In collaboration with the General Workers' Union (the largest union in Malta), the Union Haddiema Maghquda (the second largest union), the Employment & Training Centre (ETC), the Federation of Industries (FOI), the Chamber of Commerce (COC), the Malta Employers Association (MEA), the Malta Hotels & Restaurants Association (MHRA), and the General Retailers & Traders Union (GRTU), Mid-Dlam ghad-Dawl embarked on this project to offer the possibility of better employment opportunities to prisoners on the completion of their sentence.

The following paper was presented by Rev. Dr Mark F. Montebello OP, Ph.D., Director of Mid-Dlam ghad-Dawl, to the social partners in the project on May 17, 2002.

Maltese version

1. General idea

Without a fixed employment it is practically impossible that a person who has served his/her prison sentence/s to re-integrate successfully in society, keep away from criminal ways, and starts living a productive life. Having a fixed employment, however, is one of the largest problems an ex-prisoner faces after his release from prison.

Our meeting today has the aim of honouring in the best way we can, if possible, our noble desire that some ex-prisoners find employment after their release, and live as autonomous citizens without having to depend on public assistance. Our work together can effectively distance these people from the risk of exclusion.

According to the last report on values in the Maltese islands published in 2000 (Abela, A.M., Values of Women and Men in the Maltese Islands: a comparative European perspective, Commission for the Advancement of Women, Ministry for Social Policy, Malta, 2000, 219b. See Figure 6.11 on page 220), ex-prisoners are the least tolerated people in Malta in the social and industrial spheres. They are indeed considered to be worse than alcohol dependent people, drug addicts, those inflicted with AIDS, homosexuals, leftist and rightist extremists, freemasons and all sectarian believers, the insane, and so forth. Effectively, during the four years between 1995 and 1999, intolerance towards ex-prisoners increased by 6%: from 74% to 89% (Ibid., page 245, Table 6.11). In Europe, this figure of intolerance is also high (although not as in Malta). In 1999 it was at 51% (Ibid., Figure 6.12 on page 220; u Table 6.11 on page 245).

In his article 'Unemployment and the Special Needs of Ex-Offenders' in the book Unemployment Policy and Practice, Jeff Powis says (J. Tomlinson et al., Australian Academic Press, Brisbane, Australia, 1997, 299-306):

How many job seekers do not have criminal records, yet have offended against previous employers? How many employers do not report such offences to the police but simply dismiss the offending employee? How many current or future employees may succumb to temptation and offend against their employer? Of course we cannot answer such questions but in considering the scenario we may become aware of the possibility that an organisation may be more at risk from those employees without criminal records than from those with criminal records.

2. Barriers to employment

The barriers that ex-prisoners have to overcome in order to find an employment are neither few nor small. According to the same report on values (Abela 2000, page 219b and Table 6.12 on page 245), amongst the reasons given for the fact that people - including ex-prisoners - end up succumbing to the risk of exclusion and depend on public assistance there is laziness and a lack of will power, social injustice, misfortune, and the inevitable effects of progress. On this, however, the sociologist Anthony M. Abela says that:

'it is not uncommon, however, for certain people to find fault with the poor for their deprivation without any consideration of the dysfunctions of society. A society which blames the poor for their condition can easily engender an increase in social exclusion'.

Amongst the principle barriers to a fixed employment that most ex-prisoners fact we find the following:

• Lack of support
• Their criminal record
• Prejudice and discrimination
• Low level of functional literacy
• A disjointed, poor or totally missing history of employment
• Lack of self esteem
• Lack of social skills
• An incapacity to identify well vocational skills
• A lack of up-to-date information about the world of employment

According to a study made in 2000 about prisoners and employment by one of our professional volunteers, Tania Caruana (Prison Vocational Training: a proposal for Malta, 2000, 5.4), it resulted that the majority of the prisoners interviewed did not have a fixed employment before entering the prisons . On the other hand, it also resulted (Ibid., Figure 12) that the larger part of those same prisoners possessed trading skills together with their respective certificates. At present, prisoners occupy themselves with some work at the bakery, working aluminium, binding (the Government Gazette)—with obsolete machinery—, and tailoring (for the internal needs of the prisoners). According to Caruana (Ibid., 2.3):

The work here is learned with the ‘Look and Try’ method. In all workshops jobs are not well paid and no teaching of technical skills takes place. Given such a situation, it is no surprise that few inmates are interested in taking part.

Effectively, in the prisons no vocational training is given to prisoners. If such training existed than most of the prisoners interviewed declared to be interested in it in order to (Ibid., 5.7):

• kill time
• learn something of utility from the prisons
• practice their own trade
• rehabilitate and re-integrate themselves into society

Those who did not want to participate in any vocational training chose this option because they:

• were to be released in a few months time, and so were not interested, because they had no intention of returning to the prisons (!)
• do not like manual work
• are still on remand, and so they weren't settled
• had no need of learning a trade because they did not think it is of any utility

3. Levels of literacy

The ex-prisoner who is functionally illiterate finds it very difficult, if not impossible, to apply for an employment that requires at least a bit of trade. He also finds it almost impossible to fill up a tax form, or to understand basic documentation. Generally speaking, it is understood that the literacy level of a prisoner is considerably inferior to that of the general population.

According to Caruana (Ibid., 5.3, especially Figure 8), the greater part of prisoners, though they would have attended some secondary or trade school, rarely succeed in ending the course at all. The majority of prisoners do not have academic qualifications (ibid., Figure 9). The larger part of them do not even understand the English language sufficiently well (ibid., Figure 10).

4. Re-integration into society

With a serious lack of literacy, even though having a considerable knowledge of some practical trade, the larger part of ex-prisoners find it extremely hard to compete in the employment sector. The greatest difficulties they face at the end of their prison sentence are the following:

• To re-establish confidence in themselves, and enough know-how, to make choices and decisions of a significant nature; and
• To re-establish, without emotional trauma, relations with family and friends.

We are mostly concerned here with the first difficulty, although it is naturally closely linked to the second one.

According to a research that was conducted in Victoria, Australia, in 1991 with female ex-prisoners, it resulted that the larger number of them:

• Found it difficult to cope with the 'bureaucratic crap' with which they met (i.e. the forms that had to be filled up, the time spent in queues, incomprehensible red tape, and the staff of various agencies who had little patience with them), and which made them more nervous then before, and even sometimes grew angry or used foul language.
• Could not adapt themselves easily from an institutionalised life to a normal life on the outside.
• Felt pressurised due to the conditions imposed upon them by the courts (having to go daily to the police station to sign their name, leaving and returning to their homes during prescribed times, and the like).
• Demoralised themselves due to the fact that the police kept them on their list of 'likely troublemakers', and were hassled by the police when some misdoing comes to their notice.

Until the same report was concluded, only one quarter of the interviewed ex-prisoners had not returned back to the prisons. Some of the things this mere quarter had different from the ones who returned to custody were the following:

• They had left the prisons with all the official documentation compiled and ready
• They did not find difficulties to receive the first social benefits
• All of them found alternative accommodation immediately
• All of them had decided not to have any more contact with other ex-convicts
• All of them had one or two persons whom they could trust
• All of them integrated themselves well in some local community service

5. The beneficiaries of the service

Though they may have common problems, prisoners and ex-prisoners are not all of the same category. Every person has his or her own personality, and this has much influence on how much that person would be adequate or not for some particular job, or even for any employment. The prospect that ex-prisoners should be given the possibility of having a job cannot be applied indiscriminately.

The reliability of ex-prisoners can be weak, moderate, good or strong. This depends on various factors, thus:

6. The way forward: guidance, support and courage

Guide: An ex-prisoner needs strong guidance when integrating himself or herself back with success into society and the employment sector. Abandoned by all, successful employment shall not solve all the problems of the person. It appears that incarceration, with the institutionalisation and the isolation that it imposes, weakens considerably a prisoner's capability to 'stand up' alone in the outside word of 'normal' people.

This generally shows in lack of punctuality and reliability, or even in failing to honour completely the duties that an ex-prisoners takes upon himself. This is not due to laziness or lack of will, but because of a deep and terrifying understanding of the strenuous necessities of modern employments and the speed with which life is lived on the outside.

Support: The support given to ex-prisoners must be credible. With little or no sense of power, with limited information about one's rights and the rights for which one is entitled, with lack of faith built up along the time in people representing authority and in people working in government departments, u with a network of personal friendships that our unreliable, the ex-prisons may easily loose heart. Though these problems may not be hard, in his or her eyes they seem enormous and too complicated. These problems, both if related to employment or to other aspects of life, need time to be mastered by an ex-prisoner. They also need a large effort on his or her part to know how to solve them alone and with ease. This would mean that an ex-prisoner would need to have ample time and space to deal with seemingly small problems, and this does not always be compatible with the time and space employment demands of him or her. Dealing with such problems may make an ex-prisoner somewhat unreliable, more preoccupied, and less productive. At least at the initial stages of a his or her new employment.

At the same time, an employed ex-prisoner is a very vulnerable position. Even if his or her co-workers will not be conscious of his 'curriculum criminale', every serious problem at the place of work (especially as regards theft, damage to machinery, and the like) may generate suspicions on him or her on the part of the employer. This vulnerability becomes more acute when his or her co-workers do become aware of his or her past incarceration, and so be in a position to use it to their own advantage.

Courage: An employed ex-prisoner need a lot of encouragement to be able to face the simple difficulties with the necessary serenity. Lack of interpersonal communication, together with lack of faith in people in authority, and also in his or her own capabilities, can scare an employed ex-prisoner out of his or her wits. The ex-prison, consequently, may feel scared to approach his or her employer, or even negotiate some point, or even answer to a call by his or her employer for fear of rapprochement. Though problems may be small and insignificant, they may constitute a serious blockage to success. These have to be dealt with before affronting the other techniques of some particular employment.