For an ex-con, a job is key to turning things around
On Dec. 17, Jewell Douthit walked out of the St. Louis County Jail, looking for a new start.
He had been in since March, on felony nonpayment of child support, and it had opened his eyes to some things, he said. His debt to society repaid, he wanted to build a new life.
But to do that, Douthit needed a job. That’s not the easiest thing to find when the economy is slumping and you have "convicted felon" attached to your name.
This is what the job search can be like on the margins. Uncertain. Frustrating. A lot of closed doors. And sometimes littered with hurdles like a lack of transportation, a criminal record and plain unfamiliarity with the ways of the working world.
A few days after he got out, Douthit boarded a Metro bus and rode it to Employment Connections, a social service agency that provides job counseling for welfare recipients, homeless vets and felons.
Like each of the roughly 1,500 people who come through the agency each year, Douthit’s first stop was a class on "work readiness training" and four days with Michael McCoy.
Shaven-headed, bushy-bearded and relentlessly upbeat, McCoy describes his job in a way that makes him sound a little like a drill sergeant, giving people on the bottom the tools, and the mind-set, they need to compete in the job market.
"These people have been beaten down by so much payday loans. They need to be reprogrammed, you know?" he said. "We have to fight through layer by layer by layer."
To do that, he starts with some advice. Stay positive. Network. Stick with your search, even when it means waiting 20 minutes for a bus on a cold day.
Then he asks his class of 10 how many have an e-mail address. Only half raise their hands.
"Get one," he said. "It shows employers you’re in the 21st century with the rest of us."
Then there’s the "don’ts."
Don’t slouch when you’re talking with an employer. Don’t fold your arms.
Don’t let your tattoos show, or wear earrings if you’re a man. If you’ve got gold teeth, as he used to, think about taking them out.
"That may be your culture," McCoy said. "But when you go into the business world, it’s about perception."
And, like it or not, he said, perception often is stacked against the people who wind up in his classroom.
Douthit, in fact, is better off than most of the ex-cons in McCoy’s classes. His crime was nonviolent, and not drug-related. He has a r