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Press Release

Ex-Offender Job Fair

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Alabama

Kenyen Brown, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, announces that as part of his Project H.O.P.E. (Helping Offenders Pursue Excellence) initiative, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama is collaborating with Bishop State Community College to host an ex-offender only job fair on Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 1-4:30pm on the Bishop State Baker-Gaines Campus, located at 1365 Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue in Mobile, AL. Some of the employers participating in the job fair include Austal Shipbuilding, Ingalls Shipbuilding, and Horizon Shipbuilding; all of whom are desiring to fill a range of positions. Prior experience as a welder is not necessarily required as on-the-job training opportunities may be available.

H&S Management and Holdings is another participating employer seeking to fill positions in its various companies including: air duct cleaning, security, tires and treading, commercial supply, janitorial services, and environmental clean up. Successful applicants with any employer would be expected to pass and maintain a clean drug screening record.

Job fair participants will also be able to meet with a range of community service providers including Mobile Works and AIDT. All of these community service providers have valuable resources to share with the ex-offender population. As an example, an ex-offender who is not successful in gaining employment at Wednesday’s job fair may be eligible to receive anywhere from $2,000-$10,000 for vocational training from a Department of Labor grant administered through Mobile Works.

U.S. Attorney Brown said “Just in the Southern District of Alabama alone, in the federal system, between the years of 2008-2010, 328 ex-offenders were revoked for violating the terms of their supervised release and sent back to prison. The cost to the American taxpayer to incarcerate those 328 ex-offenders over that three year period amounted to $9.2 million annually. If these same 328 ex-offenders had been successful on supervised release it would have only cost the American taxpayer roughly $1.3 million. Project H.O.P.E. is a restorative initiative with the aim of giving ex-offenders a chance to become good citizens while simultaneously affording the greater community with the opportunity to enjoy safer neighborhoods in which to live and a lesser tax burden.” U.S. Attorney Brown added, “Statistics compiled by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts in Washington D.C., indicate that ex-offender employment is a critical factor in whether recently released federal inmates are successful. Of the 262,000 federal prisoners that were released from federal prison between calendar years 2002-2006, 50% of those who could not secure any employment during the time of their supervised release (generally twoto- five years) committed a new crime or violated the terms of their release and were sent back to prison. However, an astonishing 93% of those who were able to secure employment during the entirety of their supervised release were able to successfully reintegrate back into society and not return to prison.”

For more information about the job fair or Project H.O.P.E go to www.ProjectHopeAlabama.com. Additional Note: U.S. Attorney Brown is available for interviews upon request. Call Tommy Loftis at 251-441-5845 to arrange an interview with U.S. Attorney Brown.

Updated January 26, 2015