LR hoping its jobs program opens doors for former felons

As her supervisor, Mike Bunting, applauds Nov. 20, Police Department employee LaShawn Malone speaks to the Capital City Crime Prevention Task Force about her second chance. “All I needed was this one opportunity,” she said.
As her supervisor, Mike Bunting, applauds Nov. 20, Police Department employee LaShawn Malone speaks to the Capital City Crime Prevention Task Force about her second chance. “All I needed was this one opportunity,” she said.

A convicted felon works for the largest police department in Arkansas.

Little Rock and its Police Department are hoping the shock factor will grab people's attention long enough to tell them about a program offering second chances, which city officials believe could change the quality of life for all residents if the private sector follows suit.

A re-entry program for ex-felons, which began in 2012 by teaching them the skills to build sidewalks in the city's Public Works Department, has expanded to include training opportunities at the Police Department, the Little Rock Zoo and the Fleet Services and Housing and Neighborhood Programs departments.

By next year, the hope is to add more jobs in the Fire Department and the Finance and Parks and Recreation departments.

"Look, we know that there's this population that might not necessarily be from Little Rock, but because of the opportunities here, when they were getting out of prison there was a majority of individuals coming back into our city," City Manager Bruce Moore said. "We also knew -- and I have believed this for a long time -- that if we don't provide individuals with a chance to make a living and to provide for their families, there's a strong chance that in order to do that, they're going to resort to the type of behavior that had them incarcerated in the first place."

Many businesses long have been reluctant to hire people with criminal records, especially felons.

About 160 new parolees were released each month into Pulaski County in 2013, the most recent year for which data were available from the Arkansas Parole Board. Little Rock officials said the city's data show that a large portion of burglaries and other financial crimes in the city are committed by repeat offenders.

LaShawn Malone, who goes by Shawn, said she can't say for sure, but if she hadn't been given the chance to work at the Police Department through the program, she very well may have slipped back into the practices that gave her a criminal record in the first place.

Malone, now 32, was first convicted of conspiracy to deliver crack cocaine at age 21 in Fordyce, where she was raised. She was sentenced to eight years in the Arkansas Department of Community Corrections. After serving two years, she was paroled and joined her sister in Little Rock, hoping to start a clean life.

But four years later she turned back to the same behavior, getting her second conviction for conspiracy to deliver in 2011 and receiving eight years of supervised probation. She has three years remaining on that sentence.

After her second conviction, she had a daughter, Azeayah, who is now 3, and she became determined to earn a proper living and improve her family's life.

But it was hard.

Day after day, she submitted job applications, but she never heard back from the prospective employers, she said. Her work experience was primarily at fast-food restaurants. When she heard about the city's re-entry program, she had to give it a shot.

Since June, Malone has been trained to handle cleaning and landscaping equipment and chemicals at the Police Department. She knows all the safety precautions. She also has gained management skills by supervising community-service workers.

"I never thought I'd be where I am now. I never thought I'd be supervising. But I've worked hard on it. I'm so thankful for the position they gave me. I'm telling you -- my life has completely changed with this job. It's all I needed. I knew I could do better. The times I couldn't get a job, when no one would hire me, it kind of made me think, maybe I have to go back to what I was doing. But I just kept pushing. All I needed was this one opportunity," Malone said.

"This job right here, I'm going to be here for a long time."

Moore and Malone's supervisors have made sure of that. They recently approved hiring her permanently. Her part-time, 29-hour-per-week position paying $7.50 will change to 30 hours per week with benefits and pay of $11 an hour.

Even before the raise, the position at the Police Department had already allowed Malone to move to a better apartment in a safer part of town, she said.

standout employee

The city's acceptance of hiring ex-felons in its Police Department -- and other sensitive departments such as finance -- didn't come all at once. There was hesitance.

"My hope was that every department would have at least one re-entry position," said Dana Dossett, director of Community Programs, the department that oversees the re-entry program. "Human Resources said, 'We can't do it, we deal with employee records.' Finance says, 'We deal with money, we can't.' Police says, 'We arrested them, we can't do it.'

"I went to the chief and I was like, 'you know chief, really, I think you got to tell me you can find something somewhere in the Police Department where you can hire a felon. You're right, you're the ones that arrested them, so just imagine how powerful it would be if you put them to work and if you show you believe in them. Then there's no business in the city that can't find some position that someone can do,'" Dossett said.

The chance the city took in hiring Malone has so far worked out. All of her supervisors and their bosses -- all the way up to the city manager, who called Malone "a gem" -- rave about her performance, work ethic and quality of work.

Mike Bunting, facility maintenance coordinator for the Police Department, is due much of the credit for making it possible to add the re-entry position Malone holds. He used his experience with a similar program in the military to create a training program from scratch.

He created all the forms used to teach Malone to work each piece of cleaning or lawn equipment, all the safety rules, and the measures to test the trainee.

"Shawn already works for me when I'm off. She does an excellent job. Everyone is happy with her and the job she does. Let me tell you what, I've had a lot of men work for me. I can't think of one of them that does a better job than what she's been doing," Bunting said.

Bunting and Moore said they understood that people in the re-entry program might have little job experience because of their criminal records, and some have an array of personal problems that must be overcome to be satisfactory workers. Therefore, the city couldn't just give them jobs and stop there.

The re-entry program aims to train ex-felons with work skills so they are employable, but it also works with them on how to deal with other problems such as obtaining child care, housing and other social services.

But most of all, you have to trust them, Bunting said.

"No one wants to trust these folks anymore. I trust Shawn. The first thing I said, some of the officers said, 'You don't want to leave her by herself. You turn your back, and she'll do this and this.' Well, you don't understand how much that upset me, you know. But she's proved that statement to be wrong. That's not a correct assumption to have at all," Bunting said.

'can't do it alone'

Not every participant in the re-entry program has been as successful as Malone. Out of 46 re-entry positions -- not counting eight people who are still going through the program -- 18 have gotten jobs. Only one of those employees was hired externally; the other 17 were hired by the city.

Officials said most of those not hired didn't complete the program for one reason or another -- they moved, quit or were fired for poor attendance.

"We haven't been 100 percent successful. What I hope this shows is that, again, if you give an individual a second chance -- and sometimes I learned with this program you have to give more than a second chance sometimes -- but they made their mistake, paid their dues and now they're ready, " Moore said. "We're doing the right thing, and it's working. But we can't do it alone."

Dossett said helping people who are leaving prison readjust to life is just common sense.

"Unless we are part of the solution, then we are part of the problem if we are acting like they don't exist," she said. "The city really wants to make a difference in our community, and we are starting with us."

In addition to expanding its re-entry program to other city departments in the new year, Moore said there are plans to work more on encouraging businesses in the private sector to hire and train ex-felons, too.

"It would have a tremendous impact on the overall quality of life, overall public safety efforts, in the city," he said. "Again, a lot of these individuals, they want to do the right thing, they just need an opportunity. That's what we are providing. I think if others joined forces, we'd see significant improvement in the overall quality of life in Little Rock."

Malone couldn't hide her smile when Bunting bragged about her Nov. 20 during a presentation before the Capital City Crime Prevention Task Force, which includes judges, prosecuting attorneys, police, and state and city government officials.

Malone hesitated slightly when Mayor Mark Stodola asked about her story.

She went through the history of her criminal convictions and talked about entering prison and failing to rehabilitate before getting in trouble again.

But then, she smiled and lifted her head a little higher before talking about her past five months working for the city.

To applause from the task force, Malone said, "They gave me a chance, and I haven't let them down since."

Metro on 11/28/2015

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