EMPLOYERS GO TO JAIL IN SEARCH OF WORKERS

AUSTIN, Texas - Employers had to pass through a metal detector to get to the
applicants at this job fair, but it didn't dim their ardor. Many practically
pleaded with the men and women to join their firms - after they finish up
their jail terms.

"I'd be glad to give anybody a chance," said Terry Maxwell, owner of Terry's
Electric, addressing the inmates at the Travis County Community Justice
Center, a minimum-security jail sheathed in barbed wire.

In one of the tightest job markets in 30 years, employers are reaching out
to nontraditional workers they have spurned in the past. Although the 50 or
so applicants at the Travis County job fair wore baggy blue or khaki prison
uniforms and guards kept a watchful eye over the room, the 20 company
representatives pitching jobs seemed pleased just to have such a large pool
of workers in front of them.

Rich Green, a recruiter for Goodwill Industries of Central Texas Inc., which
runs 11 retail stores, a temporary-service agency and a
computer-refurbishment firm, rubbed his palms together as he glanced around
the roomful of prospects. - nonviolent felons all. "We're hiring the cream
before they get out," Green said.

Several of the inmates shared his enthusiasm. "It's giving a lot of people
here high hopes," said Mark LeBlanc, 38, who has had a long-term problem
with drug and alcohol addiction and was ultimately sent to jail after
stealing a $35 power tool. "I have friends coming out of here now making $8
or $10 an hour out there. I'm going to take the ball and run with it, too."

These ex-offenders are among the latest beneficiaries of the nation's
buoyant economy. The U.S. unemployment rate has been less than 5 percent for
more than a year. Meanwhile, there are 1.2 million inmates in the country's
jails and prisons, a record high, with the average sentence lasting about
two years.

It's a national phenomenon

Slowly but surely, matches are being made. In Florida, Timothy Mann, manager
of worker training and support for PRIDE, a nonprofit group that works with
former inmates, said the number of people he has placed in jobs has almost
doubled in two years, from about 200 to 395.

Federal officials also are noticing the trend. "We're finding a lot bigger
interest in hiring the offender population," said John Moore, coordinator of
the Justice Department's Office of Correctional Job Training and Placement.

In Austin, for example, Faulkner Construction Co., has hired about 150
ex-offenders since 1992. At first, executives at other companies scoffed
when they learned the company was recruiting at a jailhouse job fair, said
Brian Faulkner, president of the company's concrete-pumping affiliate.

"Now, I don't tell them," Faulkner said, adding that ex-offenders have
performed as well at their companies as people hired off the street. "I look
at it as an untapped gold mine. . . . I'm thinking I don't want this to get
out, or everyone and his dog will be going there, too."

Faulkner executives tell workers that if they abide by the rules and work
hard they will earn the opportunity to make $30,000 a year, plus full
benefits, in one year's time. About 85 percent of the offenders make the
grade, said Denis Snyder, Faulkner's human-resources manager, and none has
caused serious problems.

Close supervision is the key

Close supervision of inmate recruits is considered a key issue at Mirage
Resorts in Las Vegas, which has hired 26 nonviolent ex-offenders in recent
years, mostly young people coming out of a state-run boot camp. The jobs
include landscaping, flower arranging, maintenance and custodial work.

Arte Nathan, former vice president of human resources at Mirage, said a big
problem has been other employees. "They're concerned that they'll have to
work with ex-cons, welfare cheats, bad people," he said.

Mirage hired a probation officer to monitor former inmates' progress,
counsel them as needed and help co-workers deal with any discomfort.

Checked-by: Don Beck