Roundtable discusses second chance hiring practices for formerly incarcerated women

The recent York County Reentry Employer Roundtable discussed the importance of second-chance hiring practices for formerly incarcerated women.

In Pennsylvania, there are approximately 2,000 women in Pennsylvania’s State Correctional Institutions (SCIs), according to the Department of Corrections. Of those women, 67 percent are serving sentences of 5 years or less, and 70 percent of women are mothers, and they are often the heads of their households.

More than 27 percent of formerly incarcerated people are unemployed, according to a 2018 Prison Policy Institute report. Formerly incarcerated white women face a 23 percent unemployment rate, while the rate for black and Hispanic women is nearly 40 percent.

The roundtable was attended by First Lady Frances Wolf, the York County Reentry Coalition, the York County Economic Alliance, criminal justice advocates, and others.

“Many reentrants struggle to find steady jobs that pay a living wage, and this is particularly crucial for women given that a majority of them are mothers,” Wolf said. “We must work together to help these women re-establish this critical piece of their lives during reentry. I applaud the employers in attendance today for their dedication to this important work and for recognizing the value of our reentrant community.”