We will be happy to give you a list also of all the employers who are participating and have participated. You know, one of the interesting things I found, the financial services industry is definitely leading this in Philadelphia. That's where we have a great deal of participation. Very often the challenge isn't as much having the companies agree to pay for 223 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 the young people. It's really working with them to understand how you can use high school interns in a workplace. So, we spend a lot of time talking to them about what kinds of jobs and 7 year olds can do and how they can be very 8 productive. 9 Once they get into the companies, 10 very often the mentors who work with them, 11 because we do a good deal of mentor 12 training with the supervisors at the 13 worksites to understand how to work with 14 high school youth, get very invested in the 15 young people. 16 And what you find is, they then, if they go onto college, down the road they'll come back and still work there at Christmas breaks and at holidays. And that's really what we want. We want to build networks for long-term relationships. So, the people to people part of this that happens when youth are in workplaces has been very powerful. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Thank you, 224 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 Miss Shubilla. I promised you that I was going to send letters out to employers. Those letters are going out as we speak. I just got a little e-mail that it was happening. And you gave me some employers, and I sent letters to those employers as well, so they can contribute to this program. For every $1,000 that an employer contributes, they'll hire a youth, right, for the summer. And I am more than glad to be able to be of some help. I want to recognize Timothy Chiller. Timothy's been sitting here since early this morning. He wrote an article also, Councilman Cohen, and he had an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is from Federal Reserve Bank. And I asked him, could he testify. He said, no, I want to come and listen in on your hearings. So I want to thank Mr. Timothy Chiller for being so generous with his time in joining us today. And continue to write 225 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 those op-ed pieces in the Philadelphia Inquirer. I just have one final question. Do you have... I'll defer to Miss Donna Reed Miller, please.
Hi. Good morning. And you may have answered this. How do young people know about Work Ready?
We do -- I mentioned before, every summer we have a waiting list of about 3,000 young people who want internships that aren't able to get them. We recruit through all of the schools, so material is sent out to all of the School Districts in early April. We have about 50 community based partners throughout the City who receive information as well. We recruit through the Department of Human Services. We recruit through Family Court, through the County Assistance offices. So we do pretty widespread recruitment. 226 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 We have not found there being any difficulty with finding enthusiastic young people for the positions. We really need to aggressively recruit employers to provide opportunities.
We are co-located at the Schuylkill Avenue office with the School District, yes.
Okay. Actually, now that you -- I think my office is one of the -- I just didn't know the name of it. But every year, you're right, we do help you, unless your... We found a lot of placements here in City hall for a lot of the -- And in fact, lots of judges and other elected officials in City departments were very eager to have your interns.
Now I know who you are. Thank you. 227 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: I want to thank you both for being so generous with your time, and so patient. We requested a few items from you. Please get them to us as soon as you can. And Mr. Torres, I want to personally thank you for all the work that you do with Congreso, one of the biggest social service agencies in the Hispanic community in the State of Pennsylvania. And I see since CareerLink went over there, you have gotten over 2,200 inquiries about employment. And that says there's a problem out there, and that we're... So, and I'm so happy that you're there providing our people with some resources so they can go on and make a living and sustain a family. Thank you both. Rob Ravanell, Titus Brown, and William DiMascio. And I see we can also on the same panel bring on Mr. John Lefkowitz and Ray Jones.
My name is Rob 228 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 Ravanell. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Rob, you're not going to read all of that that you have in front of you, right?
No, I'm not going to read all that. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Okay. Come on forward. You can pull chairs and sit around the table, please. Rob, will you please for the record state your full name and your title because that's appropriate.
My name is Rob Top Notch Ravanell. I'm a citizen of Philadelphia -- citizen of the City of Philadelphia. The Mayor has recently put together a task force for reentry and reintegration. I'm on the legislative committee. Up until early March, I used to be on John Dodd's Board of Directors, for the Philadelphia Unemployment Project. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Will you pull the microphone closer to you, Rob, 229 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 please?
And that's why I'm -- Do you want to introduce everybody else or am I supposed to go? COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: We'll proceed with the introductions after your statement. Thank you.
Okay. I came here today because -- And I didn't want the mike too close because I have a strong voice. I came here today because I'm probably one of the only people in this room that is unemployed. A lot of people have jobs. I have to come down here and represent for the person unemployed. There are a lot of meetings. As I said, the Mayor put together a task force. This is sitting here (Indicating) because at the first two people -- And just bear with me as I speak. 230 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 When you asked the secretary -- and I took notes -- from the Department of Labor about some statistics, I'm sitting here and I'm like, she ain't got the statistics. All right? We got everything here from a profile to working poor from 2001 to characteristics of the minimum wage worker, work experience of the population. What I'm trying to say here is, we have a lot of information on unemployment situation. Now, if I myself who is -- I'm not an economist. I just been to Temple University. I got to get a job so I can finish paying for it. S. labor force from 1950 to the year 2050. We have reports in here that come out every two years. Here's one for 2005, 2010, employment projections to 2012, local 231 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 area statistics. Local area statistics. A schedule of when they release this information. We also have here more local reports, Philadelphia Census Group. Reentry and reintegration of adjudicated offenders. And I'll get to the point of why I have all this paperwork here. Not only that. We have findings of that group. So they did a study on unemployment. And I'm probably going to go on, so I'm glad Mr. DiMaggio is somewhere near me. Because I want to speak about ex-offenders. That's what I say. I live in West Philly. I live in what we call the hood. Excuse my language. But I see the majority of African American males. And all these reports will tell you, African American males have the highest rate of unemployment across the nation, in Philadelphia, in the State. Our state penitentiaries are filled 232 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 with Philadelphians. All right. No one else but Philadelphians. Here's a report from the Sentencing Project. The intended and unintended consequences of state racial disparities. A term I like to throw up is disparate impact. Disparity is when something is uneven. Impact is the effect it has on you. There's a disparate impact on African American men, from having involvement with the court systems and the judicial systems. We have reports on that. I'm'a stop right there, and say, I'm kind of baffled because deeper in here, I have things that... Yeah, Philadelphia City Code, Home Rule Charter. Last year I came to a City Council meeting. And we were over the hearings. And I was listening to hearings on same thing, about the minority contracts and things of that nature. I was happy with Mr. Cohen last year because he walked in a little late; but he 233 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 was the one that said, put this bill on the table; get the unions down here; let's ask the unions why the brothers can't get jobs. And I thought that was very, very intelligent of him. But I'm sitting here today and we just had -- They don't even call it PIC any more because PIC was testifying. I'm sitting here today, and I'm like, the same question from last year about why the brothers can't get into it. Maybe it sounds like to me that they were getting into the apprenticeships. They were get into it, but they're still not actually getting the jobs. I'm saying all this because this has been going on for so long. And my question at the end of all this is going to be, what are we going to do, and when are we going to start to do something? Because we're still holding hearings. We'll probably have a hearing next year on the same thing. But my thing is, if I have a gentleman that has not 234 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 worked -- I heard a gentleman came up and testified.
He said he had friends that hadn't worked in one or two years. The thought in my mind, I have friends that ain't worked in five years, seven years, ten years. I knew a gentleman with criminal records ain't been able to get a job in 10 years. I just had somebody representing 11 Youth Network up here. 12 She reminded me that I go on temp 13 jobs, and I do see kids at the job. She 14 reminded me I did take my son out and try 15 to get him the paperwork, his working 16 papers. 17 And I thought to myself, damn, my 18 son can get a job. Excuse me. I'm sorry. 19 My son can get a job but his father can't 20 get a job. Now, mind you, Mr. , -- and please don't -- It's something wrong. Excuse me. I'm not mad at anybody. But let me tell you, your assistant, Solomon Jones, Solomon knows me very well. 235 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 We went to Temple University together. Solomon would never think I'm a bad person. He would never have anything wrong to say about me. He knows nothing of me being an ex-offender. My marketable skills which I go on job interviews for all the time, which I pass interviews. I had two interviews last week. Company's name RSD, Resources for Human Development. They love me. Love me so much they gave me another interview Tuesday. But I'm assured that I won't be able to get that job because of my criminal history background, because they work with drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Now, I'm'a go into the Workforce Investment Act, because I got so frustrated of being unemployed. I said, that got to be against the law. So I went down to CareerLink. And this is going to get into a personal story. I got notes, but I can see I'm not even going to go into that. 236 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 I went down to the CareerLink -- three years -- because I did have a job. They gave me unemployment 2001. To get my unemployment, you got to go to CareerLink, sit through that training class. I sat through it three years, over and over again. You know why I kept sitting through the same thing? Let me slow down. Because, one, I'm not eligible for training because, you see, I'm too smart. I been to Temple University. So these Work Force Investment Act, which I traced it. S. Department of Labor is, and I asked them, where is this money that I read that you're giving out for people to get training for jobs and things. They said, go back to the CareerLink and tell them. So I went back to the CareerLink. The CareerLink still said -- Well, they said the same thing. We work on a 237 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 needs assessment. You don't need no more training. I agree with them. I don't need no 5 more schooling. I need a job. But when I go to jobs, the jobs I go for, I can't have them because I'm ineligible. S. Department of -- Pennsylvania Department of Labor. I wrote him. What do you have for citizens of the community? He sent me a whole lot of unhelpful information, a lot of unhelpful information. I know I'm rambling right now. But let me stop and go back into this. We got so much legislation on the table. I got a Resolution here I didn't get a chance to copy because I'm unemployed and don't have money to copy it. But it was coming to City Council. Your meeting just 238 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 came. I took it to Shirley Kitchen last week. I plan to send it to the General Assembly. It has the whereases, the problems. It has solutions in here. And I thought it was real quick. I'd like to go real quick over some solutions off the top for ex-offenders. Title 18, Section 9125 needs to be amended, to include a time restraint on the dissemination of certain criminal history record information for employment suitability purposes. Title of the Pennsylvania 16 Consolidated Statutes, Section 9122 also 17 needs to be amended, to include a time 18 restraint on the expungement of certain criminal history records.
The reason I'm there, ladies and gentlemen, is because when you have statutory bars, when you release someone from prison, and they have finished their sentence -- And a lot of people such as myself, I'm caught up in something. This 239 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 is why I'm here. I have never been actually locked down. Excuse me. If you don't understand what I'm saying, I'll give you definition. I have never actually been locked down. Always probation. And this may or may not be for things I have done. But in that courtroom you can't beat this case so take the deal. That happens a lot to the brothers. So we took the deal. But the deal we're seeing now is deadly because the deal, even though we still out here? And we agree -- Because everybody from the courtroom judges to our mothers told us, be good; get a job. Well, a whole lot of brothers been good, but they ain't getting no jobs. And I need to know why. I'm starting to think. And -- And -- And I said I wasn't going to say certain things, but this is City Council. And I'm talking about the Federal government. 240 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 This is one statement I say to people. And they seem to say, you know what Rob? It makes sense. The Federal government is the nation's largest employer. Their main business is law enforcement. In order for them to keep making money, they got to point to a whole lot of the citizens to say: You got problems; you're a dope fiend; you have a mental problem; you're a criminal; and keep that going. This is not true. I admit there are a lot of people out here, murderers, rapists, child molesters, and I'm not speaking for them. I'm speaking about the guy that got theft charges, receiving stolen property charges, a guy that you -- the male or female you can give a job to, and they may not be caught up in this again. I'm talking about not ex-felons. I'm talking about parents, children's parents. 241 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 Because regardless of whether we think they're criminals or not, somebody loved them. Somebody... They got girlfriends; they got wives. People get married in jail. They have children. They have families. We got steady a release from our penal system where... Another thing I should mention for some people that ain't here. Arrearages. Arrearages out here are sending brothers back in -- sending minorities back to jail left and right. Because you're sitting in the penal system, your arrearages, child support arrearages are accruing. You're coming home. And the first message you get is, pay your bills. Well, you can't get a job. So therefore, the first bill you can't pay is your child support arrears. Now, you ought to be able to take care of your child, period, before you pay the arrears. There's... I need to go to 242 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 my notes because I know I'm rambling on. But in -- in -- in -- You got a lot of other people up here. I'm not going to talk. I think you're getting the gist of what I'm saying. When it comes to these criminal history records right now, we have discrimination and disenfranchisement in employment. And that is leading to homelessness on these streets. And it's leading John Dodds back here -- I'm glad he came. He's going to talk to you about the mortgage foreclosures he tried to stop, the moratorium, and stuff. He's going to talk to you about health care which is a big problem, because whether a person gets sick or not does not matter whether they have a criminal record or not. We got a lot of people walking around out here can't get jobs. And I'm sitting here today. I need to see a doctor. I've needed to see a doctor since 243 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 2001. That's when I lost my last employment. How do I know? Because I was in the middle of dental work. There's a difference between... Let me say this to you: Difference between medical care and medical benefits. Medical care is something you get from the District Health Centers. All right. When it hurts they'll take it out.
Medical benefits are when you get an opportunity to choose between the treatments you want. You get medical benefits from a job. We need jobs. I... As I said -- And I'm not just talking to you, Mr. Goode, Mr. Wilson Goode, Jr. -- I have been around this City a long time. I have -- The information that the Pennsylvania Department of Labor sent me? You know why it made -- it was unhelpful? Because I had already done it. I had already asked people that I knew with jobs that knew me, could you help me get a job. 244 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 But they already known that the company that they work for discriminated against people. And you got to remember -- I got to go back to this, though. We got things on this table here. And I'm going to get through this, and I'm going to be finished and let ya'll speak. I'm worried about things like this. We were talking about the unions. And I was talking about the unions getting people jobs. Well, here's a union, 1199. See, they're real big in this City. Look here. No felonies or disqualifying misdemeanors. Come on, now. How are the unions going to help us get jobs? They put on the advertisements. And we wonder why it's hopelessness and more crime and more recidivism rates, the higher recidivism rates in the City. This is a problem. When I go look for a job -- And say for the sake of it, yeah, I did do something when I was -- 20 245 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 years ago. Because that's when the last time you have something on my record, 15, years ago. 5 I think 15 or 20 years ago I was a 6 young man, fresh out of high school. Who's 7 to say? We print on our money, In God we 8 trust. Who's to say that a person cannot 9 go from bad to good, cannot change their 10 personality? 11 We have people... And I said I 12 wasn't going to say this, but it's in the 13 news. And you talking about the news. You 14 read the newspaper. You read the 15 newspaper. 16 All them people with them jobs. 17 There was a guy working in a nursing home 18 murdering people for years. 19 When he got his job, he didn't have 20 no criminal record. All right. It was -- It's people, it's state troopers, it's policemen out here. We got the rape cases on the news. When they got their jobs, they did not have criminal records. They went from good to 246 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 bad. So who's to say that people cannot go the reverse way, from bad to good? And I ain't never met a brother that come home from jail and say, that's the place to be. I want to go back. Like it was a vacation. Jail works. It works very well. What don't work is, after we get out we can't get jobs. And you got babies to feed. You got a house. You don't want to be homeless. And a lot of people that do go back, they're just strong people trying to fight. They may not -- And they can't -- And it took me a whole lot, because I had a choice to make last year when I got fired from my job again just because I had a criminal record. I got a performance review that says I was excellent. But I had a choice to make. Rob, what you going to do? You can go back to hustling which may lead you back to jail or... You know what? It's time to go talk to these politicians, because I'm 247 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 not a young boy no more. And I understand things. And then on that note, I'm looking at the children now, because I got a son 15. And I'm looking at him and his friends. And I've been down to the Youth Study Center, 20th and Pennsylvania recently. It's the same thing happening all -- happening all over again. The young African Americans are catching cases. All right. And now they'll tell you, like when I was a young boy, they would tell you if you did something before you were 18, when you turned 18, your record get changed. They changed the laws. Now the children's felonies are going to stick with them.
So, as we're thinking about youth network, getting all the children's jobs and things, I'm thinking about all the African American children from come from deprived families, may not have parents in the families, that have year-round, full-time employment, that may have a 248 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 parent that is incarcerated and not their father, so that's a lack of guidance in that family. I'm looking at all this, and I'm seeing this problem about the repeat itself for the third time. Because you see, my generation was the second time. My father and them went through the jails, even though I think they did it for a different reason. They did it per the civil rights movement. But it's just always African Americans going to jail. And I think it's time for us to take a look at the laws which is why we got Title 18. Expungement. You can't get your record expunged until you're 70 years old. Life expectancy is 70 years old. Social Security Act says that young people -- Social Security Act that -- I forget what year -- Social Security Act, though, says that young people need to be working to put money into their Social Security funds so that they have something 249 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 when they get old. All these people that got criminal records that are being disenfranchised from employment, if the government don't care about them now, what they going to care about them when they 65 and they got no 8 Social Security? What we going to do with them then? What we going to do about the crime rate? Do you think people are just going to lay down and die? No. We going to have -- The crime rate is going to get worse, more innocent people. And innocent people is me. You may think I have a record, but I'm afraid of crime, too. When I walk -- When I go home today because of the way I look, the next cat that's broke or broke for the last week don't know I ain't got a job. Crime is a serious problem. I see crime being fixed, a large part of it -- I don't think it will solve the whole problem -- but a large part of it is about 250 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 discrimination in employment. I got a paper here -- We went through this. We got House Joint Resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, respecting the rights to a home. This one is proposing an amendment to the Constitution, respecting the rights of full employment and balanced growth. What I'm trying to say -- National Right to Work Act. Families Act. We got a Living Wage Jobs For All Act. I'm mentioning these to you because it appears to me that our Congress knows. They got the right idea, but it's no sense of urgency here. These were on the table in 2003. It's 2004. Nobody's gotten a job. None of these bills have been passed. City Council -- I mean, we got Philadelphia City Code, Home Rule Charter, advancement of economic opportunities. Participation of minority businesses. Female and disabled owned businesses, City 251 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 contracts. We got a lot of good ideas on the table, but I don't see them coming to fruition. What I do see is, though, people are still unemployed. And the situation is getting worse. I joined the Mayor's Task Force in December. And I wanted to join the task force. I said to myself, I wonder how many months -- Because we schedule meetings every month. How many months are we going to schedule a meeting before anybody actually gets a job. December, January, February, March. We're going to have another meeting March 25th. That's four months. We still ain't figured out how to get the people jobs. And I'm trying to tell them that in the meantime, though, while we have jobs -- while you have jobs, and you can postpone this to next week, those people out there that done came past on 52nd Street, on 60th Street -- Because I live in West Philly but 252 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 I'm sure I don't know the streets up North Philly like that. Those people I pass? They put their lives on the line this morning.
They're out there selling drugs. They're out there committing crimes, and they going to jail before we get them jobs. There's a lack of a sense of urgency here. The President knows. I saw this newscast. The President is right. Ex-felons needs aid. Ex-felons need aid. Everybody knows. Let me tell you how long everybody been knowing. This is a summary of changes, the State Felon Disenfranchisement laws starts in 1865 in the State of Texas. Goes to 2003. States have been disenfranchising, and going all the way back. And this is not a racist statement. But it's always been, I suspect, African Americans that were being disenfranchised, no voting rights, no jobs. 1865 to 2003, disenfranchising people from voting rights 253 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 and jobs. How long before we start fixing the laws? And if I were to ask City Council anything, I would say, what we need, City Council, to do is band together and get the people of the City together because I realize that this is my fault; that we got to deal with the State. The State is another big entity. Then we got to look at the Federal government. So on a level of congruency, we need to get City Council together to working with the people so we can get a movement together to go to the State and let the State know that, no, you have to change these laws because it's detrimental to the economic growth of the City, to the citizens of the City who are residents. And I really need to know when a person is released from incarceration, does society, does the government, local and State government, really believe that this person has paid their debt to society? Is that why they were released? S. 4 Constitution, and Article 1 of 5 Pennsylvania's Constitution, I said to 6 myself, if you're disseminating criminal 7 history information, that's against our 8 constitutional right. 9 Because on Article 14 it says, all 10 natural born citizens of the United States 11 are just -- are afforded the rights -- and 12 I should have brought it, but I thought I 13 had it in my head -- are afforded the 14 rights of all free citizens. Article 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution says we are all born with certain indivisible and inherent rights, those which are the right to life, is one. Another one is the right to protect the reputation. S. Code disseminates criminal history information in reference to employment suitability purposes, well, how am I protecting my reputation when I go out 255 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 and look for a job? My reputation is being destroyed, so therefore I can't have this job. Now, in the hospitals, emptying trash cans... I can't even work -- I do administrative work now because I switched my skills, since I figured out maybe a couple years ago I couldn't work in hospitals and empty trash cans and wash dishes and food service. I said, well, use your computer skills, Rob. So now I go into administrative work. But I can't do administrative work. So, therefore, I'm like, stuck. And it looks to me like I'm supposed to be a hustler, I'm supposed to be a drug dealer or a thief or something. I'm a child of God. I refuse to be any of those bad things. I will come to the government. I will come to City Council. I been looking for the Mayor, too. I got a question for him. 256 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 Oh, yeah, because the Mayor -- You know, the brothers come to me on the streets because I talk the same stuff on the streets. I'm looking for the Mayor, but I always miss him by that much. Because I want to know, how come you got the energy and the money to send police out on the streets all the time. But when walk out, that you ain't never brought a job application. That's what we need, jobs. Not more cops. Give the brothers jobs, and then let's see. The minority. I say brothers. I mean the Hispanics, too, because when the last time I was in the jail, there were a lot of Hispanics in there, too. It was African Americans and Hispanics. What we need is jobs.
I say let's give out some jobs. Make sure people can get jobs, and then let's sit back and count and see how many criminals we got in our society. Because I don't think everybody's a 257 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 bad person. I think that crime, the way it's going down now, is a social -- it's a social problem. It's a social epidemic, simply because people are being disenfranchised from employment. I'm'a sum this up. I think I went through all these little acts and stuff. Here's another one, Chapter 900. This is Philadelphia City Code and Home Rule Charter, fair practices. But nowhere in the fair practices does it say people that have been released from jail and have criminal records should get fair treatment. That's why I read because I was looking for something to help myself. I don't see things like that in fair practices. Chance to Succeed Act. I guess that was for ex-offenders, but they didn't exactly word it right, so it really doesn't help. And that's what I do: I read things. It's in the word. Let me go to 258 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 the end so I can let somebody else speak. And we even got the 21st -- the Secretary, Department of Labor, 21st century work force. They have a whole new idea what the 21st century work force is going to be. It has nothing to do with African Americans. It last nothing to do -- Well, I shouldn't -- Let me rephrase that. It has nothing to do with African Americans that have been stigmatized by criminal histories records. And I'm wondering, okay, where do they fit into the 21st century work force? Or is it that we fit into job creation on the other side of job creation. Because, see, you can have job creation that creates more law enforcement officers. And then we are on the other side of job creation where we just keep getting -- going to jail. On the last note -- And like I said, John will talk about -- I'm sure he'll get really deep into the mortgage foreclosures, 259 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 you know, and get deep into the health care. I trust he will. This is the last thing I have. I was like, if I took the words off of this -- I just... Coming down here this morning, I was like, Rob, look at the magazine. Make your point with this. You take the words off of here. You see nothing but African American males to this day still going to jail at higher rates. It's not only the wrappers. It's the ball players. It's the actors. It's the poor ones. We're still being disproportionately represented in the court systems, because we're being disadvantaged -- we're being picked up on the streets, harassed on the streets. As a matter of fact, yeah, I got an example. There was a highway trooper. And I didn't know why, but he damn near rammed me over two nights ago coming out of the parking lot in the mall 57th and Vine. And when I stopped so I wouldn't get 260 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 ran over, they stopped and gritted on me. One word out my mouth? He would have threw me up against the car. I would have had to go down the station, maybe had to make another deal. So I kept my mouth shut, and I swallowed my manhood. But I felt some sort of way that the cops were still in the neighborhood harassing the brothers. That was a case I could have took. And if I'd have took that case, I might not have been here today. Like I said, it was like a day or two ago. I could have still been sitting waiting to see the bail commissioner on something I didn't do. It's dangerous out there for us. And brothers don't want to go to jail. They want to get jobs. You think I don't love my son? Enough to not do something wrong? I told my son, I love you enough that pop won't go back to jail. Before I'll go back to jail, I'm'a take this to 261 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 the President. Ya'll just happen to be on the way to the President. Thank you. ) COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Thank you, Mr. Ravanell.
I've learned one big lesson from you, that you came very well prepared, and you gave a very articulate presentation of the things that you know in this area of unemployment, from personal knowledge. And you have stated very sharp the issues of ex-offenders. And because you gave such an eloquent testimony, I'll make sure that the next time I see you in this chamber, I'm not going to let you wait so long. Okay? I believe Councilman Goode is going to ask a question. Then we're going to move on and get statements from the other people on the panel. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Good afternoon. Just a couple of responses. First and foremost, I agree with you 262 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 wholeheartedly that there should be anti-discrimination laws or included anti-discrimination laws should be laws that do not law discrimination against ex-offenders. So we completely agree about that. We also both acknowledge that that has to happen on a State and Federal level. And you will probably have a commitment from most if not all members of this Council in that regard. Until we get to that point, and particularly if we do not get to that point, particularly looking at the makeup of the State and Federal legislators, the truth of the matter is that there's two perspectives I really want to give to you in your quest to do what is see is being very mission minded. When you ask a question, particularly when you direct a question to City Council or the Mayor or the Governor or the President, who's going to give the brothers jobs, you begin to realize that 263 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 the answer to that question is going to have to be us, and not us meaning City Council, but meaning we're going to have to employ ourselves and employ people within our communities. There's a whole separate set of issues involved in that. But we know that, in terms of low income and minority communities, the more small business development you have there, the more you're going to have people within those communities employing people within those communities and less likely to discriminate. So the first thing to begin to think about is strategies toward our employing ourselves, either self-employment or starting small businesses. And that's a big part of it. And the other thing I've tried to deal with today, and I think has been dealt with from a number of different people testifying, is the fact that there is a disconnect between work force development 264 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 and economic development. But I'm going to give you another perspective, in terms of what that disconnect really is. People within work force development deal with people. People within economic development deal with businesses. And they have completely separate sets of principles, and the two do not talk. So the people who are most focused on unemployment are not the people talking to businesses. And so I was asked to address a work force development conference as part of a panel about a year-and-a-half, two years ago, and almost turned it down, I said, because they're not going to like what I have to say. And people advised me to just go ahead and say it. And I'm actually beginning -- At that point I actually began to realize how frustrated I was with work force development people who knew their training people where there were not opportunities 265 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 at the end of the line, and how frustrated I was with economic development people that were supposedly creating jobs but not monitoring job creation, not targeting those jobs toward Philadelphia, not targeting those jobs towards work force development clients, and that really in the end, what we were doing in terms of job creation really made no sense.
Because we have tens of millions of dollars focused in one direction toward training not leading to jobs and tens of millions of dollars if not hundreds of millions of dollars focused on economic development, not securing jobs for people not only that we are supposedly training but other people who are unemployed here. So I just offer those two perspectives. Yes, we can support anti-discrimination laws really protecting the rights of ex-offenders as American citizens, and as citizens within the Commonwealth and the City, but in the end there's some things we can straighten out 266 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 between work force development and economic development. Even when I left on a break here, began to even talk about legislation to try to give Council some oversight, in terms of work force development which we have not had, which we need to have because just too many resources there, the need to better coordinate what we do in terms of economic development, but also leave you with the particular perspective that when you ask a question who's going to give the brothers jobs, in the end it's going to be us, so we have to focus on small business development within the hood so we can employ ourselves.
When you say we have to give ourselves jobs, I understood that. But when you say small business development, I go right back to, we ain't got no money. We can't get no loans, so how are we going to do any -- And let me say something 267 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 else. The gentleman from Temple here that didn't know anything about entrepreneurship -- I was the vice president of entrepreneurial -- I went to Temple. I was the vice president of the Entrepreneurial Student Association. I'm sitting here and I'm like, he don't know nothing about it, huh. I did that, the whole entrepreneurial thing. I worked with the small business association. I worked with the Chamber of Commerce when I was in college. Trust me. You need these funds. We cannot get loans. We don't have anything saved up. Could you explain to me how are we going to start a small business.
That is absolutely my number one focus not only in Council right now but the last term. To tell you some of the things we've done, so you're a little bit better educated about it, we had 30 banks that were authorized to receive City deposits. We passed fair lending and community 268 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 reinvestment and depository compliance, linked deposit legislation last term that said that unless the banks that hold our money which is basically about a quarter of a billion dollars on a daily basis, tell us what they're going to do in terms of home mortgages, home improvement loans, small business loans, community development investments within low and moderate income communities, they can't hold our money. If they don't tell us, they have to give us the money back. And furthermore, if they don't report it by a certain time, we take away their authorization to even hold our money. We reduced the number of our City depositories from 30 to 7. Those seven banks had to actually commit to lending goals. And the first time they committed to those lending goals was last year. We just received as of within the last few days the lending goals for this year. I can tell you two things: One, 269 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 those lending goals have increased; and, two, they exceeded their goals for last year. The last thing I'll tell you is that, you know, actually ten days from today we will be dealing with the issue of small business lending in low income and minority communities specifically, because I believe the access to capital is a big part of what precludes us from starting businesses. It's not the technical capacity. It's not the entrepreneurial spirit, but the access to resource, the access to capital, the access to credit. And we'll be dealing with that very directly within Council. And furthermore, what we're going to be calling on the Mayor to do as part of this half a billion dollar economic development capital fund is to set up a loan guarantee fund to fill those credit gaps within those target areas. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Thank you, 270 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 Councilman Goode. Let us proceed with the hearings. How about the two gentlemen that are right there in front of the microphones? If you can step forward, state your name, and if it's appropriate to identify yourself with an organization, please do so.
Thank you, Chairman, and Council members. My name is Ray Jones. I am a program director at Impact Services. And I have with me John Lefwich and Joe Mumford, who are program managers in programs working with ex-offenders at Impact Services. I will be very brief. I want to say, first of all, that I agree totally with Councilman Goode in describing what the issue is, and the issue being that we have work force development and the funding for work force development going in one direction, and we have economic development and the funding for that going in another direction. And like two ships passing in the night, they do not see each other and 271 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 they are not communicating. If we do nothing else, I want to emphasize the importance that to make this work, it needs to improve communication across the board. Let me just make a few brief statements. Nationally 30 percent of the adult population has a criminal offense at sometime in their past. Dealing with the ex-offender is a critical part of solving the labor pool issues in Philadelphia. And ex-offender programs work best when they concentrate on leading the criminogenic needs of those offenders. And by criminogenic needs, I mean the needs to meet employment, substance abuse, and interpersonal and anger management skills. 85 percent of all Philadelphia prisoners are in jail for drug and alcohol related crimes. That, to me, tells me that income and economic issues are the primary reason why these individuals are incarcerated, employment being the most 272 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 important factor in reducing recidivism. And in doing that, it requires us to talk to employers about how their needs can be met and how their fears can be answered. And we need to start that dialogue. Some of the things that we are doing in our programs starting that dialogue is by educating employers as to why they should hire ex-offenders, making it cost effective to hire ex-offenders by creating ways that we can improve, especially for small businesses, their screening and identification process of eligible clients. Things like Federal bonding and tax credits are also another means of helping them in that regard. I'm going to give the mike to Mr. Lefwich, and he's going to talk about some of the things that we do with our ex-offenders, in terms of getting them ready for employment.
Good afternoon. We'd like to believe that the first thing we need to do with our ex-offenders as they 273 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 come from the criminal justice system --
John Lefwich. -- is to de-stigmatize them, for somehow in our community it's gotten so that a guy can go away for five years, come back with a master's degree and he's nobody. You go to jail [sic] for five years, come home, you're a hero. We have to change the thought process. It seems that now we have a situation where some cultures have become legitimized by the society and the whole subculture of not working, of being in that mentality that's not part of the mainstream is acceptable in our communities. So we'd like to deal first to change their thinking, see themselves as not anything, but as a man or a woman, and to the boldness of that to the job market, marketing their skills. We do this by providing them with a lot of strong case management. We use a 274 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 lot of inspirational stuff to help them understand that their problems aren't personal; they're universal. And we ought to fight for the same things. We do not allow them to become something apart from everyone else, because it doesn't matter what your background is if you're going to build a future. You can always change your future but you can't change your past. We help them to know their legal rights. We show them how to deal with things, identify their skills. Most ex-offenders have skills, but they've been told -- We're not so bad psychologically that they think they don't have it, so they have no worth. But we help them re-define themselves, and to... I guess, as Joe said -- he'll tell you about it -- It's natural to give them a fish sandwich. If you give them some string, some rope, and point them towards the water, to become self-sufficient. 275 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 I think at Impact, our slogan is to empower people. And we figure we can empower ex-offenders because they come with a desire. If they committed a crime, they was trying to do something. So they have a desire for money. We want to channel that into a positive way: Life skills, case management, child preparation, and help them understand the job market and understand what is available. Presently we're working with Codap, program called How, and helping offenders to work. And people are saying that our results are unusual because some of them not only get jobs, they maintain jobs. But that's only because of the fact that we help see them as people and just help to de-stigmatize them, and don't let them go around telling folks when they see them right away, I'm an ex-offender, I'm a ex- -- I'm a recovering addict. Let's lose the labels, and come out to the job market talking about your skills, and see what 276 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 happens. In terms of the placement piece of our thing, Joe Mumford is responsible for that. I'll let Joe talk about how he finds them jobs, helps them move into the job market and be successful.
Thank you, John. Again, my name is Joe Mumford. And I am the placement person for the HOW program. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: What program?
HOW, H-o-w. And that stands for Helping Offenders Work. And everyone that comes through our program is an ex-offender. One of the ways that we've been successful with helping offenders get back or get to work is that we don't let them go the traditional route of finding a job. We try to give them two or three different levels of ways to pursue on the job market, not just the want ads, not just the word of mouth, not just networking, but a combination of those things, and in 277 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 addition to trying to use every resource that you can to get yourself to work. And like John said, we try to de-stigmatize them, and we try not to let them call themselves -- don't look at yourself as an ex-offender, and I think in many cases people won't look at you as an ex-offender. Now, if it's not the first thing out of your mouth, if you don't go to the job interview looking like an ex-offender -- and I don't mean looking like an ex-offender, but I mean going in not wearing a suit and tie, and not wearing a shirt and tie -- You have to look a certain way, and speak a certain way, and people will, in many cases, won't even bring it up. I think that one of the things I battle all the time is employers who I have to convince to hire ex-offenders. And that's probably the toughest job, but it's necessary. You know, I try not to let them come 278 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 back three months later and find out somebody's an ex-offender. Tell them up front, and sell them on the idea that ex-offenders do have things to offer. I mean, they have skills to offer like anyone else. And that shouldn't be held against them. And so, I think part of what we have to do is to work on the employment sector to get them -- Although the laws haven't changed and some company's attitudes haven't changed because they just had a long-standing policy that they don't hire ex-offenders. And especially since 9/11, jobs -- employers have tightened up on doing background checks and not employing ex-offenders. I think we must spend a lot of our time just trying to educate employers that just because someone has -- as that gentleman said -- has been bad doesn't mean they can't be good, and be good for your company or for your organization. 279 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 And so, that's what we try to do. And it has been successful. So we work on it from both ends, from the ex-offender as an employee or potential employee and also to the employer, to try and educate them that, listen, you got to hire these people. Otherwise, they're going to cost you money. If they're out in the community doing wrong, it's going to cost you money in taxes, it's going to cost you money in your own business, it's going to cost your customers. They got to live somehow. So why not put them to work and give them an opportunity to make a legitimate living, rather than turning them away and have them go out and commit a life of crime? I mean, it's just not economics. It doesn't make sense. It's not logical. You can take a chance on someone, and if that person pays off, it opens the door for quite a few other people. Thank you. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Thank you 280 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 for your statement. The next person, please. MR. DiMASCIO: We send people to prison to punish them -- COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Your name, please. MR. DiMASCIO: We ought not to be looking for ways to punish them after they get out. My name is William DiMascio. I'm the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Prison Society. And I thank the Chairman and men and women of City Council for this opportunity to speak to you about this very important issue. The Prison Society is actually the oldest prison reform organization in the world. We've been around for 216 years. And much of our work is devoted to advocating for a just, humane, and restorative correctional process. We work with inmates and ex-offenders here in the community.
With me is Miss Minnie Moore 281 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 Johnson, who's been program manager for us for our reentry services project, and she's worked in that field for several decades. We actually run four different reentry programs at the present time. We've been involved in this work for almost a decade, long before reentry became a hot word around town or around the country, actually. When I started at the Prison Society about six years ago, we were dealing with somewhere between 300 and 400 clients each year. Last year our numbers were up over 1200, and the projection for the coming year is that we'll exceed 3,000. We are overwhelmed. The population that we're talking about is growing, and is extremely needy. In Pennsylvania more than 90 percent of all prisoners are going to be coming home some day, coming back to our neighborhoods. And it's important to understand 282 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 what the numbers are. They're staggering. There's more than 78,000 prisoners in State and county facilities in Pennsylvania. Doesn't count Federal facilities or others. 78,000 men and women. The Philadelphia County system rotates approximately 35,000 people through its doors each year. This alone points to an immense task of assisting these ex-offenders to find meaningful means of support to stay out of prison and become productive citizens. Statistically the most significant factor that determines whether a person will go back to prison is gainful employment. Countless studies have shown this. Recently the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections reported in a study that post-release employment strongly and significantly reduced the likelihood of drug relapse, rearrest and re-incarceration. In fact, the studies show that full-time employment reduces significantly 283 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 the likelihood of relapse into drug use. As the studies suggest, employment of ex-offenders serves the economic interest of the community. It also helps to stabilize our communities. Unfortunately, however, ex-offenders face many barriers to employment. A lack of education and vocational skills make it difficult to enter the work force. This is especially true of released men and women who have been in prison sometimes for a decade or more, and who, if they had skills when they went to prison, those skills have become obsolete while they've been there. Furthermore, many of the very jobs that ex-offenders can do are being denied to them. Legislatures around the nation are passing laws that require background checks and deny certain kinds of employment to people with criminal records. In Florida, for example, legislation is being considered that would require background checks for any service worker 284 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 entering someone's home. Here in Pennsylvania the legislature is considering a bill called Man's Law. This would require background checks for all hotel workers who have access to guest rooms. You know, at first glance, these initiatives seem to make good sense. They are ways of protecting the public. But what really happens is that they create a false sense of security for employers, while further demonizing ex-offenders. And I think really at the heart of this problem is the fact that we have demonized so many people who have gone to prison, for whatever reason. That makes it so much more difficult for them to get reestablished after they come back. Neither the correctional system nor the legislature can solve reentry issues or employment for ex-offenders in isolation. Partnerships really need to be developed with state and national 285 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 organizations and associations for the development of employment for ex-offenders in skilled and technology based jobs.
More importantly, policy makers at all levels, but especially at the local level, need to collaborate with agencies and non-profit organizations that assist men and women with complex -- with the complex process of reentry, organizations such as you're seeing on this panel right here. We can't do it alone. We really need help. Last Saturday, the New York Times ran an editorial that commended President Bush for recognizing the needs of ex-offenders in his State of the Union Address. At the same time the article 20 criticized him because he only allocated $300 million as a budget which was woefully inadequate for the task. The article concluded -- and I'm quoting here -- more money is needed to make this initiative more than a gesture. 286 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 In addition, the country will need to change its attitude before it can reincorporate the millions of ex-offenders who stand at the margins of society with no 6 clear way into the mainstream. What we would like to leave with you today is the fact that consistent gainful employment is the single most important factor in reducing the number of people that go back to prisons. Therefore, it's the single most important factor in reducing crime and in keeping our community safe. Thank you. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Thank you, Mr. DiMascio. The gentleman to the right of Ray Jones, I believe you're next.
Good afternoon. My presentation. My name is Titus Hakim Brown. I work for Ready, Willing and Able. My presentation will be cut tremendously down because everybody here has just said everything I was going to 287 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 say. So I can just say ditto to what they have to say. What I'll do is, I'll just do a personal profile. Like the brother Ravanell, I believe his name is, has said about being a ex-offender... I'm an ex-marine. I'm a ex-Boy Scout. I have a bachelors degree. I'm a grad student at Temple. Hopefully, if I do this paper by tomorrow I'll be out in May. I'm a Who's Who on Universities and Campuses in United States. And I've traveled maybe six or seven countries, including Europe, Asia and Africa. I'm also a ex-offender. I've spent perhaps 15 years in prison, 12 years straight. It's very ironic that I'm here today. While I was sitting and waiting to be heard, I received a phone call from a Miss Delicia Brown at the Philadelphia CFCF, telling me that my application for a job was still being considered as a case manager, Social Worker II. 288 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 And the reason why was because of my extensive police record, and that the Commissioner wanted to interview me personally. And I just had to smile because I told her where I was at the time, and what the topic was, about getting jobs for ex-offenders, you know. In my job -- And Ready, Willing and Able is a program that believes in work. It's a work ethic program designed to bring homeless men from the shelters in the street to independent living and full-time employment. Because we deal with men who come through the homeless system, nine out of ten of them have police records. Although I am going to be employed, hopefully, for the City because I need the benefits from being unemployed for so long, the job I have now I love. I work with a 35-man case load. And I get the opportunity to avail them of all my years of wisdom of hard flocks. 289 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 And one of the problems that we've run into is, when we are able to encourage these men to get up every morning at 6:30 and to take two urines a week, and to work till 3:30, and to save 30 to 60 dollars a week out their pay, and to go to NA meetings and out-patient and AA meetings and anger management and impulse control, and go down to the domestic court and start paying their arrears, and to go over to traffic court and start paying their fines, and go to probation officer to start paying restitution, and they do this, and in the 9th to the 12th month when we send them out on job search, they come back frustrated and disappointed and disillusioned. Those that are able to get jobs get jobs that don't have a living wage, and they end up several months out of our program failing to be able to maintain themselves. Fortunately, we have a family attitude, and we allow them to come back and we help them start again. 290 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 I worked for the Prison Society when I first came home as a volunteer. And me and Mrs. Moore have talked on the phone a long time. She doesn't remember me. She's never seen me. One of the guys I did time with in prison, Hiawatha, works with ya'll. And the other one works in the Mayor's Office, Mr. Stephen Blackburn. And all these guys are guys who have came through the system and have gotten involved with working with other offenders, trying to make their life smooth. Employment is really a problem for us. Employment and addiction are the two things that keep our guys locked in. If we're able to lessen their burden with employment, I think they'll cut their chances better than half, that they'll be able to stay away from their addictions and survive. I'll give you one quick story. As a young man -- If you walk into our facility today, one of the gentleman on security 291 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 came from the prison system as a young man. And we go to the prison system and give a presentation monthly.
He came into our program, and he's now in his 10th month, and we have him working on security. You know what? As a social worker, I just realized I... if I finish this story, I'll violate some confidentiality. But this young man came back to me when a friend of his was killed in the streets, shot down. And he wanted to get involved. He didn't know what to do. He wanted to revert back to his old ways. And he literally cried in my office because he felt as though he was doing a disservice to his buddy by not going out in the street and shooting the guy that shot him. And I sat there and talked with him and showed him how he had changed, how his focus had changed, his goals had changed, his directions had changed, and how that trepidation that he had in his heart about going out and doing this crime was evidence 292 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 that he had went from, like Mr. Ravanell had said, from a bad guy to a good guy. And we need to help a lot more of those gentlemen transform from bad guys to good guys, or in some cases they were good guys all the time. They just needed to be given the opportunity. Thanks for hearing me. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Thank you, Mr. Brown. Thank you for your testimony. Miss Minnie Moore Johnson, do you care to add anything?
Thank you. Good afternoon. Most of what has been said I echo, and I wholeheartedly support the efforts of all the agencies. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: I'm sorry. Can you, for the record, repeat your name, please.
Minnie Moore Johnson. I'm the program manager of the Pennsylvania Prison Society. And as I said, I echo a lot of the things that have been said wholeheartedly. 293 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 And I've been here for a while today listening to a lot of the testimonies. And the only -- I'm just a tad more optimistic about the employment situation for ex-offenders. We work very, very hard to train people. We don't do job training, but we do life skills training. And our life skills training is not typical, because the Pennsylvania Prison Society -- and we've already been told that they've been in existence for 216 years. But they've been there from the beginning, with dealing with the issues of people of incarcerations and ex-offenders and the families of ex-offenders. My work here with the Pennsylvania Prison Society over the last almost ten years has been in a direction of dealing with employment for the ex-offender and dealing with the employers. My concept for getting people employed and making sure that the employers understand what the situation is is that, 294 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 yes, I do go out; I do have meetings with large agencies and large corporations to talk to them about the possibility of hiring ex-offenders, and what their stand is, and try to convince them that there is a possibility that they can work with our agency and with the ex-offenders that are coming home, to make sure they get good jobs, paying decent salaries, with full benefits. The one thing that makes me a little more optimistic about the people that come through the Pennsylvania Prison Society's program is that I believe in teaching them independence. I believe that, yes, we are an agency that you've come to to get the help that you need. But our goal is to get you independent, not just welfare but independent of the going back to the same agency and revolving door kind of situation, looking for work. And what we try to encourage them to do is, part of the problem with people 295 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 getting employed is not their criminal history, but the acceptance of the criminal history by the employers. Part of what I'm trying to say is that there are a lot of people applying for the wrong work. And so what I try to encourage them to do is, obviously, if you have fraud or bank charges or some of those kinds of things, you won't apply for a job at a bank. But what I've asked -- Some of the Council people know me, and I've spoken to them about it. And I would suggest that as a coalition of agencies who are all out here trying to achieve the same goal of getting employment for ex-offenders, that we may be able to work in unity for trying to get some sort of legislation passed where that we get tax credits from the Federal Government, we get credits from the State, that maybe there's something that the City can offer to employers who will hire ex-offenders, that will allow for those tax credits in that way. 296 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 Maybe we can, instead of saying that it's all on the Federal government and the Federal Government saying it's all on the State and it's reversed, and it's back to us, because we're the ones that are sitting with people holding their hands every day trying to tell them that everything is going to be all right; that some of these very employers that you're going to see are ex-offenders themselves. You have to be able to know how to approach them. But if we do this in a concerted effort, if we all sit together, the 15, 15 or 30 people that we're here today, 16 combined with the 300 or 400 other agencies 17 who are now faced with the problem of 18 servicing ex-offenders. 19 As an example of what I'm trying to 20 say, because the Pennsylvania Prison Society has been doing ex-offender work for so long, there is a large, large list of organizations which include the Mayor's Office of Community Services, Impact Services.
The list goes on and on of 297 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 organizations who have sought us out to ask for our advice, based on the experience that we've had working with ex-offenders. A lot of the programs that are being funded now are receiving an enormous volume of people who need their service, will also have the stigma of felony or misdemeanor conviction, and the agency has not the experience or the staff to be able to handle the large volume. And believe me: This is like church. You can find one on every corner because there's a population so large that there are people to be saved. So that there is always good work to be done. And there are a lot of people willing to do the good work. It's not a competitive effort because there's too many people. The numbers we're giving, we're talking about 57,000, 35,000. We're not going to be able to service all those people. And there's no one individual agency in the City that can handle those kinds of numbers. 298 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 If we work concertedly with the City to try to encourage employers to look at and consider the ex-offender population, and give them some incentives, as the State and the Federal government are willing to do, then maybe we can increase employment for all the ex-offenders of the City of Philadelphia. Thank you so much. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Thank you, Miss Johnson. At this time what I'll do is, I'll defer to my two colleagues for any questions that they might have of this very articulate panel, the issue primarily of ex-offenders and their right to employment. Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, please.
I agree with my colleague. I think you stated the problem and stated it very, very well. The numbers are actually overwhelming. And I know it's just increasing. And I'm sure it's doubled, 299 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 say, in the last five, ten years. When those numbers were actually presented, I said, wow. You know, what can we do? What can we realistically do to help 35,000, 70-something thousand, I think the number said. And I had also thought that perhaps some type of tax credit at the City level would help. But can you explain to me -- I think it was the gentleman sitting there in front of the picture. I'm sorry. I forgot your name.
Ray Jones. Okay. You mentioned a Federal bonding program? Can you explain that? Because someone mentioned that to me. As a matter of fact, it was a ex-offender. I was in another office in Germantown. Said he had applied for a job. And I said, well, do you think they 300 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 would hire ex-offenders? And he says, well, there's a bond program. Can you explain that to me, that would guarantee any losses that this particular -- and I don't want to call the employer's name. It was a retailer, a large retailer -- would guarantee any losses that they may incur.
That's correct. There's a Federal bonding program that is available, either through agencies or individuals. We have bonds that we have purchased, to use as a mechanism with employers, as an additional carrot, if we have somebody who is wavering on somebody hiring one of our program participants. And they feel that they would be more secure knowing that any loss that occurs due to this person being hired is covered by the bond. And the bond is an excellent mechanism to help that employer realize 301 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 that he is secured, insured, to hire this person and that that loss is covered. It is a dollar amount, but it can also be over a length of time. So, the bond can last for six months to a year or it can be for a higher dollar amount, depending upon how that employer feels it could be best used.
When you go out and you're recruiting and talking to employers, you're explaining to them about the incentives and also about the bond program...
...et cetera Okay. What is your success rate? How many people are you actually placing? 302 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04
I'll speak about my particular program which is a program called Fathers at Work Initiative.
And we have worked with over 330 men in the last three years. We have placed over 72 percent of them, and over 85 percent are still working.
Our figures are about the same. The difference is that we are working now with four different programs, and our criteria for each program is -- Well, the criteria is employment, but in some of those instances we're doing extensive management with them, and placing them with mentors to help them through the process when they're not employed and the questions they may have. Bill, do you want to... MR. DiMASCIO: Yeah. Actually, one of the programs, one of our largest 303 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 programs, doesn't require actual placement. I mean, that's the goal we all shoot for. But that program is designed primarily to provide life skills and job readiness. And so, a lot of that happens. And once we're finished with that -- Unfortunately, we don't have the staff to work with the kind of numbers that we have to try and get everybody placed. But we can just provide some leads and have them go out and search on their own, then. So...
I noticed that most of the testimony today has described the ex-offender as male. And we do know -- You're very -- I don't know that anybody has mentioned the female offender. Maybe someone did. I was in and out of the room. But we also have a growing number of female offenders here in Philadelphia. Is it any easier to place a female than it is to help a male?
Well, I can kind of address that part of it. 304 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 One of our programs, the Industry Specific Initiative Program through DPW, we work predominantly with female ex-offenders. And the difference -- It is a huge difference in the placement process, because the female ex-offender comes with an entirely different set of baggage, in terms of what her obligations are. She is far more likely to have issues with DHS, far more issues with drug and alcohol, and being in a recovery and then the treatment. So that her process for becoming employed, even though there are a great many men who are experiencing the exact same situation, predominantly every woman that comes to us is facing those, whereas, if we get 15 men, we may end up with 10 men who are facing issues with DHS or actually in a recovery program. Most of the men come to us has had a felony or criminal conviction but they are work ready. 305 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04
Excuse me. The Hire Program, all the people that come through there, both men and women, are ex-offenders and with substance abuse histories. And we found out that the women come with a lot more skills, because it's primarily a service market that's out there, service industry will be providing the jobs in customer service, receptionist. And it's just a matter of getting them to handle the issues that Miss Johnson just talked about, and getting them to start to believe in themselves, self esteem. And women can make an easier transition into employment once they get their home based somewhat solidified, because we're at an age where we need to recognize that it's about service industries which will invariably allow women a lot of latitude towards getting jobs, whereas, there's no longer the factories that men used to work in. 306 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 But there's going to be the leisure activities, the receptionists, the hostesses, the hotels, the gambling casinos. All these things here require skills that women have. And once we get through life skills, worlds of work, the issues with the children, we can make them prepared for working. We've seen women go on to make extraordinary employment, like... I want to mention some of the jobs for the women that we've gotten, but some of my colleagues are jobs in society that women are now making, even though they are ex-offenders.
I would like to add, too, that the females, as he said, have more marketable skills. And I'm proud to also say that at the Pennsylvania Prison Society, we do not have any minimum wage positions. Where we send them out, our average wage has been $8.65 with full benefits. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Good for 307 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 you. Do the members of the Committee have any further questions for this panel?
Remember I said that the Pennsylvania Department of Labor sent me a whole lot of unuseful information?
That was about the bond program and the tax incentives, because, see, what it wanted you to do was... Let me say this: The bond program? You better have came home in the last year or two. I been home for 15 years having a problem getting a job. So the bond problem wouldn't work for me. Also, a tax incentive program. All that goes back -- When someone here was talking about the private sectors, the way they think about us. That requires you to walk up and say, hey, I'm a bad person, but 308 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 the government will cover -- they'll pay you some money if you hire me. It's not what we're trying to do. I mean, that doesn't seem to have the effect that I want. I don't want to walk in somewhere and say, hey, I used to be a bad person, but I'm a good person now. But if you hire me, the government's going to give you some money, plus they'll insure me because, you know, I'm a felon. That ain't the way you go into a interview and try to present yourself. And I apologize to Mr. DiMascio and Miss Minnie Moore. Real quick. Real quick. Because I did this at another meeting. I'm not getting on you. You try your best, and you do a lot of good things. But you know I went through your training program. And I have a problem with services that don't work. These people provide a service. I'm on the other end. I talk to a lot of brothers. And it wasn't just me. When I tried to send 309 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 people to your program at the Prison Society, brothers that had already been there said, they got the same jobs they had last year. My problem was -- And you know what my problem was. I had to come back. A lot of brothers -- A lot of minorities, men and women, are coming home from these institutions. They don't have I.D. So we go to a program such as the Prison Society, and we sit there through a training program. But when it's time for us to get a job -- and I know because I just did it -- my I.D. is expired because I didn't have the money to get a new one. I wasn't driving. The Mayor took my car during the anti-blight program. So there was no need for me to be pressed about getting my driver's license renewed. It was still stayed active. I got my Temple I.D. I got my Social Security card, but because I did not have up-to-date I.D. I went to a training class, and I was told at the end of the 310 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 training class that I could not receive a job placement services because I did not have proper I.D. to go on a job interview. And that was at the Prison Society. And I'm not getting on them and putting them on the spot.
Let me finish. Let me finish what I'm saying. There were several people that left. And it's not -- COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Point of order. Make it short. We need to wrap it up. And we don't want you to... We're the ones doing the engaging.
Okay. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Okay. We 311 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 don't want you to engage the other panelists, please.
What I was trying to say -- COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: We'll wrap it up.
I wasn't directing at them, because it was PDWC two years ago had a program called the Pilot Program. They got Federal funds. But nobody got jobs, and the program is now closed down. Nobody got jobs, because we all had records. And it wasn't because -- just because we all had records. It was because grown men had to go back. They're probably homeless, living with their grandmothers or their girlfriends. They had to go back and get letters stating about someone else's income. And all these grown men wanted were jobs. So just what I'm trying to say is, we have a lot of programs. And what I'm afraid of is, we're about to set up a whole 312 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 lot of new programs that don't work.
So that does that require setting up new programs or not?
No. What I think it requires is, like I said -- and I'm sure that --
What you said was, we have a lot of programs. We don't want to set up a lot of new programs. Then I asked you, what do you want? You said, programs that work. So, do you want to change the programs or do you want new programs?
I'm sorry. I said something while you were talking. I'm sorry. 313 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04
You want to change the programs that exist or do you want new programs?
No. We could probably look at the programs that exist and just modify them, and make sure that they are covering because --
Let me give you an example. You spoke against targeted tax credits. I'm not sure you've done a full examination of how they might work, might not work. I happen to have authored the only local economic development tax credit legislation that exists in the City, particularly in my time, one targeted for community development corporations doing economic development in economically distressed areas which Impact is a beneficiary of. The other is a job creation tax credit program that now actually gives a tax credit of a thousand dollars per new job created to businesses. 314 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 And we could actually amend that program to provide a certain amount of tax credits per year for ex-offenders. And I already began a conversation with Councilman Ramos to Chair about that. And maybe you don't want to market yourself in that way when you're going to an employer. But maybe the next time there is a large business deal that takes place the City is participating in, in terms of public financing, that provides us the opportunity with the availability of those tax credits that we've set aside to set aside X amount of jobs with a bulk of incentives to employ a number of people at the same time. So, I appreciate your testimony all day, but don't believe you have all the answers.
No, I don't. I just have the experience, and that's all -- On that last note, I'll make it very short. And I'm sitting here. I'm like, it sounds again, what you just said, we have some 315 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 very good sounding programs. And like I said, they have a very good non-profit organization. But for some reason, it's not hitting the people that need it. And I'm one of the people. I was turned away -- I did not get to use those job services. I'm telling you. And I still am unemployed. And I went to the Prison Society. I've been to CareerLink. And that's the reason -- Let me comment -- That's the reason I'm coming to these hearings. That's why I'm going around places, because I am so sure that we have people with college degrees that have jobs that are working on this but we're not getting any answers. And I'm like, let me go down and let me say to them that these programs are not working.
I want to help you find them. I might not know them. And I'm 316 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 not being smart. But I think that, like, Tommy Simms and Wendel Holmes, the two gentlemen I came across that are not here, they're experts on this situation. They are gentlemen that have jail records and also college degrees. They are the experts on the situation. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Thank you, Mr. Ravanell. Donna Reed Miller, please.
I just want to state thank you for coming. And this is an issue -- The whole ex-offender in employment and reintegrating them back into society is an important issue that many, many people are talking about. I come from an employment and training background. And I worked in employment training for about nine years many years ago. And it reminded me when Brother Rob said that the Prison Society didn't tell him to get new I.D. You know, some things -- I know that our -- the way that 317 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 we work was to partner with the client. We just can't hold their hand and do everything. Getting an I.D. is something that is easy. So... But I think they're doing a lot of good work. I'm hoping that the prisons are actually training people so that when they get released, that their skills are up-to-date skills. I think in your -- in the Prison Society testimony or someone's testimony said that the jobs that people have when they went in are obsolete when it's time for them to come out. So these are all the kind of issues that I think we really have to look at, and to look at Councilman Goode's targeted tax credit, so we can figure out a way to work in the needs of ex-offenders. And that's one of the reasons why we're having these hearings today, to figure out what the problem is, and figure out how we can perhaps begin to address it, because as you're saying, the numbers are 318 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 increasing. Yes, Miss Johnson.
Yes. I just want to say one thing. Actually, two things. One is that the Pennsylvania Prison Society's Reentry Services Project, we won't even admit you without proper identification. And if you don't have it, we will get you your Social Security card, we will give you the money to get your photo I.D. We will do what it takes because you cannot get a job without it.
So when they come in the door, the first thing we ask for you to bring is a Social Security card and valid identification. And if you don't have it, we will assist you because we know you can't get work without it. The other thing I wanted to say about the tax credit, that, yes, the tax credit is available to people who need that extra incentive, those employers. But as the example given, what I 319 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 encourage people to do is that, yes, you have that tax credit. You have that available to the employer. When you go in to talk to them about that employment, when you say to them that I have the availability -- I have the ability to get a tax credit or to offer tax credits to you, that it's supposed to be done in such a way that it ensures them, the employer, that this is an addition, this is something to help you with your decision to hire me; that if the only reason you're not hiring me is because you think that your company's going to take a loss by theft or something being broken because of my being here, that there is a tax incentive for you available, a bond that is available to you, that will protect you against that, that will help encourage you in your decision to employ me, not so that you -- because I'm such a bad person that the State is willing to do that, but because you are such a good employer and you're willing to give me this opportunity 320 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 that these things are available to you.
Okay. Thank you. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Thank you all for being so patient on this day. Thank you for your very helpful testimony this afternoon. Are there any other people in Chambers?
Back in the back. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Yes. Anyone in Chamber who wishes to testify, please come to the table. Sir, can you just hold up for a minute. Can you bear with me just a few? John Dobbs from the Unemployment Project and people from his group have been here very patient also for a very long time, so please bear with me. John, can you come forward, please, John Dobbs.
Sorry we had to leave. We have a meeting at 3:00 with Sheriff 321 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 Green's office about the moratorium on Sheriff sales, that has sort of been our priority recently. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Mr. Dobbs, will you please state your name and title for the record, please.
Mr. John Dobbs. I'm Director of the Philadelphia Unemployment Project. And obviously, when we have the kind of unemployment we've had over the last number of years, there are consequences. We've talked about them with so many eloquent speakers. Our organization has come up with three particular problems we're facing with the unemployed. One is that unemployment benefits have run out, the Extended Benefits Program have run out as of December 31st. We've had the largest number of people run in history run out of their unemployment benefits in the months of January and February. 322 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 Close to 2 million Americans will run out of unemployment benefits in the next six months. 98,000 in the State of Pennsylvania alone will run out of their unemployment benefits. That's one thing that's a big problem facing the unemployed because we don't have enough work. I would also like to say that the economy of Philadelphia is affected by the national economy. All the work that we do, it's admirable, it needs to be done, but basically these are big economic forces that are knocking us around. We have lost two-and-a-half million jobs in three years. We've lost 700,000 jobs in the country since the recovery started. So we have had a recovery where we've lost jobs. This is you unprecedented. The wealth has been -- The gross domestic product has increased dramatically. Wages have not. All the gains in this recovery have gone to the business sector. Little of it's gone to 323 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 workers. Let me say one other problem we have... One of the big problems we have is people without health benefits as a result of this. Pennsylvania is for the fourth fastest growing numbers of people without insurance in the country. 3 million people without insurance now. We have a health insurance program that was started recently, Adult Basic, $30 a month for Blue Cross/Blue Shield, a great program. 72,000 people are on the waiting list for that program right now. One thing in City government that you can do and need to do is deal with the Public Health Centers. It's taken three to four months to get an appointment in a City Health Center right now. People, when they lose their jobs, lose their insurance, we refer them to the Health Centers. If you apply today, you won't get an appointment until June or July in the City Health Center. It almost means 324 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 they're closed to new patients. When you look at the City budget, you've got to get funds into that program. On top of that, for the uninsured -- and it's about 70 percent of the people using Health Centers are uninsured -- we need evening hours. Way too many people are working without insurance now. People coming off of welfare are losing their health benefits. They're working. They don't have all day to sit around in a Health Center. When you don't have -- When you get a job, your employer is not going to let you spend four hours to go see a doctor. So we need that. Lastly, and the thing we have -- why we do have to rush out of here is the Sheriff's sale numbers have gone through the ceiling in the City of Philadelphia as a result of foreclosures, as a result of this never -- this recession that doesn't end, the recovery that sees less people 325 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 working than more. In 1983 we had a moratorium on Sheriff sales in the State of Pennsylvania -- I mean, in the City of Philadelphia. In that month that Sheriff sales were stopped there were 320 Sheriff sales scheduled. March of this year or April this year, we're going to have 912 Sheriff sales in the City of Philadelphia. We went from in just -- from -- in January of 2001 we had 432 Sheriff sales. We're now over 900 a month people losing their homes in the City. It is a disgrace and an outrage. And something needs to be done. And one thing that Council can and should do is join with the Sheriff. The Sheriff Green very courageously postponed the sale for March.
We had over -- almost 600 families dodge the bullet. The meeting we have to go to right now is what's going to happen the next month, what's going to happen to these 326 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 folks. And City council has passed a resolution to join in a lawsuit to stop the sales. I think Council really needs to step up. I think there's a lot of pressure on the Sheriff. We need more time. We have got commitments from the State of Pennsylvania to assist families. The Hemat program is going to step in and do something to look at that 600 families that are scheduled for Sheriff's sale. But we need time. That's not going to happen in a month. There was a meeting on Thursday night for all the people that have been scheduled for Sheriff sale March and April. That's over 1200 -- What is it? Six and nine -- 1500 families. They're all going to be considered for help from the State. State that's unprecedented -- Assistance that shouldn't be given to them under the State laws. They're going to offer it to them. 327 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 But if the Sheriff sales happen on time, they'll be offered to help and they'll lose their homes before they get it. We need Council to join with the Sheriff and our organization to stop the sale in April or else we're going to have, like I said, over 1500 families lose their homes. And the impact on that, beyond the families and the communities, is devastating. I've been looking for a house lately. If you drive through a block and see abandoned, boarded-up properties, you don't want a house on that block. It destroys everybody's property values. We don't need 1500 families losing their homes on April 5th. We don't need 8, 900 a month. So, that's something that needs -- So those are some of the problems. We have unemployment benefits are out. There's no 24 health insurance. People losing their homes. 328 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 And of course, the main things, there's no work. It's a big problem for Council to deal with. We have big forces moving work to India, moving work to China. You know, we can struggle and make some jobs. But if this economy doesn't turn around on a big scale -- Philadelphia, by the way, is far below the national average. 7 percent for January 2004. 6. Whatever happens to the country, we get it double. And you know, all the tax breaks and all the programs in the world are not going to counteract the negative national economy. And the decisions are not being made in City Council. They're being made in corporate board rooms. They're making decisions to disinvest out of our communities. We need to take care of people who 329 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 are victimized by this until things come back. And you know, if we can find a way to get ahold of those corporate decisions -- Those same people who don't want to hire ex-offenders, those same people who don't want to hire minorities, they're making those decisions. And you know, it's very difficult. I don't know really how government gets on top of that, short of making some major, major changes of what we do. But we do have the need to take care of people that are caught up in this. And I'd like a couple of them to say some words here. Doreen Harrigan.
Yes. My name is Doreen Harrigan. And I'm a homeowner, and I became unemployed in the year of 2002. And because of my layoff, I started receiving unemployment. And that unemployment helped me to pay my mortgage. But when my unemployment ran out, I had no 24 fund. I couldn't find a job within that 330 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 time that I was on unemployment. So... I was at a loss for paying -- a loss of money to pay bills and mortgage, and... I'm sorry. My... I went to Philadelphia Unemployment Project where I learned that the loan that I had for my mortgage was predatory. I called the mortgage company to get help, but they didn't -- they didn't send the necessary papers on time which caused my house to go into foreclosure, which was up for Sheriff's sale in November. We formed a committee at Philadelphia Unemployment Project which helped us to talk with the people at HEMAP, to get them to approve loans that they had not approved in years. I think, since '83 they had not approved any loans. And they finally approved some of our loans. But some people, especially the FHA people, they're not getting their loans approved. Well, they're not getting any help at all. 331 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 And we're trying to get help, because we're being unemployed. We have no 4 health benefits. We have no money coming in. I can't even get welfare because I don't have children. I'm not in a drug and alcohol program, so I can't even get money to help me with that. I sell cakes. I do little odd jobs to get money to pay my bills because I can't find employment. I'm either over qualified, under qualified, too old, or they don't have anything. And I don't have any money at this time to do anything. There's no jobs out here. I worked as an administrative assistant. I thought I could get a job just like that, but I can't. There's no jobs out here. And I'm just asking for help, not just for myself, but for other people also. And a lot of us in our communities, we have taken these loans -- and I'm going back to the predatory lending -- we've taken these loans and not knowing that they were predatory loans. 332 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 And we're not -- We didn't know that the interest rate was as high as it was. I wouldn't have known -- I was just paying -- I was paying my mortgage payment not knowing. But when I couldn't pay it, then I found out that this loan was predatory, because they took too much out, and they gave me such a high interest rate I couldn't afford it. I couldn't afford it. I didn't know. I didn't know this. And a lot of people don't know in our communities that these people are ripping us off. We don't know. Then the mortgage companies, they don't send the necessary papers in time for us to get the help that they're supposed to be helping us with. And that causes people to lose their homes also, because by the time they do get the information, it's two, three months later the houses are up for Sheriff's sale. These people didn't know where to get help from, and the mortgage companies did not help them. 333 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Thank you, ma'am.
Hi. My name is Rhoda Husser. And like, I'm in a similar situation with her, as though my mortgage isn't late yet. I was unemployed come September 2003. And now my unemployment runs out next week, and I'm like at a standstill. I have no other income coming in. It's just me and my three children. And I just don't know what to do, as far as right now. What am I supposed to do? Where am I supposed to go? Who can I get to help me with my mortgage situation? Because I don't want to lose my house. You offer these programs that tell you about your first time homeowner, so I jumped on it, not knowing all these jobs is not secure any more. Now I lost my job. Been working over ten years. Now my job is gone. I went on -- I got on -- I was laid off, assuming I would go back, but now my job is 334 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 gone. So, I'm like, okay, what am I supposed to do? So I found out what these people -- And they told me to come here and let you guys know about my situation, that I'm not the only one. But it's a whole lot of us out here. So I just -- I'm asking for help, if you can extend the unemployment, that will help me until I find another job, because I am out there looking. You know, I am out there looking. And I'm not going to stop until I find something. Thank you. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Thank you.
Miss Husser, by the way, has an FHA mortgage. The FHA has no 18 program to assist homeowners facing foreclosures, or next to know programs, although we are meeting tomorrow with the HUD Regional Administration to see what kind of steps they're going to take, in light of the crisis in Philadelphia, the tripling of the Sheriff sales over the last three years. 335 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 So we're hopeful that that will get us something. But we do need to continue the moratorium on Sheriff sales right now. And like I said, it runs out April 5th. 1500 homes are scheduled on April 5th, so there hasn't been a lawsuit filed. We do need Council to join in any lawsuit that's going to go on, to stop the sales. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Both of you ladies went to the Philadelphia Unemployment Project. That has been of some -- I mean, some hope for you?
Well, not for me because they tell me I have to be -- In order for them to help me, I have to be three months behind in my mortgage.
FHA -- Well, Doreen has had -- has got mortgage assistance. She's covered by the state program. Rhoda here is under the FHA program. There's little that can be done for her, although we're going to meet -- Tomorrow we're going to meet with the Regional 336 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 Administrator of HUD to put her case in front of them, ask them what they're going to do for somebody that worked all their life, ran out of employment. Right now they're offering her little help. So we're hoping tomorrow that she's going to get some help. But there is a state program that's excellent. It just -- Over the last 11 years -- For the last seven years, the 12 Ridge Administration didn't fund it. 13 They ran the program with 20 percent 14 of the people approved, 80 percent 15 disapproved for mortgage assistance. We 16 have now changed that around through people 17 like Doreen and Rhoda speaking up, so that 18 they're now -- they've got a target of 60 19 percent approvals. And everybody coming 20 through PUP is getting approved, everybody. FHA... We don't have anything for the FHA population. They're still out there by themselves. We're hoping that something is going to be done for them. But we need time. 337 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 Let me just say one thing. Out of the 600 people scheduled for Sheriff sale in March that were stayed, 50 of them were denied, Hemap, the mortgage assistance. That means most of them never applied. People don't even know about the program. The State has committed to go and re-examine all those people and see whether they should have gotten help. We may be able to help hundreds of those people get assistance. But they're going to lose their homes on April 6th unless something is done. That's why we have to go meet with the Sheriff, by the way. And we're trying to encourage the Sheriff to continue the stay beyond one month because he's offered a month. It's not going to be enough to save these people's homes. They're going to need to have their applications taken and a decision made by Harrisburg prior to them getting help. If they lose their house April 6th nothing will be done for those -- And that's, like 338 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 I say, 1500 families total. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: City Council, my colleagues, please correct me if I'm wrong. I believe we passed a Resolution that was presented by Councilwoman Marian Tasco, supporting the moratorium requested by the Sheriff. So, we are on record in support of that measure as well. If any of my colleagues here on this Committee have any questions for the panel. Thank you so much. I know you guys have to run. Thank you so much for your testimony. Mr. Martin Cohen or anyone else that's here. Martin and John Lieb.
After listening to those folks, I remember the adage I cried because I had no shoes, and then I met a man who had no feet. It's pretty hard for us to -- I mean, when you hear about people like this it just makes you feel like whatever problems you have are really not quite so 339 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 serious. But they're quite serious. John Lieb who is with -- My name is Dr. Martin Cohen. I'm Director of Student Services and Job Services with Orleans Technical Institute in Northeast Philadelphia. And John Lieb is with our group. We're both part of JEVS, JEVS, Jewish Employment Vocational Service. And John directs our prison program. I'm going to ask John to tell you about some of the issues that he's facing with inmates and prospective employment. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: So you're not Dr. Martin Cohen.
I am Dr. Martin Cohen. He's John Lieb. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Okay. Thank you.
You really have your work cut out for you. I hope what I have to say today will give you some joy and some happiness that things can be done. Okay? 340 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 My name is John Lieb. And I was the former Division Head of Texas A & M University Special Programs Training Division, located in College Station. I was also the head of the first dislocated worker program started here in the City of Philadelphia, at which your dad was present at the opening of it. I also was the Deputy Director of Penn Serve, the Governor's Office of Citizens Service. I mention this because when I double back, you'll see that the Ramoses, the Wilson Goode, Seniors, and what they did has an effect, and is still being carried on through the study that was done on the consensus group, of which I'm a member. I also served for four years in the Republic of Korea as a Catholic Missionary; also Program Director of the Baird County Adult Detention Center in San Antonio, Texas. And presently I run the prison programs for the Jewish Employment Vocational Service, in the City of 341 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 Philadelphia. All these people that talk to you today, I know them well. And I love them. They really work hard. But there are some structural things that are getting us locked into these problems. And I think Councilman Goode mentioned it when he talked about economic development and job creation. They cannot be separated. Through the old OET, through the PIC, through this work force development, they have become further and further apart. 40 percent of the City's budget of Philadelphia is spent on arresting, locking up, incarcerating and supervising offenders. 2 billion. 40 percent of the offenders in the state institutions throughout the State of Pennsylvania are from Philadelphia. They're not counted in the census, which makes other counties rich and which keeps millions of dollars out of Philadelphia 342 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 when it comes to census time. 60 percent of the county inmates can vote, register and vote. Census and voting bring programs to the City because census is the Federal money that comes in, and the vote accesses the people in those communities to that money. There's something that can be done on that. In the interest of time, I just want to whet your appetite, because I've thought this out. And Philadelphia had the biggest voter registration of any City in the world. JEVS was involved with that, with a man named Malik Aziz, who you might know. I'll come back to him later. Inmate profile. Out of the 8,000 inmates -- and I'm there every single day for the last seven years. I know that prison like the back of my hand. You have the population of 8,000 at a fifth grade reading level, a fourth grade math level. 34 percent of them don't have a place to stay when they leave. And this 343 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 is more so for the women. And 70 percent are unemployed. That coupled with this invisible sentencing that goes because not only you have committed a crime, but you're eliminated from anything that you might have done because of that crime is part of the problem. When Harrington wrote his book in 1961 about the other America, he defined the rich, the middle class. And he talked about this other America that was in Appalachia, parts of Harlem, Watts, Camden, Chester, and parts of Philadelphia. A book was just written about two years ago by Rodger Anderson called Code of the Street. And he implied another population which is what everyone here today was talking about, the disenfranchised. The disenfranchised is the largest swing vote in the whole United States right now. If I knew now or then what I know now, I could have won the election in 344 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 Florida. Immigrants were not allowed to vote. Jeffrey Tubin's book spells it out. I'm on the sentencing project's program for voter registration, too. This all ties in. So stay with me now.
I've come up with recommendations 9 that could save the City of Philadelphia 10 about $20 million. I'm not crazy. 11 In today's Inquirer there was an 12 article, if you read it, about the simple 13 plan to greener, cleaner urban lots. That's clump change. A million dollars? We have a huge horticulture program that I run as part of the contract with the City of Philadelphia as the non-profit. We could turn that into a profit-making operation that could supply trees and shrubs to the City of Philadelphia in perpetuity, at the same time training inmates in jobs, men and women, for the subcontractors that are getting contracts on the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative in Philadelphia. 345 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 Every inmate could leave with a tree. At the rate that we're cutting trees down in Philadelphia now, we won't have any trees in years. Each inmate, the 30,000 6 that leave, could leave with a tree. 7 We could also make those fences up 8 there, those fences that go around those 9 little gardens if you come down the Ridge? 10 In perpetuity. 11 It could also supply the 12 maintenance, because the big problem is not 13 the million dollars that you're getting, 14 but it's the maintenance for years to come 15 that's going to cost. 16 I have written a concept paper that 17 the Commissioner has looked at and really 18 likes. It brings the Horticulture Society, 19 the community development corporations, 20 Fairmount Park together in a partnership with the Philadelphia prisons that would save $6 million. And I can get into that later. Councilman Goode mentioned the CareerLink. Why doesn't West Philly have 346 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 it? The whole City could have it. You could have it tonight when you go home, if you have internet. What I'm proposing is that CareerLink be brought into the Philadelphia prisons, and that each inmate be exposed to CareerLink, under supervision with my teachers, taught how to use it so that they don't to go 30 days looking for CareerLink when they leave. They're already online. I estimate that would be $1,500,000 that the City could save. And by that I mean is, you could have the access -- The problem with the poor and the disenfranchised is not that there's not programs, but they don't know how to access the programs on a consistent basis. Okay. So that's CareerLink. You could go home tonight and get on it and get a resume out that would go all throughout the tri-county area. You could leave the jail. You do this 30 days before, and then the inmates leave with a loaf of bread under their arm. They go to 347 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 CareerLink and they can get the assistance that they need. The third thing is that every inmate that comes into Philadelphia Prison System -- And I wrote the education part of this thing. Your dad's the one that brought this group into Philly, and the wonderful people that are part of it, you need to listen to. Careerscope is a computerized vocational inventory that Philadelphia is the only jail in the nation that has it. Each inmate could have that be done on them, him and her. And it gives them a readout of what they're good at, what they could do, to give them the jump behind the walls for the types of things they need to get when they get out, that transitional link that's missing. The second -- third thing is -- fourth thing, there's a jobs project that's up at the Philadelphia prisons now, funded by the $2 million that was left over from the court settlement, the Jackson vs. 348 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 Hendricks. I'm leaving this here with you now because two of our programs, building maintenance and environmental maintenance are part of that. And that's a therapeutic community that has them working and dealing with their issues in ASD which is one of the prison facilities. You read that, and I think that's the way to go. There's an ex-offender group, the Mayor's Ex-offender Task Force, chaired by Malik Aziz. I'm requesting -- Now, who am I?
I'm requesting a $200,000 check be written this afternoon at 5 o'clock from that Jackson vs. Hendricks $2 million that's just sitting there in a bank, because ex-offender input has been left out of that process. That group was funded without any funds. And I've been to all of their meetings. And there's a hundred, two hundred of these ex-offenders that are doing things. But we have to fund them. 349 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 He's a wonderful person, by the way. I've worked with him for the last couple years. The next thing I'd like to see is to contact Mr. Ramos, who took my position in Harrisburg because my position was lined out by the Ridge Administration, and take that million dollars that could come into Philadelphia for service learning programs, that could hook up with the prisons programs. And each school in Philadelphia could have a service learning program that teaches them about the environment and how to keep it neat, where Malcom X's mural is there on the Ridge? The kids could come out. That would be their park. They will learn history. They will keep it going. And you do that all throughout Philadelphia, and you start to build from that bottom. When I was at Penn Serve, there was a million dollars that Philadelphia didn't apply for, because up through the 350 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 Conservation Corps? I was in charge of that. And because somehow Philadelphia had this image that -- They had an image of Philadelphia that, well, if you give it there, it's money down a rat hole. But it wasn't. What's his name? Mr. Ramos, right? Is the person that got the job at Penn Serve or State Representative? COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Yes. No 12 relation to me, but I know him.
But he can be very, very influential because there's $8 million in that budget, and there's $20 million that could be matched. And the Conservation Corps could be the vehicle through the prison system to get this thing off -- to build this infrastructure in the City through the prisons. The prisons can contribute to building the infrastructure of Philadelphia. And I have a lot of details on that. Review the bail process. Why are we 351 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 putting people in jail when they don't have $300 and charging $70 a day to keep them for maybe a month or two? That's a different area. But that's something that concerns me, because people could be out on the street for two or three hundred dollars. And if they're that dangerous, you don't let them out on that kind of bail. Support Commissioner King in his summit. Each -- I'm requesting that each Council person brings two employers to his summit. This war that was started back with Johnson, the War on Poverty, is only going to be won with an employer-driven system that looks at places like the jails as a source of labor, and as a source of capital for their organizations. I would never spend a thousand dollars to train somebody for TX Maxx, I'm telling you right now; never. They can't afford the thousand dollars to train them, don't let them come in here. 352 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 Get them at the front end, like Texas A & M did. You get to the front end and you say, this is the other piece that we have. Buy into it. And those jobs are going to be dedicated to inmates who behind the walls are already involved in programs and are showing that they're turning their life around. Review the consensus group study and read it well. Three organizations were not present, PWDC, the ex-offender group, and the private sector. I submit to you that without those three people being involved in this, this is just another study that you might as well just say... You know, why does Philadelphia need to pay people $180,000 to come in, like they're doing now, to tell us what our problems are? That's my last... Next-to-last point is, we have to stop looking on the outside for experts to tell us what we already know. We can do it ourselves. 353 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 Support voter registration in the census. The funds are out there, if we approach it right with the states and the feds, because most of the people coming from -- 40 percent of the inmates returning to Philly are in a state institution now. So we have to link closely with the state and the feds. They will give us money if we show that we want to be partners with them, because they have their problems, too, There's over a billion dollars spent in Pennsylvania state prisons. A billion dollars is a lot of money. And I'd like to suggest that the City of Philadelphia, School District of Philadelphia applies for charter status for the Pennypack School in the Philadelphia Prison system. It will bring lots of money in there, and you can design a program that meets the needs of those people. There's 18 year-olders, 19 year-olders in the Philadelphia prison system that are at 354 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 third-grade reading levels. That's a school. That's a charter school. Just because they're adults, they can't -- shouldn't be eliminated from getting money. These are people that are not only illiterate, but basically have lost hope because they feel there's no hope. So the charter school would be one way that you could bring that in. I'm also -- was appointed by the Commissioner King. All of these things I've passed by the Commissioner, by the way. And he's really supportive of this stuff. He needs your help. So I guess the message is, support your local Commissioner. He's trying very hard up there, and bring two employers to the Commissioner King's employer summit. We won't let you down behind the walls.
I'm the only one in this room that can go into that jail, any jail in the City of Philadelphia, morning, noon and night with this (Indicating). 355 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 Our programs are there. Also, revisit Philacore. Philacore has been left to kind of die on the vines, but that's another source of -- It's just that we're trying to make the river a working river. We need to have the jail be a working jail. Bring employers in. Have them be part of the training and what we do, and I guarantee you at the front end a lot can be done so that these guys don't leave and within 30 days, like that young man there, he'll ravel on until hell freezes over because he's gotten so frustrated with the system, but needs to be reigned in and said, okay, like you just did, what is it that you can do to help, and bring him into the scenario, because there's many of them out there like that. So in closing, I'd like you to read this (Indicating). Everybody's in here except the three people I mentioned, PWDC, in terms of being participants. They need to be brought in. Private sector employers, and Malik's ex-offender group. 356 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 And this here (Indicating) is what we do at the prison. This here (Indicating) is the concept paper that will blow your mind, the $6 million that can be saved. You can go home tonight and get your children to put CareerLink -- We had a little trouble in Councilwoman's office because there's some connection there that needs to be worked on. But it can be -- Each City Council person could have in their own office the CareerLink, so when your constituency come in there you basically say, Mrs. Jones or Mrs. Caudenis, sit down, go through here -- plus all of your workers can use it to help their families. And one thing I learned working in the State of Pennsylvania was that if the system is not used, it dies, and they say that people didn't utilize it. The dislocated worker program in Philadelphia when it started did not have any referrals. I went to the Inquirer, and 357 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 they did a article on me. And I'm sitting in the room at South 12th Street. And 4 the state came and said I embarrassed them, 5 because -- And I said that you embarrassed 6 me. 7 And the reason they didn't have any 8 people there was because they told the 9 people it wasn't only until you exhausted 10 your unemployment checks that you could get 11 into the program. 12 And that's turned around. And the 13 people started coming into the program 14 because a little note was put in their 15 unemployment check, call the center. And 16 the numbers went up. You cannot kill a 17 program that the people use. 18 So that's what I'm suggesting, those 19 kinds of things. I have documentation to 20 prove all this, and I have about 15 other 21 suggestions that can get us -- get it done, get us off the rock. And I work with all these people, by the way, that talked today. They're wonderful people. But it's a structural -- 358 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 We're caught in a structural disenfranchised situation that the -- starting your own business and all this kind of stuff is good. And we can start at the prison to do it, because the inmates there are learning terrific trades. And I just wish you all luck. I talk too much like I usually do when I get excited. But any one of these, I told you about -- the Logan situation. You know? I was the relocation specialist in Logan. All right. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Thank you for your testimony, Mr. Lieb. My office is career linked. Dr. Cohen, do you care to...
Yes. I'm Dr. Martin Cohen. I'm Director of Job Search Services and Student Services at Orleans Technical Institute in Northeast Philadelphia. I was principal of Roberto Clemente Middle School from 1967 till 1990. Last 15 years I've been working for JEVS at Orleans. 359 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 We have a good story to tell because we train 350 students a year. We have an 85 percent placement rate. But here's some details. 40 percent of the students that we train are ex-offenders. And of that 40 percent, 84 percent have no driver's licenses. Now, that's really serious for us because we train the building construction trades. Our employers don't even want to interview anyone unless they have a driver's license. What is keeping -- Well, ex-offenders have all kinds of baggage that they bring. And not having a driver's license usually relates to youthly indiscretions, and most of the time driving without a license or after having them stopped driving without a license, continuing to drive without a license. There is such a thing as an occupational limited license which virtually does not work. 360 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 There are two areas where you are not eligible for an OLL. One is the failure to respond to a notification, and the other is driving with a suspended -- when your license has been suspended. Virtually all the ex-offenders that we have great difficulty in placing. It's usually not because they're ex-offenders. We are lucky enough to have a lot of our students who are graduates who are ex-offenders who are now employers. And we've been lucky enough to get them to hire some of our students. So we have a lot of -- We're really -- We really back up our students in the way that -- We can get ex-offenders jobs, but we can't get them jobs without driver's licenses. And we really don't know how to tackle this problem. If we could, we would be even in a better position to help. And I'm sure that there are other -- many other jobs that are -- would be available to ex-offenders if they could have a driver's license. 361 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 And this is an area that I think is well worth having someone from City Council or from City government look into and explore what are the reasons why so many ex-offenders cannot have their licenses restored. And is there anything we can do to help the situation? If we could, I think that we would really attack directly a very, very simple but very important problem of finding employment for ex-offenders. And that basically is the only pitch that I wanted to make. The only other thing I would like to say is, there are all of these programs that I've heard about today -- and I know John's involved with several of them, the Jobs Project at PPS, and the search for common ground and the City's reentry group. Where do we coordinate all of these programs? Is there any one overseeing organization, body or plan that would really pull together -- You have all these trains going on parallel tracks. 362 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 And if we could figure out how to get them to the destination with some kind of coordination, with some kind of coordination of funding, all of these things, maybe this question has an answer that I don't know about. But I just can't see where we -- where everyone just seems to be going off very, very positively caring, working hard, but they're all over the place. And that's my little story. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: Thank you, Dr. Cohen for your testimony. I will pass on -- That point has come up a number of times today, on the coordination of the different agencies and corporations that are doing work in this area, to alleviate the unemployment problem in the City of Philadelphia. Do any of my colleagues have any questions for our panelists? ) COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: I want to thank both of you for coming out and 363 Resolution 040171 - 3/15/04 waiting patiently. DR.
Cohen: I'd like to thank you for being so incredibly patient and listening to all of these people. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: As the Chairman of this Committee, I'm going to recess this Committee. This means that there will be more hearings on this subject. And we will notify you and the public if they're interested, in continuing this very important discussion concerning the reality of unemployment in Philadelphia. DR. Cohen: We appreciate your interest. COMMITTEE CHAIR RAMOS: I'll recess to the Call of the Chair. ) 364 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings and evidence are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the public hearing of The Philadelphia City Council, taken on March 15, 2004, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. _____________________________ DAVID A. )