Giraffes and turtles – Revolving Doors gives evidence to the Work & Pensions Select Committee
On 14th September, Revolving Doors Agency gave evidence to the Work & Pensions Committee as part of their inquiry into employment support for ex-offenders (see here for our written submission and here for an overview of a forum meeting attended by one of the staff of the Commitee). Revolving Doors was represented by policy manager Paul Anders along with Janice Nix and Matt John, both Forum members with personal experience of the criminal justice system. The panel was completed by Chris Stacey, co-director of Unlock.
Janice blogs about her experience of the evidence session below.
The first thing the Committee asked was about my own experiences. I’ve held down a few long-term jobs over the last five years. I’ve also had problems – one job where I’d been offered the post and had actually started work, only to be dismissed after a few weeks. This was due to my offending history which I was told was ‘incompatible with the post’, despite me disclosing it before the interview.
More recently, I’ve been working for London Community Rehabilitation Company, bringing my lived experience and perspective into services that work across London with people on release from prison, or who have been sentenced to a community sentence. I see myself as a fixer – like a lot of people with my background, I’ve got a lot to offer.
Employment is important and the way companies recruit matters. In my case, I’ve now got a solid employment history to include in applications, but find interviews difficult. For other people, it may be the other way round – not having an employment history, or having to disclose an offending history may mean that they struggle on paper, despite what they can bring to an employer. Many employers aren’t interested when they see a conviction on a form or CV, which is a missed opportunity for them too.
We don’t need constant hand holding, but we sometimes need support from someone who knows where we’re coming from and the journey we’ve been on. Most employment support providers and Jobcentres don’t have people like that. Many people coming out of prison are smart and have all sorts of transferrable skills, but they need to be given the opportunity to prove it.
If they don’t get that opportunity, it’s all too easy to fall back into offending. I’ve had good luck and bad luck with jobs. The bad luck, the knocks, have dented my self-esteem and made me question my self-worth. I had to reevaluate what I wanted out of life. In my case, I decided I wanted to stay on the path I’m on now – and no doubt about it – but I know people who have slipped back after struggling to find a footing.
Sometimes, I think about some high profile, wealthy and connected people who’ve gone to prison. Many of them have come out and flourished, and in many cases returned to the sort of life they were leading before they came into contact with the criminal justice system. They have advantages – connections and social networks – that not all of us share. They’re the haves, and we’re the have nots.
That’s why I sometimes think of the world as giraffes and turtles. One isn’t better than the other, but they see things from a different perspective and rarely speak on the same level. Today felt like the giraffes and the turtles spoke face to face, and the giraffes understood what the turtles had experienced and what they had to say about it. I hope the Committee will use my evidence, and that of other people they’re hearing from, to improve the prospects of people moving into employment. We – jobseekers, employers and society – can all benefit from that.
