Create an Enhanced Employability and Employment Protection Policy
Background Key Findings Solutions
Texas law designates approximately 1,900 individual offenses as felonies, which results in a huge felon population in Texas. In 2007 alone, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) released 72,032 individuals from incarceration. These are people who must find jobs and housing or else risk turning to illegal activity to survive. However, Texas has 168 state laws that forbid felons from obtaining jobs.
Ultimately, persons with stable employment after release are less likely to be re-incarcerated, and those who participate in in-prison job training are less likely to return to prison.[i] In order for these individuals to pay their debt to society by living responsible, productive, and law-abiding lives, they must be given the tools to succeed.
[i] Roger Przybylsky, RKC Group, What Works: Effective Recidivism Reduction and Risk Focused-Prevention Programs, (February 2008), http://dcj.state.co.us/ors/pdf/docs/WW08_022808.pdf.