Suffolk County jail program preps inmates for job market

Yawu Miller

As a graduate of the Common Ground Institute, James Alevizos is prepared to earn more than $15 an hour working in construction.

It’s not the best paying job, nor is it the worst. But it’s certainly better than the cycle of incarceration many of his fellow inmates in the Suffolk County House of Correction are caught in.

For that, Alevisos credits Sheriff Andrea Cabral.

“She gave me the option to do something positive in an otherwise negative situation,” he said.

Alevisos, imprisoned on an assault charge, was one of Suffolk County inmates who graduated from the 15-week program, which gives job skills training with a dose of self-help.

Cabral says she helped create the program as part of her emphasis on rehabilitation.

“Re-entry programs for prisons are no longer optional,” she said, addressing the graduating class. “They are essential. The sheriff’s departments are places where real change can be affected. They are at a crossroads.”

Like Alevisos, the other 14 inmates in the Suffolk County House of Corrections have committed minor offenses ranging from check kiting to misdemenour assaults that have allowed them to escape hard time. What they do while behind bars often determines whether they will commit more crimes after they are released.

While recidivism rates can be affected by any number of factors, activists have focused on the inability of inmates to obtain jobs in recent years. Because employers commonly check job applicants’ records, former inmates are less likely to obtain employment.

Cabral says her office has identified employers willing to hire applicants with criminal records.

“For some reason in our society we feel as though there’s a disconnect between people who have made mistakes and the rest of us,” she said.

While jails and prisons remove people who have committed criminal acts from mainstream society, only a small percentage serve for life. In Massachusetts, 97 percent of those currently incarcerated will at some point return to society.

In the case of South Bay, 85 percent of the inmates will return to homes within five miles of the facility, according to Cabral.

“You have three choices,” she said. “You can walk down the street and be greeted by your boys and wear your time like a badge of honor, you can walk out and be treated badly because you’re an ex-offender or you can walk back down the street as someone who’s accomplished something and has a story to tell.

“I want people to make the third choice.”

Cabral is not alone. Black elected officials and community activists packed the function room in the House of Correction to congratulate the 15 graduates of the program.

True-See Allah works on the re-entry program — an effort backed by police, probation officers and clergy members aimed at stemming recidivism. Allah told the graduates that he and others in the community would be available to the inmates to help them with the challenges of returning to the working world.

“You have a community who are here to embrace you,” said Allah, who himself served time in the 1980s. “This is not a sympathetic embrace. This is an investment in our community. The best of our minds sometimes make mistakes.”