WITH UNEMPLOYMENT LOW, EMPLOYERS TURN TO EX-CONS TO FILL OPEN POSITIONS

LIMA, Ohio -- Car dealer Tom Ahl's disinclination to hire ex-convicts
diminished when the unemployment rate here dipped below 5%. Suddenly, people
released from the three prisons that ring Lima represented a labor pool he
couldn't ignore. Against his better judgment, Mr. Ahl hired a convicted
killer as a car salesman.

That was three years ago. Today, the killer, Ben Laws, is the star of the
24-person sales force at Tom Ahl Buick GMC. And prison records no longer
represent a red flag for Mr. Ahl, who has hired several other ex-convicts
since Mr. Laws.

"I realize they are not that different than me," says Mr. Ahl, 49 years old.
"We all deserve a second chance."

The tight labor market is accomplishing what years of pleas and programs
from penal experts and social scientists failed to do: It is persuading
America's employers to hire ex-convicts. What statistics exist about
employment of ex-prisoners suggest that companies are hiring them at higher
rates than ever before. In New York, about 40% of offenders on parole are
employed, up from 33% six years ago. The pool of ex-convicts is growing
substantially because of the record number of felony convictions since the
late 1980s. About 2.5 million felons were on probation or parole in 1998, up
from 1.5 million a decade ago.

Few employers are happy about having to resort to this pool. But once they
do, most are finding that despite their preconceived notions, the
ex-prisoner isn't necessarily a repeat offender waiting to happen. Only 40%
of ex-cons commit crimes again, and that number is much lower for those who
find employment. "I don't think a person's history matters as much as who
that person is," said Richard Lord, manager of a J.C. Penney store in
Columbia, Mo., where unemployment of less than 1% has prompted him to hire
ex-prisoners as sales clerks.

As industry hires more ex-prisoners, perceptions of them are changing in a
way that could outlast the tight labor market and perhaps even lower the
crime rate. "All the data and research indicate if you have a positive
experience upon leaving prison -- and getting a job would be just that --
the chance of recidivism is going to be lower," says R. Dean Wright, a Drake
University professor of sociology who specializes in penal issues.

Employers of ex-prisoners say it isn't simply a crapshoot as to who will and
won't return to prison. As owner of a boat maker in Fort Dodge, Iowa, where
unemployment stands at 2.8%, Lisa Wilson has hired felons convicted of
robbery, burglary, drug possession and involuntary manslaughter. She doesn't
regret a single hire. But she has a code -- no sex offenders -- and a test
for prospective hires: "We walk through the plant at a brisk pace and see if
they keep up," she says. "You can tell if they are going to work at a good
pace by how they walk."

Signs of the Times

In a sign that the trend is picking up pace, consultants who specialize in
figuring out which ex-cons can be trusted have begun to emerge. In Columbia,
Mo., Dale Wolchko has placed ex-prisoners in jobs ranging from sales clerk
at the local Dillard's department store to kitchen assistant at an Olive
Garden restaurant. He looks for a positive attitude and a desire to please.
"When a guy who has tattoos all over his body has gone through the trouble
to wear a collar shirt with long sleeves, that is a good sign," said Mr.
Wolchko, an employment specialist with the Job Center in Columbia, Mo.,
which helps ex-cons get work.

Some of these consultants, operating on the theory that you can't con a con,
tout their own criminal records as credentials in selecting from among
ex-prisoners. "I look for phd's -- poor, hungry and driven," says Mark
Paulus, a former police officer who spent three years in prison for theft
and now recruits ex-cons for employers. "This economy has given offenders a
chance to show they are not all Jeffrey Dahmer."

Labor demand is so hot these days that many workers don't hesitate to hop
from job to job. But employers say that ex-prisoners often demonstrate
extraordinary gratitude and loyalty in exchange for trust, responsibility
and a paycheck. And an ex-con who is honest about his background is often
less a gamble than the average candidate, bosses say. "I know more about
them than I know about John Doe off the street," said Thomas Lewis, chief
executive of Digital Design Inc., a Columbus, Ohio-based supplier of
telecommunications wire.

Mr. Lewis' enthusiasm for hiring ex-criminals seems particularly remarkable.
Ten years ago, his 25-year-old stepson was murdered. The case remains
unsolved. But soon after the tragedy, Mr. Lewis began hiring ex-prisoners.
He sees it as a way of reducing crime. "We've got to do something," he says.
"We are throwing so much money at the prison system" and nothing seems to be
working.

Before hiring ex-cons, Mr. Lewis scours the Internet, where he sometimes can
find their criminal records. He talks to their parole officers. "I look for
change in their behavior," he says. "What did they accomplish when they were
incarcerated? Did they further their education?"

At his 65-person firm, Mr. Lewis has hired more than a dozen ex-cons. When
his business got burglarized a while back, "everybody said it is those
ex-cons you are hiring," he recalls. "It turned out to be one of my other
employees."

Of course, some employers steer clear of ex-cons. "We are very selective in
who we hire," and that doesn't include convicted felons, says Pam Kassner,
spokeswoman for USG Corp., a Chicago-based building-supply company. Demand
for USG's factory jobs, paying $11 to $20 an hour, is so great that the
company doesn't have to turn to convicted felons.

Sometimes, employer fears turn out to be warranted.

Neill Davis owns the Learning Shoppe, a toy store in Panama City, Fla. Last
year, he hired Henry G. Moore, a 55-year-old whom Mr. Davis had known for
more than 20 years. "He was having trouble buying groceries," Mr. Davis
explains.

Mr. Moore is a convicted child molester. Mr. Davis put him to work
supervising the remodeling of a new store, and made sure Mr. Moore's job
didn't put him anywhere near kids.

But midway through the remodeling, Mr. Davis was stunned to learn that Mr.
Moore was allegedly paying female members of the construction crew overtime
wages in exchange for sexual favors. Mr. Moore was arrested in November, and
later convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to one year in jail. Mr. Davis
says he's out $18,500, and that he won't hire any more ex-cons. "It has made
me a lot more cautious," he says.

Caution seems in order. Ronny Medina finished serving a six-year
drug-dealing sentence in January 1997. During the next three months, seven
employers turned him down, though all needed workers. The 28-year-old says
he thought he would never get a job. Then building-supply maker Stark Truss
Co. hired him. Three years later, he says he has been turning down better
offers to go elsewhere. Stark gave "me a second shot on life," Mr. Medina,
whose computer-programming job pays $35,000, said in an interview a few
weeks ago.

Oops

But now, Mr. Medina is in trouble again. Recently, Charter One Bank
mistakenly deposited $80,000 in his checking account. "I am not going to
lie," Mr. Medina says. "I probably should not have spent it." But he did --
at least $22,000 of it, mostly on trips to see family in Honduras, on
clothes and to pay off credit-card debt. "I kind of went crazy, like I had
won the lottery," Mr. Medina says.

Charter One declined to comment, but it has told Mr. Medina and his employer
that if the bank doesn't get the money back fast, it will press charges. Mr.
Medina's bosses at Stark are disappointed in him -- but, in a measure of the
goodwill his hard work has inspired, they say they won't fire him, even if
he's indicted. "My heart hurts for him," says Javan Yoder, a Stark executive
vice president. "Ronny has been a good employee and even if he goes to
prison, we would hire him back when he gets out."

That kind of dedication to ex-con employees seems surprisingly common. After
his release from prison on a heroin-dealing conviction, Bob Whaley did such
a fine job for Decor Lighting in Cincinnati that owner Robert Carter felt
compelled to elevate him. Particularly impressive, Mr. Carter says, was when
Mr. Whaley caught a top manager of the company in the act of theft. "I watch
Mr. Carter's money like it is my own," Mr. Whaley says.

Now, as operations manager earning $50,000 a year, Mr. Whaley is responsible
for recruiting -- and he focuses on ex-offenders. To find workers, Mr.
Whaley scours local halfway houses. He relies on personal recommendations
from people he knew in prison. One-fourth of the company's 25-person work
force has served time. "I like to hire guys on parole, because they have a
lot to lose," he says.

He gives special consideration to ex-drug offenders -- a crime that often
involves no violence against others -- but only if they remain clean. "I can
tell based on what time they get here in the morning what they were doing
the night before," he says. He is careful about avoiding mismatches between
jobs and particular criminal pasts. "I let her do the payables, but not the
receivables," he says of a convicted embezzler who serves as Decor's
bookkeeper. "That would be too much like offering candy to a diabetic."

Breaking the Cycle

Hiring ex-prisoners gives some employers a sense of higher purpose.
Architect Jim Monsul hires them because "you've got to give something back"
to society and this is a legitimate way. "The biggest problem is
ex-offenders don't make a living wage," he says. "So they go out and rob
again."

One project of Mr. Monsul's was Mike Brown. Mr. Monsul taught drafting to
Mr. Brown after he served an eight-year stint for robbery. Then he helped
Mr. Brown, 47, set up his own drafting business. "I couldn't have done this
without Jim," Mr. Brown says.

Employer acceptance of ex-cons could lead to a wider community acceptance.
After Mr. Ahl, the Lima car dealer, hired convicted killer Mr. Laws, Mr. Ahl
received nasty telephone calls from community members and guards at the
city's three prisons, which employ about 1,200 people in a city of 45,000.
Dealership employees were upset, too. "They said, 'How could you bring in
this guy who had killed somebody?' " Mr. Ahl recalls. Six years earlier, Mr.
Laws stabbed a man five times and was convicted of manslaughter.

But a threatened customer boycott never materialized. Among the dealership's
best customers now are a warden and several prison guards. Warden Michael
Leonard of the Lima Correctional Institution bought a used 1989 Mercedes
from another ex-con Mr. Ahl hired, Ron Larry. Says Warden Leonard: "I would
buy another car from him tomorrow. He has good integrity."

Mr. Larry, an admitted former junkie, did time in Ohio for breaking and
entering and robbery. For his part, he says the prison guards are pretty
good customers. "A couple of them I couldn't get financed, but they are very
respectful," he says.

With 60 cars sold this year, Mr. Laws is on his way to another banner year.
Last year, he sold more than 200 vehicles and made $74,000. He owns a
four-bedroom house. He looks back at his time in that other big house and
thinks: "I make as much as the warden."

Mr. Laws attributes his success in part to lessons learned in prison. His
effort to treat customers well includes not rushing them into a sale, for
instance. "Prison taught me to have patience," he says. "Everything you do
there you have to wait to do."

His boss, Mr. Ahl, says Mr. Laws's success also has something to do with the
Italian suits he wears. "He dresses to kill," says Mr. Ahl.

Attitudes have shifted so much that even Lima politicians can get away with
hiring former prisoners. Mayor David Berger says, "I like to believe I am a
pretty good judge of people." As his director of parks and recreation, Mayor
Berger two years ago hired a battered woman who had shot her boyfriend to
death and served 11 years in prison before being pardoned by the governor.

Write to Mark Tatge at mark.tatge@wsj.com