RETURNING CITIZENS MANIFESTO

Philadelphia Mayor Nutter's Misplaced Priorities

By Thomas Ford
June 28, 2013
 

When it comes to who is responsible for the fiasco that took place on May 17, 2013 at the Philadelphia Citywide Ex-Offender Career Fair, which damn near turned into an all out riot in front of the city’s downtown municipal building, Mayor Michael Nutter’s name is first on the list.

"It was a madhouse, unorganized, just mass confusion," Mitchell said. "At one point the crowd just dispersed and ran towards the door." 

Fellow job seeker David Coates, who served 2-1/2 years for robbery heard of the event through the Veteran's Affairs office. He was hoping to find work as a mechanic but said he never got the chance.

"There was no organization... we got by the door and that was when they said 'we're shutting it down,'" Coates told NBC10 Philadelphia.

The official flyer that went out to the public read:

After further investigation by EXIT-US, we discovered the Mayor assigned the overall coordination of the Citywide Career Fair to his Chief of Staff, Everett Gillison.  Keri Salerno, an underling working for Mr. Gillison was given the lead responsibility for the project. In government, shyt usually rolls down hill and we will not be surprised if Ms. Salerno is reprimanded because of this poorly planned event.   

The real miscarriage of justice was suffered by the 4-5 thousand returning citizens who were prepared to accept the challenge of ultimately becoming more productive members in our community. These men and women showed up dressed to impress with resumes in hand hours before the doors to the municipal building were scheduled to open. What do they tell their love ones who loaned them the travel money or professional attire to present their BEST first impression to an employer?

This has got to be the first time in Philadelphia history a job/career fair was cancelled because the outreach to the targeted audience was an overwhelming success.

Members of EXIT-US visited city officials, to offer the INFORMED EXPERTISE necessary to successfully host the next Ex-Offender Career Fair.

We discovered the Fair will not happen until July 2013 and William Hart, Director of the Mayor's Office of Reintegration Services for Ex-Offenders (RISE) has the responsibility this time around to make sure this event is a success.  RISE believes the focus of the upcoming Fair should be adjusted and marketed differently from the event that was planned this past May.  According to Mr. Hart, the emphasis will be on opportunities rather than careers or jobs. 

This shift from careers/jobs to "opportunities" will in all likelihood translate into a process where RISE will funnel returning citizens into their job readiness workshops which provide no stipend or financial support for job seeking participants.  Offering two tokens, a pep talk and smile is the type of ineffective lip-service that has damaged RISE's repetition among returning citizens in Philadelphia.  EXIT-US representatives will be on hand during this event in July to witness first hand the type of opportunities made available to job seekers. 

Several questions Philadelphians need to ask ourselves: should the city alone be responsibility for galvanizing the support from the business community to consider returning citizens for employment; and, is the Blaq & Latino business community doing enough to re-enfranchise the 40,000 returning citizens released to Philadelphia each year?  The mass exodus of convicted citizens released from federal, state and local penal institutions are not moving into the affluent sections of Philadelphia, they are coming home to live in our most underserved neighborhoods.  Do we provide our struggling family members a spare bedroom or couch to sleep on, meals, tokens and other supportive assistance necessary for them to arrive presentable for a job interview?

It is our responsibility as citizens to cultivate relationships with businesses such as Jeff Brown’s ShopRite grocery stores who hire returning citizens at a higher rate than any other employer in Philadelphia.  What the Brown family has discovered over the years is that citizens released from prison are dead serious about not recidivating when they first get home; and when opportunities to become self-sufficient are made available to them they turn out to be the most dedicated employees on the payroll.   

As witnessed during Mayor Nutter's tenure, the city budgetary focus is skewed toward tourism and downtown businesses as exemplified by the $50 million ice-skating rink currently being built in front of city hall, the $4.5 million skateboard park being built below the Philadelphia Art Museum and the numerous influx of bike lanes throughout downtown Philadelphia.  Funding and opportunities for our public school age youth, on the crime-prevention end of the spectrum are at a catastrophically low level under this Mayor so no one should be surprised by Nutter's dismissive attitude toward Philadelphia citizens released from prison.
 

Thomas Ford is President of EXIT-US, a community capacity building organization empowering returning citizens to become transformation agents in their homes and neighborhoods.