May 08--For nearly a decade, Melody Young said, she has worked in the health care industry, serving patients at nursing homes, assisted living facilities and rehabilitation centers.
While Young, 48, of Humboldt Park, has found a career where she thrives, she said she almost didn't get that opportunity because of her criminal background.
"I made some bad choices, but I'm really not a bad person," she said. "I wanted to help people; that's what I saw myself doing. I got a (certified) nursing job and even though I was a good worker, I was told the company couldn't keep me because of my background."
Young told her story Thursday at a gathering of Chicago-area hospital executives, leaders and activists as part of the beginning of a conversation to get more medical companies to hire qualified, formerly incarcerated residents.
Each year more than 30,000 inmates are released back into society in Illinois, said Victor Dickson, president of the Safer Foundation, an organization that, among other things, helps ex-offenders re-enter society. Those formerly incarcerated residents have served their time, but they are met with policies that hinder them from being able to find affordable housing, enroll in school or get jobs.
As the medical industry grows, there are thousands of job opportunities that those residents could have access to, Dickson said. But the first step is persuading industry leaders to give that population a second chance.
"Without employment, they really have no way of breaking the cycle of unemployment," he said. "Health care is important because these are the largest employers we have in our area. ... Nationally it's the fastest-growing job creator in the country."
Historically, employers have been hesitant to hire people with criminal backgrounds because of fears and stereotypes. That's especially true in industries that cater to children, the elderly and the most vulnerable.
Currently there is a national movement to develop programs to help former inmates find the stability they need to avoid the criminal lifestyle. Jobs are a big piece of the solution, but former inmates also need a second chance so they can attend school, obtain housing and begin to live productively, Dickson said.
Last year, state legislators passed a law that allows ex-offenders to not disclose their criminal pasts to potential employers until their skills have been evaluated.
But state laws still must be changed to allow the formerly incarcerated greater access to jobs and opportunities, said U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Chicago. Thursday's four-hour-long meeting was a step toward getting industry insiders to consider employing people who are normally not even screened.
"We're talking about thousands of work opportunities," he said. "In Chicago, the former inmates basically come to seven community areas which are on the West and South sides. They are black and Latino.
"We have to find greater employment for these people with records," Davis said.
At the closed-door meeting, executives heard from Pamela Paulk, president of Johns Hopkins Medicine International in Baltimore, where about 5 percent of the employees have a criminal background. Among the employees at the medical facility who don't have a college degree, 20 percent have a criminal record, she said.
"Our need for workers in health care is almost insatiable," she said. "If we only look at the population that has a perfect education, the perfect physical abilities, the perfect background, we can't meet (demand). ... It's a business rationale, it's not just philanthropic or just a mission."
Paulk said her hospital has been hiring ex-offenders for more than a decade, not only as a service to the community but because they need good workers. Employees with a criminal record are loyal and hardworking, she said, and they perform as well as their colleagues who don't have blemished backgrounds.
Employers have to "think more openly and intentionally about how to include this population in your workforce," Paulk said. "It's very easy to leave them out. But if you are very intentional ... then you can find ways."
Young served three months behind bars in 1994 for drug possession and theft, she said. After she was released, she wanted to turn her life around, and even after being fired she was determined not to reoffend.
It took months, but she obtained a health care worker waiver, which allowed her to go back to work in health care.
"I'm able to give my kids more, provide more for them and show them they have a role model and anything is possible," she said. "I had to work double hard to make people who knew my history see that I'm equal to a person who didn't have my background. Sometimes that was challenging, but now I see that as a blessing."
lbowean@tribune.com
