A Friend Indeed : S.D. County Firms Give Ex-Convicts 2nd Chance at Life on Outside

In February, 1987, Brian Riley spent nine days in jail in El Cajon. He was being held on robbery charges.

That was not the first time Riley had been in jail. Since age 14, when he stole a car for the first time, the former Marine Corps reservist had had a series of scrapes with the law. Now 20, he has done time for lying on a credit application and writing bad checks.

“I couldn’t keep a job,” he said. “I thought the world owed me something.”

The night he was released in El Cajon, Riley found himself in a sleazy motel with no place to go. In desperation, he called John Robertson, a founder of Sidekick Printers in National City.

In jail, Riley had heard that Robertson gave convicted criminals and others in trouble a chance to learn a trade, right their lives and re-enter the mainstream of society. Helping others is part of Sidekick’s corporate mission.

It is an unusual mission for a for-profit business venture. But Robertson is unusual. He served seven years of a life sentence for murder in Texas before earning a master’s degree in clinical psychology from North Texas State University and a black belt in karate from Chuck Norris. He also studied for a year in a Bible seminary before setting up Sidekick. He now teaches a Bible class at the Metropolitan Corrections Center in San Diego.

A Job and a Place to Live

“I am trying to pull people off the street and give them direction,” he said.

That night Robertson offered Riley a job and a place to live if he would agree to stay for a year. Nearly 18 months later, Riley still works as a cutter at Sidekick, which should gross $3 million this year and counts among its customers Home Federal Savings & Loan, Coast Savings & Loan, and the University of California.

“If it wasn’t for John,” Riley said, “I would be in jail.”

For somebody who has served time for a felony, finding a job is perhaps the hardest initial task upon release--and the most important. “The first job is important to restore their confidence,” said Fred Bellinger, executive director of the Oceanside Community Action Center, which runs a program to help ex-offenders find employment.

It is also important to keep them out of jail. Generally, about 70% of the people who are released from prison go back, often within 90 to 120 days.

But a pilot study conducted by Community Connection Resource Center, which runs the largest ex-offender support program in the county, found that, of the ex-prisoners they surveyed who held a job for at least six months, none had returned to custody.

Increasingly Acute Problem

Repeat offenders represent an increasingly acute problem. With record numbers of people going to jail, there are record numbers of people getting out as well. In San Diego County, more than 14,000 people are on probation, which means they are still in the criminal justice system. The blemish of a conviction lasts well beyond the time an offender is released from the system.

Although the Community Connection study was not scientific, said Louise Fyock, the executive director, “It gives you the feeling that employment is the key (to reducing repeat offenders). We are trying to turn tax burdens into taxpayers.”

The average cost to keep somebody in jail a year is about $25,000.

Not surprisingly, however, ex-offenders face many hurdles along the road of rehabilitation. They are stigmatized by their conviction; many job applications ask if the applicant has ever been convicted of a felony. Their job skills and job-seeking skills may be rusty or non-existent. They have a problem gracefully explaining were they spent the time they spent in prison. And they are stereotyped.

“When most people hear the term ex-felon, they think murderer. That is not fair,” said Lenore Payne, owner of Altenance Building Services in Penasquitos, which provides janitorial services to the construction industry. Payne has hired more than a dozen ex-offenders to work with her on a temporary basis over the past nine months.

In reality, drug and alcohol offenses are the most common. “There is a lack of education about who comes out of jail,” said Louise Fyock, who runs Community Connection Resource Center, the largest program for ex-offenders in the county. “Most are just regular people who got caught.”

That is one of the reasons that Bonnie Dickens, fabrics production supervisor at the San Diego division of Ametek Process Equipment, gave Chris Wassberg a job. Wassberg was serving a 15-month sentence in Las Colinas jail for women for crimes related to drug and alcohol abuse. “I just felt that she had gotten a bad break,” said Dickens. “What happened to her could have happened to anybody. She is just a normal human being.”

It was the first time in 10 years of hiring that Dickens hired an ex-offender. She was confident in her ability to judge and supervise Wassberg. “I didn’t have any fears, though I probably should have,” Dickens said. “Everybody deserves a chance.”

So far the move has worked out well both for Dickens and Wassberg. “She sews magnificently,” Dickens said.

“Bonnie Dickens did what paying $4,000 to a lawyer could not do,” said Wassberg. “She got me out of jail. I am thankful that Ametek needed me when I needed them. I think ex-offenders can make the best employees because they appreciate the job and work hard.”

Because she found employment, a judge eventually reduced Wassberg’s sentence by 40 days. But, more than that, Wassberg believes she has a long-term future with the company.

Motivated to Do Well

Wassberg’s experience is not unusual. Both Bellinger and Fyock argue that ex-offenders are often more motivated to do well than other employees. “They know that they already lost once,” Bellinger said.

Sidekick Printers has used their employees added motivation to its competitive advantage. About 33% of its 40 employees including some in senior management positions have been in trouble with the law. By giving them jobs, said Steve Kagarice, the company’s president, “We are cultivating people who care more about just putting sheets of paper through a press. Because we are helping them, they care more about helping our customers.”

Sidekick recently asked their customers to evaluate their business. Customer service and quality work were both ranked high.

According to Altenance’s Payne, employees who come to her from Community Connection often perform better than those she hires from temporary employment agencies. “Usually, they are people who want to work,” she said. “They bust their butts for me on the job site. The people from the temporary agencies often work slower than turtles.”

Besides getting good workers, companies that hire ex-offenders are eligible for certain tax incentives. Under a targeted-jobs tax credit program, they can take a one-time, $3,000 tax deduction when they hire an ex-felon. And they are eligible for on-the-job-training credits, which will pay up to 50% of an ex-offenders salary during a 160- to 200-hour training period.

Nonetheless, even most employers who do hire ex-offenders are loath to talk about it. Of 20 companies with whom Jeff Cummins, the program director for ex-offenders at the Oceanside Center, has placed employees, none was willing to talk about their experiences on the record.

Lauds Quality of Work

Their sensitivity is not unjustified. “Sometimes, when a contractor finds out that I work with ex-prisoners, suddenly nothing they can do is right,” said Payne. “One superintendent told me the men were scum after he found out they had been in prison.”

Payne bristles at that kind of attitude. “The work they do is good, or else I would not get as many referrals as I do,” she said.

Competitors also sometimes try to use the hiring of ex-offenders against a company. “A competitor told a valued customer of ours that we had drug addicts chained to the presses and we didn’t pay them,” said Sidekick’s Kagarice.

Fortunately the customer knew better. Still, Sidekick has changed its marketing thrust to downplay the work it does with ex-offenders.

Kagarice openly scoffs at the idea that his employees may present more problems because of their records. “In any company, 10% to 20% of the people are probably using drugs,” he said. At Sidekick, those with problems have been identified and can benefit from closer supervision.

Of course, as with any group of employees, there are problems with ex-offenders. After Kagarice laid off one man, he received threatening phone calls. One day at Altenance, a valued employee just stopped showing up. After a while, Payne learned he was back in jail. “If he didn’t want to work, that was OK with me,” she said. “But he had some keys and equipment that I needed back.”

Officials at both Community Connection and the Oceanside Community Action Center point out that they screen the ex-offenders they refer to employers. “We are not going to send out a guy who wants to party,” Cummins said. “Our reputation is on the line. Why send a bum when we have 10 or 15 people who are not bums?”

In addition to soliciting employers, both programs, which together work with about 5,000 ex-offenders a year, try to improve their clients’ job-seeking skills and advise them on strategies to deal with the inevitable questions that will arise in the workplace about their pasts.

“They teach you how to sell yourself,” Wassberg said.

And that is key. “Give a girl a job to go to on Monday and a few bucks in her pocket, and she will get it together,” Wassberg said.

Has a Record Himself

Jeff Cummins repeats the same message to both his clients and the employers he works with. He knows it is true. Fifteen years ago, shortly after he returned from military service in Vietnam, he was convicted of smuggling drugs from Mexico and served four years in federal prison in Lompoc.

Upon release, he worked at a succession of low-paying jobs. “I got clean and sober, reviewed my personality and found something worthwhile there,” he said.

Shortly thereafter, he read an ad in the newspaper looking for a counselor to work with ex-offenders. “Although I didn’t have the education, I had the life experience. And I sold my skills,” he said.

The problem for many ex-prisoners is finding buyers. Said Louise Fyock, “It is rewarding to see somebody make it and not go back to crime. We just have to give them a chance.”