Falls Church-based ViaPath, which uses tablet-based technology to provide vocational and educational training for people incarcerated in U.S. prisons, has taken its business one step further with a job placement company to help formerly incarcerated people get a job when they get out of prison.
It has been historically challenging for those formerly convicted to find meaningful work. Many employers remain reluctant to hire them. But finding a meaningful job gives them one of the best chances of staying out of prison.
“Each year, there are more than 650,000 individuals released from incarceration, between state and federal prisons. More than two-thirds of those are rearrested within three years of their release, and over half of those are re-incarcerated. A big driver of someone’s success when they are released is getting a job, and getting gainful employment,” said Jessica Artz, executive vice president at ViaPath Technologies, and president of 2C Workforce Solutions. (2C stands for “Second Chance.”)
2C Workforce Solutions recruits businesses to list jobs they will make available to formerly incarcerated job candidates. It is not always an easy sell, but the company takes steps to assure the candidates it is helping are ready for post-prison employment.
“They actually come and go through the whole process like a candidate coming off the street looking for a position. They do an application. They sit with a recruiter. There is a background check that we do,” Artz said.
While the company does not share the nature of a job candidate’s conviction with the prospective employer, it does disqualify convictions for certain crimes.
“We had to really take some time to say, ‘What are some things that are nonnegotiable,’ like child crimes or sex crimes. And what are things that we are OK with, and does it really matter if it doesn’t apply to the job that they are doing,” Artz said.
A survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 85% of HR managers and 81% of business leaders said previously incarcerated employees perform the same as or better than other employees. They also can reduce employee turnover.
Employing a formerly incarcerated person can also qualify a company for a financial incentive, under the IRS’ Work Opportunity Tax Credit.
2C Workforce Solutions, which launched just six months ago, has, to date, found jobs for more than 300 formerly incarcerated people in manufacturing, distribution, e-commerce, IT and administrative business.
ViaPath has more than 500,000 tablets deployed at corrections facilities across the country. They are used for everything — from high school equivalence and vocational skills certifications to life-skills training and anger management. It says it has reached 16 million learning hours since the company launched in mid-2022.
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