The state of Missouri now has a goal of getting all its prisoners to learn career skills. It's the first to adopt Reentry2030, an initiative that supports incarcerated people with the goal of ensuring 85% are employed within 30 days of their release.
James Ingram, director of reentry at Community Action Agency in St. Louis County, joined KMOX's Total Information AM to talk about the program.
"I think the state of Missouri should be commended for taking on this initiative and track being the first state in the union to join the national initiative," Ingram said. "And I would say that they're headed down the right path. The one thing I know is that the best solution to crime is jobs. And if that is the case, then a career, which is what we're moving toward, would eviscerate recidivism entirely."
Ingram said that inmates have responded largely positively to people coming in to teach them skills and give life lessons. But, he said, certifications and trainings that would prepare them for the world were severely lacking.
He said that for these programs to work effectively, employers need to partner with these programs to create employment opportunities that are "reentry friendly."
"They [need to] hit the ground running with these jobs when they're released, because the idle mind is the devil's workshop," he said. "If you're connected with employment as soon as you're released — particularly, we're talking about careers here, we're talking about certifications, and these specific trainings — they will be happy in the work that they're doing. And I think that you will see a dramatic drop in recidivism."
Ingram said one of the most difficult things about the work is supporting incarcerated individuals who may have no family or housing on the outside, meaning they don't have an opportunity to stabilize themselves.
"And as we know, if you don't have stable housing, a lot of places won't employ you because you don't have a mailing address, you don't have all these other things. So it's a big challenge," he said.
Hear more from James Ingram about Reentry2030 on Total Information AM:
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