The sudden suspension of a Colorado prison-work program has thrown employers into disarray – By Shannon Najmabadi (Colorado Sun) / Sept 20, 2022
The Take Two program was paused following an inmate escape earlier this year. Employers, already battling a tight labor market, say they were given no time to plan for the loss of labor.
The escape of a minimum-security inmate earlier this summer effectively shut down a touted prison-work program called Take Two, a gut punch to businesses struggling to find employees who had gambled on the 3-year-old program amid a historically tight labor market.
Employers who participated in the program, which let 59 low-risk inmates work outside prison walls shortly before their release, say they were given no time to warn customers or revise work schedules before Take Two was curtailed, costing some thousands of dollars in canceled orders and reduced hours.
A few employers say concerns about public safety during an election year are at least partly to blame for the demise of the program, which aims to reduce recidivism and save the state money on incarceration costs.
“It has felt, from our experience, that the intention was basically just to let the thing sit on someone’s desk for long enough to where it died with a whisper rather than making a headline,” said Andy Magel, founder of Mile High WorkShop, a Take Two participant that hires people who have been incarcerated, unhoused or addicted.
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