Seattle program helps convicts hurdle major obstacles

Mike McGinn stood alone in front of a crowd at the Seattle Vocational Institute. It was 2009, and he was doing the rounds, making his presence known to voters, and hoping to become the next mayor of Seattle.

It would have been a generic appearance out of many, if not for one constituent pressing the candidate for a genuine answer. And McGinn found that he didn’t have any for the woman who addressed him.

“At a certain point a woman stood up and very emotionally said to me, ‘I’ve been in jail. I’ve done my time. I’m out. And I can’t get a job. What are you going to do for me?'” McGinn recalled.

“My answers weren’t cutting it with the crowd,” he said. “‘We’re going to work on job training; We’re going to work on this or that.’ The reason they weren’t cutting it is because people have seen others come to these forums for years and years and make the same promises.”

Those promises were good in theory, but carried little weight and usually see little action in office. That moment on stage stuck with McGinn as he was mayor from 2010-13. As mayor he was brought out of his corner of Seattle, and forced to see all of the city.

“I cared about racism, and I cared about mass incarceration,” McGinn said. “But it wasn’t something that touched me in my personal life in any meaningful way. It was more of an abstract topic for a typical Seattle Liberal.”

Reacting to a string of shootings and murders in the city, the then mayor engaged local community organizations, such as African American pastors. The result was a program that is still around in Seattle: Career Bridge.

It’s a program designed at keeping people exiting prison to remain out of prison. It’s a bridge to life beyond jail and crime. It boasts a rate of placing former prisoners in jobs at above 90 percent. It further brings prisoners back into their communities to contribute.

Ardell Shaw is one person who has crossed that bridge. Today, he is helping others to do the same.

A cycle in Seattle

Shaw is an administrative assistant with Career Bridge. He helps recruit prisoners and goes into the Seattle community to find others having a difficultly after leaving prison. Engaging the world outside a jail cell, Shaw said, is a challenge.

“Confidence [is a challenge],” he said. “They don’t believe they are going to get a fair shake because they have a criminal background. A lot of people go into an interview thinking they are not going to get it, but they have to get a job to survive and stay out of prison.”

But that is one of many challenges. Shaw knows them well. He’s been to prison three times for selling drugs. The last time had him in jail for 14 years. And that was all after he spent most of his childhood going in and out of the juvenile justice system.

“In my family, at the time, my mother was strung out on heroin so I was raised by my grandmother,” he said.

Shaw grew up in Seattle’s Central District. He made it as far as tenth grade at Rainier High School.

“I was going through a lot of family issues, not having a father in the household, having a lot of anger toward my mother,” he said. “I started hanging out with the wrong people, hanging out on the streets and doing petty crime.”

Petty crimes like vandalism and shop lifting.

“What comes next is abandonment issues and anger,” he said. “The anger has to come out some way. For me, I found myself hanging out with guys with similar situations and broken homes; their mothers were using drugs. We didn’t have any structure, no hope. That meant hanging out on the streets and getting into trouble.”

That trouble led to juvenile court rooms and the foster care system.

“The cycle continued until I hit 18,” he said. “At 18, the unresolved emotions kept me on the streets. That was a place I didn’t have to deal with what was going on at home. That led to committing more crimes and selling drugs. It developed into an identity. And it led to me going to prison for selling drugs.”

The first prison sentence was for two years, far short of his eventual 14-year term. Each time he got out of jail, Shaw said that he had a sense of purpose, and motivation to not return. He wanted to get his “life together.” But the transition between jail and life was more difficult than he thought.

“Being turned down for interviews or knowing that, having a criminal background, the employer wasn’t going to hire me, or not being content with the jobs available,” he said. “I got into selling drugs and it looked like a way to define my manhood and make money.”

Of course, that only led back to prison. By the end of his third trip to jail, he knew he had to try something different. He got involved with the Black Prisoners Caucus, an organization started in 1972 with the aim of helping men like Shaw exit prison.

After leaving prison for the third time, Shaw found Career Bridge.

Career Bridge

The city program is more than a job for Shaw, it’s a purpose. And it’s a purpose important for Seattleites who have never experienced life behind bars.

“It’s an issue for society,” Shaw said. “Because all these people sent to prison have release dates. Every year hundreds, if not thousands, are getting out.”

“If we don’t make sure that people are providing jobs for these people, then we are putting the community at risk,” he said.

Career Bridge takes people exiting prison and puts them into groups, which then engage in workforce training and social services aimed at short-term economic and personal stability, according to its website.

Participants earn a small amount of money going through the program and even earn credits at South Seattle College. The goal is to get participants past the initial obstacles while exiting prison, such as fear.

“That’s a major obstacle,” Shaw said. “Transition and the whole thought process that goes with it is scary. There is a lot of anxiety, there’s a lot of fear to come out and be placed in an environment that you know is not going to accept you, especially now that you have a felony on your record.”

So far, the program has helped at least one person: Shaw. He’s doing his best to spread that success. The program has had some support at city hall, but not as much as McGinn originally hoped for when he helped to start it.

Career Bridge was initially funded for $210,000. McGinn tried to raise that to $800,000, he said, during his last budget in office in 2013. The council approved $400,000, and said it wanted a study done to prove its success.

“They did a study, and the study showed that the program is working,” McGinn said, noting that the program hasn’t grown much since he left office.

“What would they have done on the deck of the Titanic?” he quipped. “Somebody would say, ‘Lower the life boats.’ And they would say, ‘I’m sorry, we need a study of the rope and pulley system first.’ We are dealing with an emergency situation here in the city.”