Moving beyond stigma to strength, second chances
Editor:
I’m willing to bet that the overwhelming majority of us have read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter.”
And if you’re like me, you were understandably appalled that any civilized society would place an identifying mark on a person so that they would endure ongoing, public ridicule and shame for the rest of their life because of a misdeed.
As someone who has a criminal background, I can tell you for a fact that we do this today. The stigma of incarceration is real, and it denies people just like me access to jobs, housing and education long after we’ve paid our dues. This is why I jumped at the chance to share my story as part of The Televerde Virtual Roundtable, 12 powerful stories of incarceration, transformation and hope from the women living them. My goal is that you experience us as individuals, not as representatives of a group. I want you to see that your previous assumptions about us are false and certainly do not apply to most members of this community. We do recover, and we do change.
A cycle of incarceration
I spent 17 years of my adult life cycling in and out of the Arizona Department of Corrections. My crimes were related to my addiction, and my addiction was born from years of abuse, neglect and trauma. I share this not to excuse my bad decisions but for context. Not all of us were fortunate to be born into functioning families and to grow up in strong communities that provided guardrails to help keep us on the right path. The privilege to grow up in homes with love, support, financial stability and opportunities are denied to many of us. I think in our quickness to judge, it is easy to lose sight of this.
My “lucky break” came during my last incarceration when I learned of a company working inside the prison that gave second-chance opportunities to women like me. It was a golden ticket of sorts that allowed me to start a meaningful career; build a professional network; and have access to a cohort of mentors, skills training, and personal and professional development programs. Perhaps most important, all the negative labels ascribed to me vanished when I stepped foot into work every day. I wasn’t a criminal, inmate or offender. I wasn’t called by my prison number or last name. I was Virginia. My opinions and feelings of belongingness mattered. For the first time in my life, I was seen as the person I could become, not for the wrongs of my past. It was liberating.
A problem worth fixing
One in 3 working-age Americans has a criminal record — that’s more than 70 million people. And while states and cities have made some progress in passing ban-the-box laws in some form or another, the fact remains that individuals with criminal records face substantial challenges in the labor market. I personally know formerly incarcerated women who have gone through the interview process at companies, only to have job offers revoked after the background check comes back.
Before COVID-19, the unemployment rate for formerly incarcerated people was close to 30%. This has continued to worsen. The end result? A massive unemployment challenge that costs the economy between $78 billion and $87 billion every year, according to second-chance advocate and employer JP Morgan Chase, and a national three-year recidivism rate that is close to 70%.
We can pass law after law, but the only way to drive meaningful change that expands opportunities to this community is to eliminate stigma. And the only way for this to happen is for all of us to become aware of what truly drives our decisions.
There are so many reasons to hire qualified talent from the second-chance community and only one reason not to … personal biases. This has been the driver for The Televerde Virtual Roundtable: to help all of us identify and overcome hidden attitudes so we move toward people instead of away from them.
I implore you to sit with these women … listen to their stories … commit to moving beyond bias to finally embrace this talented and overlooked community. Enter The Televerde Virtual Roundtable.
Virginia Mireles is a sales development team lead for Televerde, the preferred global revenue creation partner supporting marketing, sales and customer success for B2B businesses around the world. Seven of Televerde’s 10 engagement centers are staffed by incarcerated women, representing 70% of the company’s 600-plus global workforce. For more information, visit televerde.com/insights/roundtable.
