SPRINGDALE -- Employee turnover fell from 50 percent a year to 15 percent after ATCO Rubber's plant in Springdale started hiring state prison inmates.
"I've had family that went to prison, and I know how hard it is for someone, getting a job when they're out," ATCO plant manger Jim Epperson said. "Employers aren't supposed to discriminate, but you can always find a reason not to hire someone with a record."
High turnover is a problem for industrial employers across the state, according to the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.
The sixth annual State of the Northwest Arkansas Region, released by the University of Arkansas in September, found unemployment in the area to be low but, related to that, it's become a difficult place to find reliable workers. Despite the tight job market, people with criminal records were not getting their shot at a job and would appreciate an opportunity, Epperson realized.
"Everybody deserves a second chance," he said.
The Northwest Arkansas Work Release Center is in a former National Guard armory in downtown Springdale. Established in 1980, the center can house up to 100 inmates. These are nonviolent offenders kept on site who are within three and a half years of parole eligibility.
Epperson's idea that inmates would be glad to have a job proved true. Of 32 employees working at the plant, seven are in the work release program and three are employees who started out in work release and stayed after they were paroled.
ATCO's first hire from the center was Chad Osburn of Siloam Springs, who stayed with the company, was promoted and is now the plant's shipping supervisor. He began work at the plant in 2013. Years earlier, he had gone to prison on a methamphetamine delivery charge.
"We ain't all bad," Osburn said. "Some of us want to change. They can. I'm living proof."
Other companies employ prisoners from the center. Epperson said he knows of at least one industrial employer in town who employs five times as many inmates as he does. Correction Department rules list no limit on the number of inmates one company can employ.
But ATCO is one of the most open. It sent Human Resources Director Jason Huhman to a recent meeting of the Northwest Arkansas Re-entry Coalition to describe the company's experience. The coalition helps released prisoners return to regular life.
Huhman was asked at the meeting about particulars of the program and what could be done to encourage other companies to hire people with criminal records. Several members of the coalition said getting a job is one of the biggest hurdles for former prisoners.
Those convicted of violent crimes or of any sex offense are ineligible for work release, said state Correction Department spokesman Solomon Graves, who also provided documents about the program.
Participating inmates stay at the center when not working and cannot leave the state while working under any circumstances, according to the program's conditions. They cannot leave the county without the written consent of the work center supervisor. Transportation to and from work is provided by the department, or by the employer if the center's director approves.
"Part of the inmate's pay is put in a savings account for him," Epperson said. "That way, they have something when they get out. They can buy a car or have a down payment on a house."
There are other benefits, Huhman said.
"If they worked for us in work release, they're eligible for health benefits and to participate in our 401k retirement plan on their first day if they want to keep working here," he said. "I can't even get that if I went to work somewhere else."
So far, the program's been good for the company and for the inmates, said Epperson, Huhman and Osburn.
"We've had people leave here, go back home to where they came from when they were free, then call us and ask if they can come back," Epperson said. "If they were a good employee, we let them. Sometimes, when they go home, they find out that's not the best place for them to be, running with the same old crowd. We had one guy who drove over an hour one way every day to work here."
The plant makes duct components, transitioning to that over the years after starting out making rubber hoses.
"We've had one or two with bad attitudes, but they're usually anxious for a job and usually beg for more hours, to make some more money," Epperson said.
"They're reliable," Epperson said of the state inmates chosen for his plant. "If they're sick, we send them home, but they can't just call in lazy, saying they're sick. They have transportation."
The state has one other dedicated work release center and it's in Mississippi County, near the small town of Luxora. It can hold up to 132 inmates.
Not every inmate's going to make it, Osburn said.
"I've seen it, people going in and out of prison," he said. "I used drugs and had to go to prison to find out I could do without them. Others get out and that's the first thing they go get. For others, though, it's really hard not to fall back into that if you don't have a job. And if you're a felon, it's really hard to get one."
Now he has a work history, Osburn said. He could leave ATCO, but said, "I've enjoyed it here with the people I work with."
State Desk on 12/29/2016