LIMA, Ohio — Car dealer Tom Ahl's disinclination to hire ex-convicts diminished when the unemployment rate here dipped below 5%. Suddenly, people released from the three prisons that ring Lima represented a labor pool he couldn't ignore. Against his better judgment, Ahl hired a convicted killer as a car salesman.
That was three years ago. Today, the killer, Ben Laws, is the star of the 24-person sales force at Tom Ahl Buick GMC. And prison records no longer represent a red flag for Ahl, who has hired several other ex-convicts since Laws.
"I realize they are not that different than me," says Ahl, 49 years old. "We all deserve a second chance."
The tight labor market is accomplishing what years of pleas and programs from penal experts and social scientists failed to do: It is persuading America's employers to hire ex-convicts. What statistics exist about employment of exprisoners suggest that companies are hiring them at higher rates than ever before. In New York, about 40% of offenders on parole are employed, up from 33% six years ago. The pool of ex-convicts is growing substantially because of the record number of felony convictions since the late 1980s. About 2.5 million felons were on probation or parole in 1998, up from 1.5 million a decade ago.
Few employers are happy about having to resort to this pool. But once they do, most are finding that despite their preconceived notions, the ex-prisoner isn't necessarily a repeat offender waiting to happen. Only 40% of ex-cons commit crimes again, and that number is much
lower for those who find employment. "I don't think a person's history matters as much as who that person is," said Richard Lord, manager of a J.C. Penney store in Columbia, Mo., where unemployment of less than 1% has prompted him to hire ex-prisoners as sales clerks.
As industry hires more ex-prisoners, perceptions of them are changing in a way that could outlast the tight labor market and perhaps even lower the crime rate. "All the data and research indicate if you have a positive experience upon leaving prison — and getting a job would be just that — the chance of recidivism is going to be lower," says R. Dean Wright, a Drake University professor of sociology who specializes in penal issues.
Employers of ex-prisoners say it isn't simply a crapshoot as to who will and won't return to prison. As owner of a boat maker in Fort Dodge, Iowa, where unemployment stands at 2.8%, Lisa Wilson has hired felons convicted of robbery, burglary, drug possession and involuntary manslaughter. She doesn't regret a single hire. But she has a code — no sex offenders — and a test for prospective hires: "We walk through the plant at a brisk pace and see if they keep up," she says. "You can tell if they are going to work at a good pace by how they walk."
In a sign that the trend is picking up pace, consultants who specialize in figuring out which ex-cons can be trusted have begun to emerge. In Columbia, Mo., Dale Wolchko has placed ex-prisoners in jobs ranging from sales clerk at the local Dillard's department store to kitchen assistant at an Olive Garden restaurant. He looks for a positive attitude and a desire to please. "When a guy who has tattoos all over his body has gone through the trouble to wear a collar shirt with long sleeves, that is a good sign," said Wolchko, an employment specialist with the Job Center in Columbia, Mo., which helps ex-cons get work.
Some of these consultants, operating on the theory that you can't con a con, tout their own criminal records as credentials in selecting from among ex-prisoners. "I look for phd's — poor, hungry and driven," says Mark Paulus, a former police officer who spent three years in prison for theft and now recruits ex-cons for employers. "This economy has given offenders a chance to show they are not all Jeffrey Dahmer."