JOB MARKET DRYING UP FOR EX-OFFENDERS

WEST PALM BEACH -- A year ago, Pat McGreevy could take an alcoholic or
drug addict from jail and put him to work in less than 48 hours.

Jobs were so plentiful and workers so hard to find that many employers
could overlook a criminal past.

Those days are over.

McGreevy, director of the Fern House in West Palm Beach, a
rehabilitation center for drug addicts and alcoholics, tells former
inmates their searches will take weeks and possibly months for even
the most basic, low-wage jobs.

Employers not only have fewer jobs to fill in this troubled economy,
but evidence also shows they're more reluctant to hire ex-offenders
after last month's terrorist attacks.

Some are doing criminal background checks for the first time in an
effort to reassure jittery workers.

Though safety precautions make sense these days, people who work with
ex-offenders worry that excluding them from jobs will make it harder
to turn their lives around. And that has serious implications -- not
least of all, a rise in crime, they warn.

"Everyone seems to be downsizing, and that affects us most," McGreevy
said. "We're the first ones fired and the last ones hired."

Herbert Porter, a job placement specialist with Palm Beach County's
Workforce Development Board, says ex-offenders can't even get hired to
mow grass or cut hedges.

Lawn maintenance companies, pressured by homeowners with renewed fears
for safety, have adopted stricter hiring guidelines, Porter said.

"Right away, their human resources person will say, 'Oh no, this is an
upscale community,' or 'People here pay a lot of money for their
homes.' It's one excuse after another," Porter said.

But it's not just lawn maintenance companies that are becoming more
selective.

Except for fast-food restaurants, every employer posting new job
openings with the county's Workforce Development Board requires
criminal background checks, Porter said.

All We Need Is Chance

Increased scrutiny of people's pasts is a subject close to Porter's
heart. A former New York teacher, Porter was addicted to crack cocaine
for nearly a decade before seeking help at the Joshua House in West
Palm Beach.

A year ago, the Workforce Development Board gave him a minimum-wage
job verifying unemployment claims, and by February, the 62-year-old
West Palm Beach native was promoted to job counselor. "After we've
repented, all we need is to be given a chance," he said.

Porter's concern for ex-offenders in a rapidly changing labor market
could be well-founded. Pre-employ.com of Redding, Calif., reports a
103 percent rise in online background checks since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Hospitals, utilities, power plants, airlines, and private security
firms -- all potential terrorist targets -- are driving the increase,
said President Robert Mather.

"We haven't caught a terrorist with a background check that I know of.
But what everyone is worried about now -- and rightly so -- is what's
next?" Mather said. "People want to make sure they know who they're
hiring and who they're working with."

Competition Is Tough

The timing couldn't be worse for the more than 1,000 inmates who will
be released from Florida prisons this year and returned to Palm Beach
County with just $100 each in their pockets.

While workplace safety concerns could lessen their chances of getting
jobs, so, too, could rising unemployment and a slowing economy.

More than 53,300 people in Florida lost their jobs between Sept. 24
and Oct. 12, most in the state's travel, tourism and hospitality
sectors. That's up from just 18,733 the same time last year.

With so many workers now pounding the pavement, ex-offenders and
others considered hard to employ will face stiff competition for
entry-level jobs once overlooked by experienced applicants.

"It's going to be harder to place them," said Don Norris, job
developer with the county's Probationers Educational Growth program,
which helps former inmates find work.

It's too soon to tell how the terrorist attacks will affect hiring of
ex-offenders, but employers need to know these people are not
terrorists, Norris said.

"A person who may have been convicted of some felony or misdemeanor
doesn't have anything to do with terrorism," he said. "For employers,
I think it's a matter of doing good interviews and looking more
closely at how that person is going to fit in with an
organization."

Katherine Burns, who directs the Probationers Educational Growth
program, led a discussion Oct. 9 in West Palm Beach where she urged
about 30 business people to consider hiring ex-offenders.

It's the single most effective way to prevent their return to crime,
she said. "If a person has a job, they're not likely to be out there
robbing you."

'It's A Great Concept'

Employers varied widely in attitude, from easily accepting, to
somewhat interested, to outright opposed.

A representative of JFK Medical Center in Atlantis said she was
reluctant to hire ex-offenders, though "it's a great concept."

Another local employer said he hired an ex-offender once, and it
turned out to be a mistake. The employee was lazy and had to be fired.

Tina Tedder, office manager with Community Asphalt Corp., a highway
construction and paving company in Palm Beach County, said ex-
offenders will be considered for jobs, despite increased security at
projects. "We don't throw out an application just because someone has
a criminal record," Tedder said.

Implant Innovations, a maker of dental implants in Palm Beach Gardens,
hired an ex-offender a year ago through Probationers Educational
Growth and has had "nothing but success," said Human Resources
Director Joel Fine. He'd consider hiring another ex-offender, but only
"under the right circumstances."

It's An Employer's Market

Job seekers with criminal pasts will battle both stricter hiring
guidelines and fewer opportunities, Fine said.

"Definitely, employers will do a more thorough job of screening
applicants," he said. "But fortunately, or unfortunately, it's an
employer's market right now. Regardless of Sept. 11, employers are
going to be more selective."

That has McGreevy, of the Fern House, worried for the 48 men who live
at his halfway house. All but four have jobs -- "not so bad," he said,
"but normally, everyone's working."

"Idleness is the devil's workshop," he's fond of saying.

"The ones who hang out on the corner are the ones who get in trouble,
not the ones working. It's crucial for them to be self-supporting."