get them this information and not everyone will take a message or forward the information. I would think an email from the boss for your schedule the following week would be sufficient and that your paystub from the previous week would be documentation, nope. They can also do place of employment checks where the pop in and see if you are there. To me this could be done easily enough and they could "fly under the radar". Nope, they make a big scene, are extremely rude and there have been instances where the employer had to call the HH to request certain people do not come back for the checks. Not sure about you and I understand that I put myself in this situation, but it's not anyone's business at my job that I am a felon under half way house "control".

Now one would think once a felon friendly company is found, they would continue to allow residents to apply there. Not the case. This instance involves a large retailer that I worked for over the holidays, so I know they are felon friendly. The HH is claiming that they are "difficult to work with" and did not allow a fellow resident to go and apply at a store in their area. Well, since I was an employee there, I can attest to what they are talking about and it's not the employer being difficult, but the HH. I had my HR manager come up to me one day and ask why the HH was asking questions that were not allowed to ask by the human resource laws that govern our state. They were very rude and out of line stating that "people told them before" and they needed this information. I don't believe it's any of their business on how I'm performing, if I get along with other workers etc - it's their job to make sure I am at work when I say I'm at work and that is it. So once I heard "Frosty" was not allowed to go and apply we asked "why". Our TDAT counselor was able to enlighten us that the employer was brought up in their weekly meeting and they decided that they were no longer going to let residents work their because the employer is "difficult to work with". Of course the story of why was not told and it was left very vague and incomplete. So now it's the "police" violating the HR laws of the state, and when they get an employer who challenges that, they disallow residents to work there. Not fair at all.

There are folders of job leads in the coordinators office that never get put out to residents. Another TDAT resident has been helping her organize and get these out to residents while she awaits the BOP authorizing her to work for a family member. Again, jobs that are felon friendly not being shared with residents. I agree that they may be understaffed - but again, separate the police and the employment coordinator position and you may have your answer. 

I know the BOP is not known for it's finesse and handling of situations - but as we get ready to re-enter society, I think there are things that could be handled a lot differently. So please don't get frustrated when you have some of these things happen to you - yes it's hard enough to obtain employment, but be prepared for other obstacles to pop up in your way and it's how you handle them that will help you in your future endeavors!

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Once again Freckles' adventures help us learn so much about life at the halfway house. It is so true from my experience that everyone you meet that works in the system is "police" first and doing their job second. Such a reality makes administration of their duties so backward and often misguided. Remember that every HWH is different so while we have this experience from Freckles and a completely different type of experience from me, there is no way of knowing how yours may be. If you have ever lived in one, we would love to know whether your HWH also called your employer 2x/ week to check up on you or is this unique to Freckles' HWH?