Alleviation of Systematic Racism

The Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) is an organization that helps individuals with criminal records find jobs, a mission that helps alleviate the burden of disproportionate incarceration of minorities by the justice system. This activism is extremely important due to the corrosive effects of racism within the justice system on employment opportunities for minorities. The systematic oppression of the socioeconomically disadvantaged has greatly contributed to the inability of many of those trapped in poverty to improve their economic standing, and the efforts of an organization like CEO are an extremely important contribution towards the alleviation of this grave societal concern. To properly understand how the organization addresses these grave societal issues it is important to first examine the specific history and goals of this institution.

The origins and structure of CEO provide a great deal of insight into the impact the organization has on the alleviation of systemic racism. As Chuck Sudetic states, “During the 1970s, the Vera Institute of Justice...launched a program whose goal was to provide effective employment services for men and women parolees...in the mid-1990s, Vera decided to transform the parolee employment program into a stand-alone nongovernmental organization, the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO).” According to their official website CEO is a 501(c)3 non-profit, and they largely rely on donations to provide the funding necessary to achieve their goals. From these humble roots, CEO has managed to make a serious difference in the fight against socioeconomic circumstances that have kept marginalized groups from achieving their goals. However, it is important to note other extremely important sources of funding for the organization.

While donations form a large portion of the funds utilized by CEO, grants, often ironically from the government itself, form another key source of funding. For example, according to the Association of State Correctional Administrators, CEO was “selected in national competition for federal Social Innovation Fund grants, and will expand proven model in upstate New York, California and Oklahoma... the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), has been awarded a three-year investment of up to $6 million, with a first year award of $2.25 million from a Federal Social Innovation Fund (SIF) grant by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (EMCF).” It is therefore clear that grants form an essential source of funding for the organization, and deeply ironic that the same governmental institutions that disproportionately entrap minorities in the criminal justice system then commend CEO’s work rather than working to directly alleviate the racial disparities and draconian punishments inherent to the criminal justice system. However, this is not to say that the work the CEO performs is not still a vital service to disenfranchised groups given the current state of the prison system in the United States. To fully understand the importance of these actions, it is first necessary to examine the systematic racism of the justice system and the horrific effects this has had on minority communities.

It is an undeniable fact that the criminal justice system in the United States disproportionately punishes minority groups compared to their white counterparts. As Sandra L. Bloom states, “African Americans make up 13.6 percent of the U.S. population according to census data, but African-American men reportedly make up 40.2 percent of all prison inmates.” These statistics unequivocally indicate that the criminal justice system is stacked against minority groups, making the effects of mass incarceration a clear cut issue of social justice. Therefore the actions of CEO can and must be viewed as an invaluable resource for ethnic empowerment of disenfranchised groups, rather than merely as a program for minimizing the recidivism of criminals. Furthermore, an examination of the harmful effects of the criminal justice system on the employment prospects of unfairly targeted minorities makes the need for a program like CEO exceedingly clear.

The effects of a criminal conviction can be devastating to the employment prospects of an individual, particularly for a minority. As Amy L. Solomon states, “Two prominent studies... involved employment audits of men in Milwaukee and New York City. Both studies, funded by NIJ, found that a criminal record reduces the likelihood of a job callback or offer by approximately 50 percent. This criminal record ‘penalty’ was substantially greater for African Americans than for white applicants.” Not only are minorities more likely to be arrested, they are more likely to face serious barriers to productive and meaningful employment as a result of their transgressions. These statistics clearly indicate once again the need for an organization like CEO, and the valuable work they accomplish towards remedying the racial biases that continue to keep down minority communities. A close look at the details of their successful program reveals the important dynamic of racial social justice at play in their achievements and focuses.

As CEO has expanded into new locations the ethnic empowerment component of the program has become abundantly clear. As Chuck Sudetic states, “CEO’s program in Buffalo held its first orientation and life-skills class for parolees in October 2009. By June 2011, 288 of the participants—232 of them African-Americans, the rest about equally divided between whites and Hispanics—had completed the class and 260 had chosen to enter the program’s transitional work component.” The fact that 232 of the 288 men in the program were African-American speaks volumes about both the discriminatory nature of the justice system and the importance of programs like CEO for minority communities. By helping individuals ensnared in the justice system become positive, contributing members of their communities rather than fall back into recidivism for lack of options CEO helps stabilize and rebuild areas devastated by the racial disparities in the criminal justice system. To fully understand the success of the program it is important to understand exactly what sorts of actions CEO takes to improve the employment prospects of those who have been released from prison.

CEO attacks the problem of lack of employment opportunities for individuals with criminal convictions from a variety of different angles. As Tina Rosenberg states, “The program sends ex-prisoners to five days of training in ‘soft’ work skills — how to behave in a workplace. Then it places them in jobs, mostly in city agencies...participants get a paycheck at the end of each day. They work four days a week, and on day five meet in C.E.O.’s offices with a job coach to go over their grades for the week and work on their skills.” While the jobs are often menial and the pay is poor, CEO manages to successfully allow disenfranchised people to obtain work history that will make them more attractive to employers and eventually help break the recidivism and cycle of poverty that comes along with arrest and punishment. The program is far from perfect, and the fact that it is even necessary, and far better than most alternatives, is certainly a sad commentary on American society. However, it is undeniable that by giving marginalized people a chance to improve their employment prospects CEO is accomplishing valuable work. In addition, the structure and staffing of the organization helps CEO achieve these admirable goals to a remarkable extent.

The population that CEO serves is in many cases involved in the leadership and decision making of the organization. As Peter Finn states, “Certain features of CEO’s staffing arrangements are noteworthy. The program is especially receptive to hiring former participants, who can be open about their background and often have a strong desire to help other ex-offenders” (11). By incorporating former participants into the staff and leadership of the program, CEO is able to ensure that the needs of the population served by the organization are effectively met. This is essential to an area as complex as reintegration of individuals convicted of criminal offenses, since no one is capable of understanding the struggles of those who are negatively and unfairly impacted by the criminal justice system better than former participants in the program. The impact of this level of involvement can be seen in the success of the organization at achieving its goals.

CEO has been remarkably successful at their goal of ameliorating the often irreparable damage the criminal justice system can cause to the future of those who find themselves ensnared in its web. As Tina Chiu states, “MDRC conducted a random-assignment evaluation of the program and found that it achieves a significant reduction in recidivism rates and a small improvement in several employment outcomes.” The fact that CEO has so successfully cut down recidivism indicates that the methods used by the organization have largely been effective. While employment outcomes were only mildly improved, given the extremely dire prospects facing most convicted felons, even mild progress should be viewed as a commendable achievement.

The Center for Employment Opportunities is an interesting and valuable organization that strives to reintegrate individuals convicted of a crime back into the workforce, and in the process helps to ameliorate the elements of racial and socioeconomic discrimination that lead to inescapable poverty for so many Americans. CEO does this through work and job training programs and providing opportunities for advancement within the organization, and has done so to a largely successful degree. While this program is far from perfect, the existence of such an organization at least shows that the racial injustices perpetrated by the criminal justice system are slowly beginning to be understood and addressed to a greater and more effective degree.

Works Cited

Bloom, Sandra L. Creating Sanctuary, 2nd edition. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2013. Print.

"Center for Employment Opportunities." Center for Employment Opportunities., http://ceoworks.org/. Accessed 27 Feb. 2014.

"Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) Awarded Innovation Fund Grant."ASCA, http://www.asca.net/articles/1322. Accessed 27 Feb. 2014.

Chiu, Tina. "Vera Institute of Justice: Making justice systems fairer and more effective through research and innovation." Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Center for Employment Opportunities, http://www.vera.org/project/cost-benefit-analysis-center-employment-opportunities. Accessed 27 Feb. 2014.

Finn, Peter. "Successful Job Placement for Ex-Offenders: The Center for Employment Opportunities." National Criminal Justice Reference Service, https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/168102.pdf. Accessed 27 Feb. 2014.

Rosenberg, Tina. "Out of Jail, and Into a Job." The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 Mar. 2012, http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/out-of-jail-and-into-jobs/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0. Accessed 27 Feb. 2014.

Solomon, Amy L. "In Search of a Job: Criminal Records as Barriers to Employment." NIJ Home Page NIJ Home, http://www.nij.gov/journals/270/Pages/criminal-records.aspx. Accessed 27 Feb. 2014.

Sudetic, Chuck. "CEO: Providing Opportunity for People with Criminal Records." Open Society Foundations (OSF), http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/ceo-providing-opportunity-people-criminal-records. Accessed 27 Feb. 2014.