Generocity: Krystine Sipple - April 26, 2021
Imagine getting released from prison, only to find that your record creates significant barriers to obtaining affordable housing, to accessing social services, and to getting a job with a livable wage.
General Manager of PAR-Recycle Works Maurice Q. Jones has some first-hand experience with these obstacles and was determined to do something to make the reentry process easier.
“I was incarcerated from September of 2005 until February of 2011, and when I came home from being in prison, there wasn’t a lot of support to help me get my sea legs, so to speak,” he sadi. “I lived in a halfway house, I was denied jobs, and those jobs I could get barely paid minimum wage. So, I went back to school to become a nurse but was unable to work in that field due to my prison record.”
“I had to settle for a degree in applied health sciences,” he said. “I had seen nursing as a career path and a way to provide for my family. I was disappointed. I was angry. I was hurt. I felt like I had wasted my time, but I knew that I had to find the good in it.”
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