The Transformation of Second Chances

This panel will explore the following:

• Discuss the Society for Human Resource Management Getting Talent Back to Work Pledge and Toolkit and how hiring people who want a chance to work is a win-win-win: it helps keep families together by decreasing the chance of recidivism, it supports a valuable talent pool of willing and trainable workers, and it gives people who have made mistakes the dignity of work
• Discuss the Safe Streets and Second Chances Initiative –how it is simultaneously addressing policy reforms and enhancing reentry supports in at least 4 pilot states and with a goal towards expanding evidence-driven reentry services and policy reforms and what makes this initiative and the academic research different from other reentry reform efforts
• Discuss the barriers that people with criminal records face, such as access to housing, jobs, education, and healthcare (mental health and substance abuse treatment), and how to build a sustainable and individualized reentry program for each person returning to society
• How to hire and to retain people with criminal records successfully

Moderator: Jenny Kim, Deputy General Counsel & VP, Public Policy, Koch Companies Public Sector

Panelists:       

• John Koufos, Texas Public Policy Foundation, Right on Crime, National Reentry Initiatives Director Safe Streets and Second Chances Initiative Executive Director
• Alex Alonso, Chief Knowledge Office, Society for Human Resource Management
• Richard McLemore II, Housing Specialist/Advisor and Executive Director of McLemore Holdings, LLC
• Cheryl Reinhardt, Zephyr Products