Gov. Dannel P. Malloy yesterday was at a New Haven correctional facility and today was to visit a Hartford restaurant to promote his Second Chance Society initiatives. It’s a new effort to get job training programs aimed at reducing recidivism as well as reducing crime by making ex-cons more employable.
In Hartford, Malloy was to meet with the owner and employees of Bear’s Smokehouse Barbeque. The restaurant has hired ex-offenders. Malloy was to be joined by Hartford mayor-elect Luke Bronin, his former chief counsel.
In New Haven, Malloy announced that as part of his Second Chance Society initiatives, the state Department of Correction will host an American Job Center early next year within the New Haven Correctional Center. Created in partnership with the Workforce Alliance and the City of New Haven, this job development program will be the first-of-its-kind in the state, and one of only 12 in the country, according to the governor’s office.
The 18-month New Haven project is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration as one of 12 LEAP (Linking to Employment Activities Pre-release) grantees under the Reintegration of Ex-Offenders (REXO) initiative. Its aim is to provide workshops, job search services, and referrals to a goal of 175 prison inmates within six months prior to the end of their sentence.
