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Feds recommend ex-cons for hard-to-fill jobs
Reintegration into workforce seen as collateral benefit
By Tim Devaney-The Washington Times5:43 p.m., Monday, July 4, 2011

The federal government thinks it has found an underused resource for turning the job market around: ex-cons.

Former prisoners work harder and are more productive than traditional employees, supporters say, and they are willing to take jobs no one else wants.

“When someone serves time, they shouldn’t face a lifetime sentence of unemployment,” Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis said at a recent press conference, where she announced $20 million in grants to help young prisoners re-enter society and the workforce. “There are clear economic advantages to reintegrating these people in our workforce.”

Take Georgia, for example.

With the state’s tough new illegal-immigration statute driving away many of the traditional farmworkers, Gov. Nathan Deal recently suggested that many of the state’s 100,000 ex-prisoners now on probation could fill about 11,000 openings in the state’s top industry...............>>>>...................>>>>.......................http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jul/4/ex-cons-recommended-for-hard-to-fill-jobs/