We notice it all around us – at the grocery store, the gas station and most recently perhaps, at the checkout line while buying holiday gifts. Despite improvement in recent months, worker shortages are still affecting many businesses across our state. While many may not see the correlation between higher levels of employment and reforming our criminal justice system, the evidence is glaring.
“Fair chance” hiring refers to the action employers take when they hire previously incarcerated individuals. It’s one aspect of criminal justice reform that’s gaining traction for good reason – according to a 2016 study, the United States’ annual gross domestic product was reduced $78-87 billion due to the exclusion of formerly incarcerated individuals from the workforce.
Brian Jackson, whose family-owned-business, Woody Candy Co., was established not long after Oklahoma’s Land Run, said adopting fair chance hiring policies helped his company recover after the COVID-19 pandemic caused business to slow and employees to dwindle.
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